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This strip that stretches up Nathan Road from the waterfront could be more accurately dubbed the “neon mile”. It’s less glitzy than Central and comprises mainly bars, restaurants, tailors, camera and electronic shops and the odd desultory topless bar. The crowds are so great that walking the Golden Mile becomes a major challenge.

The last word in luxury accommodation and service. This venerable hotel sits like a proud old dowager, gazing sedately across at the vertiginous Hong Kong Island skyline. The cheapest rooms start where many other luxury hotels stop, although special offers sometimes apply. A night in the opulent Peninsula suite will set you back the price of a new car. It boasts eight bars and restaurants, including the Philippe Starck-designed Felix and cognoscenti-favoured Gaddi’s. If you desire, you can swoop onto the roof by helicopter. Otherwise you’ll be collected by Rolls-Royce.

Brand spanking new and built at a cost of almost HK$400 million. Half of that was spent on itspièce de résistance , the Hong Kong Story, which ambitiously attempts to chronicle the 400 million-odd years since Hong Kong coalesced from the primordial ooze. Controversy lurks, however, in its cursory treatment of the colonial era. The panel of governors’ portraits ends at Sir Mark Young, who left in 1941.

When you’ve had enough of history, come and peek into the future. This odd-looking dome in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui includes an omnimax theatre and interactive exhibits such as the jetpack ride.

Some fascinating interactive displays here if you don’t mind fighting your way through the giggling, pushing throngs of schoolchildren. There are enough buttons to push, gadgets to grapple with and levers to tweak to satisfy even the most hard-to-please kids. Basic principles of chemistry, physics, biology and other sciences are explained but in a much more entertaining and less dry manner than in the classroom.

You may well be fed up with museums by this point. If not, here you’ll find oil paintings, etchings, lithographs and calligraphy. One display features pottery shards and suchlike from southern China dating back to Neolithic times, and there is also a fine collection of elegant porcelain from various Chinese dynasties.

When the muezzin calls the faithful to prayer, the Jamia Masjid Islamic Centre is where you’ll find most of Hong Kong’s Muslims. You can stop by for a look, but take your shoes off and be respectful. Entry to the inner part is not permitted unless you are a Muslim come for prayer.

With a peerless view beckoning across the water, the geniuses in charge decided to build the world’s first windowless building, and covered it for good measure in pink public toilet-style tiles. Wander around and marvel at one of the great architectural debacles of the 20th century. That said, it hosts some good dance and theatre.

The Kowloon-Canton Railway, which now ends at Hung Hom, used to finish at this clocktower, as did the rather more famous Orient Express (see Clocktower). Plans are afoot to extend the KCR to Tsim Sha Tsui again by 2003 or thereabouts. From here, you can walk for more than a kilometre around the TST waterfront and marvel at the odd optimistic fisherman dangling a line in the harbour.

While in TST, if you feel one more whisper of “Copy watch? Tailor?” may provoke you to irrational violence, then venture through the park gates, find a well-shaded bench and watch the world go by. There’s a big swimming pool (reputed to be something of a gay cruising zone), an aviary and a pond featuring flamingos and other aquatic birdlife.