Specialty Shopping in Hong Kong

LockCha offers traditional tea service and vegetarian dim sum in a stunning colonial-era building with elegant furnishings, carved wooden panels, and framed calligraphy on the walls. When it first opened in 1991, it was a simple tea shop, but over the years, it evolved into a haven for tea lovers and connoisseurs, and an important player in the revival of the traditional Cantonese teahouse. From the start, LockCha’s discerning founder, Mr. Wing-chi Ip, did things differently from other shops, buying his tea directly from farmers and focusing on unblended, pure, single-harvest tea. This attracted attention and loyal customers. Today, LockCha not only sells more than 100 different teas but also designs and sells tea wares—teapots, cups, canisters, and so on. There are also concerts every Saturday night, and tea and calligraphy classes on weekdays.

Stanley Market is the first place local people think of for shopping. For out-of-towners, a Stanley shopping trip kills two birds with one stone—sightseeing and bargain hunting. The 45-minute bus or taxi drive from Central to the little seaside town of Stanley skirts along the bays of Hong Kong Island’s hilly southern coastline and, if the weather is good, offers excellent views. Once at the market, explore the narrow lanes chockablock with Chinese and Southeast Asian knickknacks, cheap clothes, watches, kids’ costumes, luggage, backpacks, handbags, and much more. You’ll likely have to buy a cheap suitcase, too, to lug home all your great finds.

This Macanese bakery, or pastelaria, is renowned for making and bringing in the best of Macanese snacks to Hong Kong. Once just a seller of peanut brittle candy and ginger sweets, they now have shops all over Hong Kong and Macau selling traditional treats like nougat and almond cakes. We especially loved the limited edition packaging that is an ode to vintage design. After pondering between the choices, egg rolls and “salty cut biscuits”, which are crispy and salty-sweet, ended up in our shopping basket. But who were we kidding? We also added some phoenix egg rolls, pineapple cakes and sesame biscuits to bring back for friends and family.