Mitch04

Looking at re-visiting Hong Kong where I used to work 35 years ago, but having trouble selecting a hotel.

Thinking about the Habor Plaza Hong Kong (Kowloon side) or the Excelsior (Island side).

Obviously things have changed since I was working in Causeway Bay for "The Star" newspaper as a journalist in 1973, and I guess even the old "New American", "The Indonesian" and "Cafe D'Amigo" restaurants have closed! And my "watering hole" after work used to be the plush "Lee Gardens Hotel" though I can't find any mention of it on Google or Yahoo.

I also remember an isolated and old but very atmospheric hotel built on the side of a hill in the New Territories overlooking Hong Kong, and if any Fodorites can refresh my memory on the name, that would be great.

Feedback about the two hotels I'm looking at would be appreciated, as well as alternatives. But I must have an uninterrupted view of the harbor where I stay!

marmot

Mitch, I started traveling to Hong Kong in the late 70's and even though I've been back many many times that era holds a lot of nostalgia for me. Is the hotel you're thinking of the Castle Peak Hotel? We used to stop there for lunch -- roast beef off the cart served by ancient waiters with more sauce on their lapels than on the cart. In the summer you could sit on the windy terrace.

I'd suggest that you look at a harbour view room at the Hong Kong Hotel -- now the Marco Polo Hong Kong Hotel. It's a hold over from the Lee Gardens era, but somehow has managed to survive the Gateway redevelopment. The rooms are big, the service is adequate, the location is excellent and you can get an unobstructed full harbour view. The windows tend to fog in the morning, but hey it's not the Peninsula.

Mitch04

Thanks, Marmot. This old hotel was only a few miles from Kowloon on a hill in the New Territories, and not near any water/seaside. It reminded me of the British Raj *lol*. The only Castle Peak Hotel I can find seems to be near the seaside....

This one was in about a straight line from Kowloon and overlooking it and Victoria Harbor. It was up quite high, and had magnificent views.

PeterN_H

The Lee Gardens is now a shopping mall with top end brand names. No point in looking there for a bed any more.

Peter N-H

rkkwan

Yes, The Hong Kong Hotel is still there with the same owner and operator, with the added Macro Polo name of its chain. And the Sheraton is still there, which I believe was already built by 1973. Its view is not as great as before becuase of the New World Center and InterContinental complex across from it, which was built in the early 80's.

Excelsior is pretty much the same as before. And of course, many consider its harbor view to be from the "wrong side". The Harbour Plaza is a fairly new hotel in Hung Hom. Not the most convenient.

Lee Garden was pulled down in the late 80's for a new office building, the Manulife Plaza on Hysan Road. The nearby Lee Garden Theater was also demolished a few years later to become a multi-story dining complex with many good restaurants.

Other major hotels that may already been there in 1973 and is still in operation include the Holiday Inn Golden Mile in Tsim Sha Tsui and the Park Lane in Causeway Bay. And of course the Peninsula and Mandarin Oriental. Those that have been torn down include the Hilton (now Cheung Kong Center), Furama (AIG Tower) and Hyatt Regency (construction site).

There were three small hotels in the New Territories that you might be thing about. I have been to all three when growing up in HK around that time.

1. <b>Shatin Heights Hotel</b> on Tai Po Road (used to be called Tai Po Highway) between Kowloon and Shatin. It had a huge patio that overlooked Shatin. It closed long time ago - the site may have been developed for newer residential complexes, so not totally sure.

2. <b>Yucca de Lac</b> further up Tai Po Road across from the Chinese University. Though I am not sure if they ever have rooms for rent, or just a restaurant. I last ate there in December 2001, and it was closed in 2005. From satellite pictures on Google Earth, the site has not be redeveloped yet.

3. <b>Dragon Inn Villa</b> in Tuen Mun (the area used to be called Castle Peak) on Castle Peak Road. Part of it the site is now the Dragon Inn Court residential complexes, but there is still a seafood restaurant in its original (but highly renovated) building:

http://www.dragoninn1939.com/en/intro.html

rkkwan

I am pretty sure you're thinking of the Shatin Heights Hotel, which is just a few miles on Tai Po Highway over the hill from Kowloon.

Oh, and of course, another structure that was torn down is the Repulse Bay Hotel. It was rebuilt as luxury apartments, but they also built a structure that looks like the old hotel which houses restaurants and coffee shops still run by the Peninsula Group. So, you can still have afternoon tea there.

Mitch04

Thanks so far everyone. Shatin Heights sounds about right, although this old colonial-style hotel was only 2 storey (possibly 3) and was white. This might have been it.

I recall the Repulse Bay hotel....shame it's gone. As well as the Lee Gardens - which use to make the most fabulous grasshopper cocktails during happy hour!

I believe The Star newspaper went bust/closed years ago.

Also used to go to a great Chinese nightclub called &quot;Pearl City&quot;....and I guess that's also gone!

rkkwan

I can't remember what the Shatin Heights Hotel building look like, but I don't think it's more than 2 stories. But I can really remember their huge patio.

According to wikipedia, The Star shut down in 1984, but I have absolutely no recollection of this English language paper (or tabloid).

Pearl City Nightclub probably was in the Pearl City Building on Paterson Street in Causeway Bay. Nightclub gone, but the building is still there, with a shopping mall called the JP Plaza. The large Pearl City Cinema was broken up into two smaller ones (now called JP Causeway Bay).

Mitch04

rkkwan, The Star was an amazing little newspaper, and was published in both English and Chinese. The presses ran almost non-stop all day *lol* printing 3-4 editions in each language. The editor was a madman from Australia named Graham Jenkins who used to be a friend of Chiang Kai-chek.

The biggest story the newspaper broke while I was there was in 1973 when it discovered that Bruce Lee had not, in fact, died at home (as first reports suggested), but at the home of a Chinese actress called Betty Ting Pei.

I reported on the autopsy and coroner's enquiry.

rkkwan

I can vaguely remember a 星報, but my parents didn't read that one... And at school I we get the student version of either the SCMP or the Standard.

marmot

The old Castle Peak Hotel had no relationship to the new one, other than the road name. The old one was on Casstle Peak Road (Duh!) and was in the same architectural style as the old Repulse Bay Hotel -- sans the charm.

We used to stop there for lunch after factory visits in the New Territories. The food was awful but the view was splendid.

PeterN_H

http://www.leegardens.com.hk/

rkkwan

Here's the only image of the Shatin Heights Hotel I can find on the web, and it is of the patio, and not the hotel itself:

http://news.webshots.com/photo/13875...73257005wQgasw

It is basically as I have remembered it from the 70's.

Mitch04

Excellent! That's it! But now it's gone?

rkkwan

Shatin Heights Hotel had been gone for many years. The view out that way today is just all the residential blocks in Tai Wai and Shatin. You won't see any water or mountains anymore.

Cicerone

How interesting that you are coming back to Hong Kong after such a long time! You should bring photos of when you lived here to compare now and then, esp harbour and city scapes. The street trams have still survived, but the Hilton hotel is long gone. The main thing you will probably notice is the air pollution, which will obscure your views, some days much worse than others, depending on the time of year you are here. The view which has probably changed the most is actually from Hong Kong Island toward the Kowloon side, as it now has so many high rises (esp the ICC which will be the tallest here when it is completed). And of course the airport, you don’t get that thrilling approach any longer.

As you know both sides so well, I guess the hotel choice would depend on where you think you may want to spend most of your time. No sense staying in Kowloon if you want to spend most of your time lurking in old neighborhoods in Causeway Bay or vice versa. Other considerations might be room size and view, to make sure you are comparing apples to apples in terms of price. I am not a huge fan of staying in Hung Hom as it is out of the way and there is not much in the neighborhood of note. There is a nice longish Star Ferry ride from the Hung Hom piers into Central which is good for views, and it is actually quite a short taxi ride to the TST area, but overall, not a great location as you may spend more time in taxis or on buses than you would want. But the rooms would have some nice harbour views (assuming you get a clear day).

The Repulse Bay hotel is closed, but there is a pale shadow of it remaining in the Verandah restaurant, see http://www.therepulsebay.com/restaurants.html.

The hotel you are recalling on the hills above Kowloon is interesting. The link above to the Shatin Heights hotel shows a very pretty view indeed, but I am fairly positive that it is not a view of Victoria Harbour (those hills across the water are too high to be the Peak or anything like Mt Butler on the eastern end of the island, and the land in front does not seem to be extensive enough nor built-up enough to be Kowloon, even for 1970s when I am guessing by the girls’ outfits that this picture was taken). I am pretty sure that this is a view out towards the eastern New Territories in the direction of Tolo Harbour and Ma On Shan. Your message says you recall seeing Victoria harbour from the patio of the hotel, so I think that the hotel would have to have been located on the first range of hills behind Kowloon. I don’t think the hotel you recall could have been in Shatin, as in my experience you cannot see Hong Kong harbour from even the highest elevations in the town of Shatin, as Lion Rock and that range of hills would block the view. (If the hotel were on Shatin Pass Road facing Victoria Harbour, then that would offer good views of the harbour, it is also possible that something on Shatin Heights Road offers views of Victoria Harbour, but not the one in the postcard from what I can tell). I am wondering if the hotel was up on Tai Mo Shan or elsewhere on Route Twisk. There is a huge army base there (built by the British and still used now by the PLA) and there may have been a hotel there at some point in connection with the base. Most of the base buildings which you can see from the road are those 2 and 3 storey concrete, squarish sort of art deco “colonial” style buildings which seem to match your description of the hotel you recall. This area would be a bit to the west of the tip of Kowloon but not as far west as Tuen Muen and most of Castle Peak Road (which begins in this area). But perhaps it is your recollection of seeing Victoria Harbour that is the fuzzy one, and it is the Shatin Hotel you recall correctly, just not the exact view.

If you want a similar view today (well of course not at all similar as the area has changed substantially) go up to Shatin Pass Road by taxi or hike the MacLehose Trail Stage #5. This trail would give you a Victoria Harbour View and Shatin on the other side.

rkkwan

Speaking of old small hotels on the hillside, the one I have the fondest memory is not in Hong Kong, but in Macau.

In the 70's, my parents have taken me and my sister (yk on this board) to the Hotel Bela Vista there for breakfasts many many times. It is a beautiful southern European style building with about 20 guest rooms.

It was closed when Macau returned to China in 1999, and has become the residence of the Portuguese Consul General in Macau. They picked the best building in all of Macau for that purpose!

Hannue

A 'western' cafe/restaurant from the 70's that is still around is Queen's Cafe, in Causeway Bay. I think it brought bortsch to Hong Kong.

There's a group or two on Hong Kong from that era on facebook.

What a nostalgic trip you're embarking on, and one that's so beautiful!

Mitch04

It should be fun. And thanks for your lengthy comments, Cicerone!

DeepaSingapore

Sigh...Hong Kong...love that place. Lived there for 11 years before moving here to Singapore almost 2 years ago.

Anyway, our friends (a Swiss couple in their fifties) seem to really like the new Lan Kwai Fong hotel. Location is fab and it obviously won't be as expensive as the regular five stars. You should check it out.

Also, you must eat dim sum at the Maxims restaurant in City Hall (in Central) - dim sum served in hand drawn carts with views of the harbor - they do not take reservations so try to be there by 11.30 or so to beat the queues and try and go on a week day.