Hong Kong — The Peak, Lantau & Macau

A waterfront promenade honouring the Hong Kong film industry, with handprints set into the railing and a statue of Bruce Lee facing the harbour. Every evening at eight the buildings on both shores run a coordinated light and music show across the water.

• Watch the Symphony of Lights from the railing
• Find the Bruce Lee statue
• Photograph the island skyline after dark

Green and white double-ended ferries have crossed between Tsim Sha Tsui and Central since 1888, and the run still takes under ten minutes. The upper deck gives the best angle on the skyline from water level.

• Cross from Tsim Sha Tsui to Central
• Sit on the upper deck
• Photograph the harbour traffic

A funicular railway that has climbed the hillside since 1888, steep enough that the towers outside the window look tilted. At the top the Sky Terrace looks straight down the harbour, and the Lugard Road path circles the summit for a quieter version of the same view.

• Ride the tram up and down
• Sky Terrace 428 viewing deck
• Walk the Lugard Road loop

A nineteenth-century temple on Hollywood Road dedicated to the gods of literature and war, hung with enormous coils of incense that burn for weeks. The Mid-Levels escalator, the longest covered outdoor escalator system anywhere, runs up the slope beside it.

• See the hanging incense coils
• Ride part of the Mid-Levels escalator
• Walk the antique shops on Hollywood Road

A kilometre of street stalls on Tung Choi Street selling clothing, bags, toys and electronics accessories. Bargaining is the norm and the market is busiest after dark.

• Bargain for clothes and souvenirs
• Eat at a street stall
• Walk across to the flower and goldfish markets

A bi-cable gondola running from Tung Chung across Tung Chung Bay and over the Lantau ridges to the Ngong Ping plateau. Crystal cabins with glass floors are available, and the airport runway is in view for much of the way.

• Ride the crystal cabin if seats allow
• Watch aircraft land from the cabin
• See the Lantau trail below the line

A thirty-four-metre seated bronze Buddha completed in 1993, sitting on a lotus at the top of two hundred and sixty-eight steps. The Po Lin monastery below it is a working Buddhist community and runs a vegetarian kitchen open to visitors.

• Climb the steps to the statue
• See the six offering devas around the base
• Vegetarian lunch at the monastery

A Tanka village on Lantau's west coast where the houses are still built on stilts over the tidal creeks, linked by footbridges. Boats run short trips out of the channel to look for the pink dolphins of the Pearl River estuary.

• Walk the stilt-house footbridges
• Take a sampan out of the creek
• Buy dried seafood in the market lanes

Seven themed lands around the Castle of Magical Dreams, including Toy Story Land, Mystic Point and the Marvel attractions. It is the smallest of the Disney resorts, which means shorter queues and a day that does not need to be rushed.

• Mystic Manor
• Big Grizzly Mountain runaway mine cars
• The evening castle projection show

A marine and amusement park on the south side of Hong Kong Island, split between a lower waterfront section and a headland reached by cable car. The aquarium and the giant pandas are the draw, alongside several coasters built into the hillside.

• Grand Aquarium
• Cable car over the headland
• Giant panda and red panda habitats

The carved stone facade is all that survived a fire in 1835 at what was a seventeenth-century Jesuit church. It stands at the top of a broad staircase and is the centrepiece of the UNESCO-listed historic centre.

• Climb the staircase to the facade
• Visit the crypt and sacred art museum
• Walk up to Mount Fortress behind it

The old civic square, paved in a wave pattern of black and white stone and edged by pastel Portuguese buildings. The lanes running off it are where the bakeries selling Macanese egg tarts and almond biscuits are.

• Walk the calçada paving
• Try a Portuguese egg tart
• See St Dominic's church

The oldest temple in Macau, built in 1488 for the seafarers' goddess Mazu and climbing the hillside in a series of pavilions. The name Macau is generally traced back to it.

• Walk up through the pavilions
• See the carved boat on the rock
• Look out over the inner harbour

Reclaimed land between Taipa and Coloane, now a line of very large integrated resorts with canals, replica landmarks and shopping arcades inside them. The buildings are free to walk through even if the casino floors are not your thing.

• Walk the indoor canals
• See the resort atriums and shows
• Coffee before the ferry back