Hong Kong Tips & Tricks

Double-layer egg pudding @ Yee Shun Niu Nai Gong Si (義順牛奶公司)

2007-08-20T07:04:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of The Essential Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Yee Shun Niu Nai Gong Si (義順牛奶公司) located at Pilkem Street (庇利金街), Kowloon, offers double-layer egg pudding (雙皮奶). This delicacy is found almost everywhere, so its your choice on which restaurant you want to taste. For this particular one, they offered the double-layer egg pudding, mango egg pudding and the coffee egg pudding.

Courtesy of hanabiwaiwai.

(Good to have the map of Jordan MTR here.)

The one that I patronised is located at Kowloon, 63 Pilkem Street (庇利金街). Easiest way to get there is via Jordan MTR (佐敦). The taste is something you won't get at home, something like milk but it comes in warm and cold and it's quite smooth too. But I won't say it is very special. What do you think?

I also happened to passed by a forum and realized that there are locations of the restaurant. They are as followed.

義順牛奶公司
Yee Shun Dairy Company
銅鑼灣波斯富街85號地下
2576-1828

義順牛奶公司
Yee Shun Dairy Company
佐敦庇利金街63號
2730-2799

港澳義順牛奶公司
Yee Shun Dairy Company
銅鑼灣駱克道506號地下
2591-1837

港澳義順牛奶公司
Yee Shun Dairy Company
旺角西洋菜街246-248號
23933301

港澳義順牛奶公司
Yee Shun Dairy Company
油麻地彌敦道513號地下
2374-5460

If you have the translated street name, please feel free to share with us. :)

Having desserts @ Xu Liu Shan (许留山 )!

2007-08-19T00:50:00.000-07:00

Xu Liu Shan (许留山) has a lot of franchise all over the island and you wouldn't have any problem finding one. They served a variety of warm and cold desserts. The popular one is the mango pudding but I tried the combination drink of mango juice, coconut milk with Gui Ling Gao (龟苓膏) and mango juice, coconut milk with aloe vera. I liked the combination with gui ling gao, what about you?

Courtesy of Roy Ng on TravelBlog.

I've managed to find two locations only (out of convenience).

One is located at the intersection of Jordan Road (佐敦道) and Parkes Street (百加士街). It's a very small outlet that packing back to your hotel will be a good advice.

The other is at the airport itself at the arrival hall after you exit final custom gate. This is beside the tourist and travel agency pickup point.

Do you have any other locations of the outlet in Hong Kong that you been to?

While browsing the web, just realized that there is a similar name in China "trying" to sell the same thing. It's name called Xu Liu Xian (许留仙) instead of Xu Liu Shan (许留山). So well, travelers, take note, beware and set the expectation right!

Prudential Hotel (恆豐酒店)

2007-08-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Prudential Hotel (恆豐酒店) is located along Nathan Road (彌敦道) with the . It is conveniently located just above Jordan MTR (佐敦) and situated beside Prudential Centre (恆豐中心).

Picture courtesy of AsiaTravel.com.

Rooms

The rooms have 2 bed or 3 bed configurations. Anyway that is almost consistent across the hotels in Hong Kong. The rooms are rather small but sufficient with basic amenities such as en suite toilet, TV, safe and water kettle.

Facilities

There is a restaurant and swimming pool on the roof which we never really had a chance to utilize. If you had, please share with us on your experiences!

Lobby

The lobby isn't all exciting and it's rather small in size. The luggage area is one floor down from the lobby. You can tip if you feel like for the luggage crew. When checking out, get your luggage down with a bigger lift because when you stepping out from the lobby after checking out, the escalators are too narrow to allow you to comfortably move your luggage down to the waiting area in luggage area.

Picture courtesy of AsiaTravel.com.

And also, if you are intending to get some Lau Pao Bing (老婆餅 ) from Yuan Lang (元朗), and if you do not have sufficient time to go down to get it, you can request the lobby to get it for you with of course a service charge. If you know how much is the service charge, please let us know!

Food

(Good to have the map of Jordan MTR here.)

The advantage of staying in this hotel is that around the locality, you are truly spoilt with choices west in the small streets such as Pilkem Street (庇利金街) , Parkes Street (百加士街), Woosung Street (吴松街). There are a number of food stalls and restaurants which you will have a problem deciding which to have your meal. Stay tuned for my recommendations for food in that area!

If you want to taste dessert from the famous Xu Liu Shan (许留山), you can get it off Jordan Road (佐敦道) that runs westward. There is a very small outlet at the intersection of Jordan Road (佐敦道) and Parkes Street (百加士街).

Shopping

Being located together with Prudential Centre (恆豐中心), you have a choice to shop in this centre when you do not want to explore far. There are a variety of shoes, bags, clothes for male and female, with of course higher ratio for female.

Walking southwards, along Nathan Road (彌敦道), you will be able to bump into Esprit and Park Lane Shopper's Boulevard (柏麗購物大道). It's also possible to walk down to and should take around 15mins or less from Prudential Hotel , Jordan MTR (佐敦) to Tsim Sha Tsui MTR (尖沙咀) .

What is Good!

The hotel is (1) pretty near Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀), (2) the surroundings offer a extensive variety of food for you and (3) just above a MTR!

What is Bad!

Do not have any in my opinion at the moment. If you had, please share with us on your experiences!

Things to Note!

The escalator within Prudential Centre (恆豐中心) stops functioning about 10pm (not too sure about the actual timing). The escalator is needed when you are returning to the hotel room and it will be a problem if you have elders that needs it.

Victoria Peak (太平山頂)

2007-08-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

Getting to Victoria Peak (太平山頂) is actually for just exploring the peak, take photos and Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. The night view overseeing the Hong Kong Island is a great for photo shots. The header picture (top) was taken at night on the peak for your info.

You can get there with the below suggestions from Discover Hong Kong:

Bus 15C from the lay-by outside Central Pier 6 to the Lower Peak Tram Terminus on Garden Road and take Peak Tram to the Peak.
Bus 15 from Exchange Square.
Green minibus 1 from Hong Kong Airport Express Public Transport Interchange.

What we are recommending are two simple alternatives to get to the peak with minimal effort.

Take the Peak Tram

(Good to have a copy of the station map here.)

First of all, you need to get to the Lower Peak Tram Station. Head for Exit J2 of the Central Station (中環) . (No escalators here so walking up the steps were required). You will be greeted by Charter Garden immediately on the right when you reach the surface.

Walk towards Garden Road (花園道) in the direction of Bank of China Tower. This is the building that is frequently shot in Hong Kong drama. You won’t miss it.

Walk along Garden Road (花園道) uphill on the side the Court of Final Appeal (終審法院) and St. John's Cathedral (聖約翰座堂), and past Lower Albert Road (下亞厘畢道). From there you should cross Garden Road (花園道) and you should reach the tram station. The entire walk should take about 10mins. At the tram station, you may need to queue up for taking the tram (which my guess is about 20mins depending on the queue).

Wait for the your turn to get on the tram which will bring you to the peak. Nothing special about the tram in my opinion except that its going up at a very steep angle.

Take a Cab

The other simpler alternative, take cab from Central Station (中環) Exit J2, which will cost around $45HKD to go up the peak (arriving at one of the shopping centers on the peak). The trip will take about 10 - 15 mins winding up the peak. Coolios if you are time tight on your travel schedule.

(The tip on taking a cab up the Victoria Peak was actually advised by an elderly local that owning a flower shop just a little up from the tram station. She was nice enough to tell us about such a quick and cheap tip! Her other suggestion was that if we were to go back downhill, we can take the tram back instead to experience the tram trip. Thumbs up for this woman!)

Things to Note!

Victoria Peak being one of the easily accessible tourist location (and Hong Kong too), it attracts a fair bit of tourist there. What does it mean? It means, it's crowded and be prepared to queue for the tram (if you are keen on taking it) and squeeze to take pictures up there.

Walk and walk in MTR

2007-08-13T01:58:00.000-07:00

If you have a group of elders, you may want to be aware of this thing. The MTR exits are mainly stairways. Escalators are not as available to the staircases. This will pose some difficulties to them. Be sure to inform them that there will be a fair bit of walking when you are going Free&Easy. They will appreciate that if you plan ahead on this.

Yung Kee (镛记) Restaurant

2007-08-12T05:42:00.000-07:00

After exiting the tram, we walk back to Central Station (中環) to make our way to Lan Gui Fang (兰桂坊). Through the subway passages we head for Exit D2. When you surface from Exit D2, it’s a little dodgy alley that greets you. Turn left from the dodgy alley and head straight to the main road, then walk straight forward to Wellington Street (威靈頓街). You should be passing two streets, namely Queen’s Road Central (皇后大道中) and Stanley Street, and you should be walking uphill.

Picture taken from Yung Kee website here.

The official website can be found here.

The restaurant serves a variety of Hong Kong cuisine and it's famous for its roast goose and duck. Try it once when you are in that area and intending for dinner.

A recommendation is to have dinner here after you have finished touring Victoria Peak. Walk from the Peak Tram Station to the restaurant.

Keep to the right!

2007-08-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

The MTR in Hong Kong can be a little busy and people are seen overtaking on the escalator often. As a tourist, while you may be busy getting your directions right or admiring the stations, you may not know and may be a cause of the "traffic" congestion and lead to, of course a bunch of unhappy locals.

Take note, keep to the right side if you do not want to overtake on the escalator. The left side of the escalator is for over-taking!

Transport: MTR Map

2007-08-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a copy of the MTR map taken from: http://www.mtr.com.hk/jplanner/jplanner/images/maps/mtr_map2.jpg

About this blog!

2007-08-10T20:06:00.000-07:00

This blog is my travel journal for Hong Kong. It was a short trip and we've found a lot of tips and tricks which will be useful to you!

This was the overview of our itinerary for the pass 4 days. 26 Aug 2007 – 29 Aug 2007. Let us not do the marketing talk where the tourism board always like to high light and bring up some “real” things encountered in our trip.As you can see, our schedule was rather tight and we have to rush between each destination.

Day 1: Arrive at Airport, Victoria Peak, Wax Museum, Lan Gui Fang
Day 2: Shen Zhen, Wan Jiao
Day 3: Lantau Island, Great Buddha, Star Avenue
Day 4: Down to Tsim Sha Tsui (尖沙咀), Home-Sweet-Home