Hong Kong Island, towers against green peaks

Hong Kong Island squeezes a global financial centre onto a strip of reclaimed land between the harbour and a wall of jungle-covered hills, and that compression is the whole appeal. The Peak Tram hauls you up a gradient that makes the skyscrapers tilt sideways in the window; from the terrace at the top the towers of Central stack up below with Kowloon and the mountains of the New Territories behind. Come back down and cross the water on the Star Ferry for the cheapest great view in Asia, or ride a double-decker ding ding tram, which has been trundling the length of the north shore since 1904.

The neighbourhoods change every few hundred metres. Sheung Wan smells of dried scallop and abalone along Des Voeux Road West, and holds the incense-smoked Man Mo Temple and rows of antique dealers on Hollywood Road. Above it, the Mid-Levels escalator climbs through SoHo — a slope of small restaurants, wine bars and Lan Kwai Fong nightlife — while Tai Kwun, the converted former Central Police Station and Victoria Prison, has become the island's best cultural complex. Wan Chai and Causeway Bay pile on markets, tailors and department stores; Quarry Bay hides the tightly packed housing block visitors call the Monster Building.

Eat dim sum at breakfast — har gow, siu mai, char siu bao, a custard tart from a bakery afterwards. Then escape: the Dragon's Back ridge trail runs above Shek O with the South China Sea on both sides, Stanley has a market and a waterfront, and Aberdeen still keeps its fishing boats. Hong Kong Island is the ideal first stop before the rest of the territory.