Gadget shopping walkabout in Hong Kong

    Many people believe that Hong Kong is not the shopping mecca it once was and there are lots of good reasons to agree. But while you might not be tripping over mind-boggling steals, there are still some bargains around, if only because most imported products are duty-free. In addition, for sheer variety, particularly in the realm of electronic gadgets, and a real carnival atmosphere, there may be no better place for the enthusiastic shopper.

    If ever a thing has been invented, it can be found in Hong Kong. This is a city in love with everything high-tech, and low-tech for that matter. A good place to start a search for gadgets is along Nathan Road, and its many labyrinthine tributaries, in Tsim Sha Tsui on the Kowloon side. Not as visually impressive as the soaring, brand-spanking new skyscraper neighbourhood in Central on Hong Kong Island, this area is on the whole a bit seedier with busy, crowded streets flanked by some older, deserves-to-be-condemned buildings.

    On street level, once you recover from the assault of neon, and fight your way through the leaflet passer-outers, Indians trying to measure you for custom-tailored suits, Chinamen trying to hawk fake Rolexes in the manner of shady Amsterdam drug-dealers, and the mass of other bodies, you will discover an almost endless rank of shops selling electronics goods and photographic equipment. All are displayed on shelves which extend the length of the neon-electrified windows. Electronic organisers of every description (although Psion was noticeably absent), mobile phones, digitised camcorders, cameras and walkmen battle for the plum positions.


  • Cream of the Crop
  • Communications skills
  • The weirder, the wackier
  • Night-time shopping and other options
  • Buyer beware