Convention Avenue. Of all the huge buildings looming over Wan Chai’s harbourfront, the weirdest is the Convention and Exhibition Centre, whose curve-roofed CEC Extension resembles, more or less, a giant manta ray. The extension was where the British formally handed Hong Kong back to the Chinese in June 1997, and as such is worth a visit; otherwise, the building is of most interest for its architecture.

Two waterfront monuments here are usually swamped by mainland Chinese tourists.

Built in 1999 to commemorate the handover, the glum, gravestone-like Reunification Monument bears the signature of Chinese President Jiang Zemin, and stands in marked contrast to the cheerfully golden Forever Blooming Bauhinia Sculpture. The orchid-like bauhinia flower was adopted as the SAR’s regional emblem in 1997, its five petals appearing on Hong Kong’s red flag.

From the statues, a harbourfront promenade leads west all the way to the Star Ferry Pier in Central, though current redevelopment may necessitate detours. You can also catch a cross-harbour ferry (daily 7.30am-11pm; 10min; $2.20) to Tsim Sha Tsui from the Wan Chai Star Ferry Pier, just east of the Exhibition Centre.

Harbour Rd. Sited opposite the Convention and Exhibition Centre, Central Plaza is another notable architectural marvel - it’s the world’s tallest building made of reinforced concrete (374m). Triangular in shape, it’s topped by a glass pyramid from which a 64-metre mast protrudes: the locals, always quick to debunk a new building, dubbed it “The Big Syringe”. As if this wasn’t distinctive enough, it’s lit at night by luminous neon panels, while the spire on top of the pyramid has four sections that change colour every fifteen minutes to show the time.

If Wan Chai has a main street, it’s probably Lockhart Road, running from east to west. Its heady days as a thriving redlight district, throbbing with US marines on leave, are now gone, but that’s not to say the area has become anything near gentrified. Many of the bars and clubs here make a living from fleecing tourists, and a walk down the street at night is still a fairly lively experience. Most of the pubs and clubs between Luard and Fleming roads are rowdy until the small hours, and it’s easy to get a late meal in the hundreds of local restaurants.

Lung On St, South off Queen’s Rd East along Stone Nullah Lane. Dawn to dusk. Free. The Pak Tai Temple is dedicated to Pak Tai, Emperor of the North, whose task it is to maintain harmony on earth (and prevent flooding). It’s a beautiful temple, especially the roof, which is decorated in the classic southern Chinese manner with green-and-blue porcelain figurines of heroes and undulating dragons. Inside the main hall, Pak Tai is represented by a tall, seventeenth-century copper statue, seated on a throne facing the door. Up the steps behind, four guardian figures flank a second image of the ebony-faced and bearded god, resplendent in an embroidered jacket. In a room off to the left, craftsmen construct burial offerings from paper and bamboo - everything from houses to cars - that are burned in order to equip the deceased for the afterlife.

Gloucester Rd.Causeway Bay’s sole visible colonial relic is a small ship cannon known as the Noon Day Gun, celebrated in Noel Coward’s song Mad Dogs and Englishmen and which is, even today, detonated daily at noon by a smartly dressed officer. There are many stories to explain why, but the most widespread tells of how an employee of the trading firm Jardine Matheson once fired off a salute to one of his company’s ships, outraging the governor (who had the monopoly on this sort of exercise), who ordered the offence to be re-enacted daily at noon for evermore.

Unless you catch the actual event, the gun itself is a bit underwhelming, and just placed in a railed-off garden.

Daily 6am-10pm. Sited east of Gloucester Road, Victoria Park is a flat, spacious spread of paving, sports fields, and ornamental borders. It’s busy around the clock, from martial arts practitioners going through their routines and old men airing their songbirds in little cages at the crack of dawn, to people cooling off on benches under the trees at midday and football matches in the afternoon. There’s also a swimming pool (April-Dec 6.30am-noon, 1-5pm & 6-10pm; adults $19, children $9). A couple of times a year the park hosts some lively festivals, including a flower market at Chinese New Year, a lantern display for the Mid-Autumn Festival and the annual candlelit vigil for the victims of Tiananmen Square on June 4.

Over Causeway Road from the park’s southeastern corner, and up Tin Hau Temple Road, elderly Tin Hau Temple (dawn to dusk; free) is sited on top of a little hill and is dedicated to southern China’s sea goddess. Once sited on the seafront and now marooned inland, it’s not of great importance, but gives an idea of the extent of Hong Kong’s land reclamation projects.

The most startling fixture in the Causeway Bay shopping area is the beige blockbuster of a building that is Times Square, at the corner of Matheson and Russell streets. Spearing skywards from a comparatively small space at ground level, it exemplifies Hong Kong’s modern architecture, where space can only be gained by building upwards and distinction attained by unexpected design - in this case, a vertical shopping mall supported by great marble trunks and featuring a cathedral window and giant video advertising screen. From the massive open-plan lobby, silver bullet elevators whiz up to the shopping floors. At ground level there’s a cinema and access to Causeway Bay MTR station.

The only gambling legally allowed in Hong Kong is on horseracing, and the Happy Valley Racecourse is the traditional centre of this multi-million-dollar business.

It’s controlled by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, one of the colony’s power bastions since its foundation in 1884, with a board of stewards made up of the leading lights of Hong Kong big business. A percentage of the profits go to social and charitable causes and such is the passion for betting in Hong Kong that the racing season pulls in over $80 billion per year.

The season runs from September to mid-June and there are usually meetings every Wednesday night, an intense experience given the crowds packed into the high stands surrounding the tight track. Entrance to the public enclosure is $10; there you can mix with a beery expat crowd, watch the horses being paraded before each race, and pump the staff to make sense of the intricate accumulator bets that Hong Kong bookies specialize in. Other options include joining the hard-bitten Chinese punters up in the stands, mostly watching the action on television ($20, plus all the cigarette smoke you can handle), or signing up for the Hong Kong Tourist Board’s Come Horseracing Tour ($540-790 depending on the event), which will take you to the course, feed you before the races, get you into the members’ enclosure and hand out some racing tips: you need to be over 18 and have been in Hong Kong for less than three weeks - take your passport to any HKTB office at least a day before the race.

On the second floor of the main building at the racecourse, the Hong Kong Racing Museum (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm; free) presents various aspects of Hong Kong’s racing history, from the early days in Happy Valley through the construction of the New Territories’ track at Sha Tin to the charitable projects funded by the Jockey Club. Racing buff s can also study champion racehorse characteristics and famous jockeys in the museum’s eight galleries and cinema.

Wong Nai Chung Rd. Daily 8am-6pm. Free. The series of terraced hillside cemeteries west of the racecourse provides an interesting snapshot of the territory’s ethnic and religious mix during the mid-nineteenth-century, with separate enclosures for Muslim, Catholic, Protestant (the largest, with a berth for Lord Napier, the first Chief Superintendent of Trade with China), Parsee and Jewish inhabitants.

298 Computer Zone

298 Hennessy Rd, Wan Chai. Warrenlike place, full of shops selling new, secondhand, official and pirated computer gear.

Chinese Arts and Crafts

26 Harbour Rd, Wan Chai. A good selection of all types and qualities of china in traditional styles, plus a few antique pieces - some items are very good value.

Just Gold

452 Hennessy Rd, Wan Chai. Local chain specializing in fun, fashionable, cheapish designs for young women.

Ki Chan Tea Co.

174 Johnston Rd, Wan Chai. Old men distribute the tea leaves from their red-and-gold cylinders in this no-nonsense, well-established shop.

Vivienne Tam

Shop 219, Times Square, Causeway Bay. Funky shirts and dresses in David Hockney-meets-Vivienne Westwood style, often featuring Chairman Mao and other icons of the East. Pricey.

Chee Kee Wonton

Ground Floor, 52 Russell St, Causeway Bay; no phone. Daily 11am-8pm. Small, low-key haunt with Chinese-only sign (look for the packed interior hung with Chinese prints and antique-style wooden stools), serving some of the tastiest wonton noodles in town. Soups are $24.

Chiu Chow Dynasty

2nd Floor, Emperor Group Centre, 288 Hennessy Rd, Wan Chai T2832 6628. Daily 11am-11pm. Gloomy decor - the interior isn’t spacious enough for the heavy wooden furniture - but top Chiu Chow fare, including sour-plum goose, deep-fried duck with taro, and the biggest range of Chiu Chow dumplings in town. $80 and upwards per main.

Chuan Bar Bar

20 Luard Rd, Wan Chai T2527 8388. Daily noon-midnight. A smart Sichuanese restaurant-bar hung with wooden screens and serving chilli fish fillets, “strange-flavoured” chicken (a famous Sichuanese dish), beancurd and bamboo shoots, aubergine with hot garlic sauce, and more. Mains around the $60 mark.

East Lake Seafood

4th Floor, Pearl City, 22-36 Paterson St, Causeway Bay T2504 3311. Daily 7am-noon. Cheerful, noisy place packed with local Chinese eating dim sum.

Carnegie’s

53-55 Lockhart Rd T2866 6289. Daily 11am-3am. The noise level here means conversation is only possible by flash cards; once it’s packed, hordes of punters keen to revel the night away fight for dancing space on the bar. Home of the much-talked-about topless barman (Wednesday night), plus occasional riotous club nights and regular live music.

Devil’s Advocate

48-50 Lockhart Rd T2865 7271. Daily 11am-late. Hugely popular at the moment, especially with young office workers and expats - rotten juke-box selection, though. Cheap soft drinks at lunchtime.

Dickens Sports Bar

Lower Ground Floor, Excelsior Hotel, 281 Gloucester Rd T2837 6782. Mon-Thurs & Sun 11am-2am, Fri & Sat 11am-3am. This bar prides itself on re-creating an authentic British atmosphere: the kitchen dishes up genuine British pub grub, the TV airs British sitcoms, and there are English papers to read. One of the few decent hotel bars.

Dusk Till Dawn

76 Jaffe Rd T2528 4689. Mon-Sat noon-6am, Sun 3pm-6am; happy hour 5-11pm. Vaguely Mediterranean colours decorate this rowdy bar, full of loud live music, raucous staff , and hoarse punters.