Hong Kong shoppers' marathon

By FIONA HAWTIN


Anyone who has done a hard day's shopping knows it's not all beer and skittles. There are hard on-the-spot decisions to be made. You need steely determination, eyes in the back of your head, strong arms to carry all the bags, a goodlevel of fitness and comfortable shoes.

You also must have the ability to dart quickly between the icy air-conditioning of malls and the melting 32C heat of outdoor markets if you want to get the most out of the Hong Kong Shoppers Festival.

During the June 26 to August 31 festival many shops and restaurants are open until 10pm or later, which means 12-hour shopping days. Goody.

Although this year's festival is nearly over, fear not. You don't need to wait until next year because Hong Kong shopping hours are much the same any time of year.

It's possible to spend a month of Sundays shopping and not have managed to get round all the shops. At last count there were eight Pradas, six Chanels, nine Guccis and six Louis Vuittons. Why, the shopping Olympics could easily be held here, such are the retail opportunities.

Without realising it, I've been in training - having warmed up on Auckland's winter sales - and would certainly be keen to enter the 100m designer label dash and the four-day Hong Kong shopping marathon.

Although we're not required to do anything more than drink cocktails on the top floor of the Excelsior Hotel the night we arrive, the shops around hotel are open until at least 10pm, so it's decided we'll do a quick recce to get the lie of the land.

Fortunately, the typhoon that hit a few days before has well and truly gone. It's a horrific thought that the shops close in bad storms.

After a stroll through Ikea - a branch of the very good department store Lane Crawford that stocks loads of big fashion names - and many shops selling second-hand designer bags, shoes and clothes (a recycled Marni top was $260 at Milan Station) I've managed to buy two pairs of shoes that actually fit.

The first rule of HK shopping: see it, like it, buy it immediately or it's unlikely to be there when you go back for it later on, especially if you have ugly step-sister feet in a city of tiny Cinderella feet.

Fired up by such instant shopping success I'm keen to press on the next day, but tour guide Jeannie wants to show us that her home town has more than wall-to-wall shopping.

Being partial to temples, I don't mind a speedy look through the Taoist Wong Tai Sin, where the air is choked with fragrant incense. Besides, you can get your fortune read for $4.

Eager to press on, I get my way and spend the afternoon in Harbour City, a Kowloon mall that - like all the others - is refreshingly air-conditioned.

The malls in this city leave your average Westfields for dead. In HK you'll find four levels of girly shopper heaven: Missoni, Burberry, Bottega Veneta, Yves Saint Laurent, Rive Gauche, Kookai, Cacharel, Vivienne Westwood, Mary Quant, Kate Spade and Gucci are just the tip of the retail iceberg.

It's moments like these I wish I was Mrs Donald Trump. Instead, I make do with virtual shopping and head for the children's clothing and toy section to do my motherly duty buying plastic at the Disney Store and Hello Kitty pants.

Getting back to the hotel on Hong Kong Island is easy on the underground railway. Finding the station is not.

Out on Nathan Rd I'm accosted by some guy wanting to know if I want to buy a watch.

How did he know?

I'll take a knock-off Tag Heuer automatic please. Well if it's good enough for Giorgio Armani to buy fake Armani watches in China, I'm up for it. Except I have to follow this guy down a few streets and up to his apartment.

Am I mad?

But the doorman nods that I'll be fine, so it must be all right.

You can tell the gear is good because his mock Louis Vuitton monogrammed bags are an intertwined LV not MV.

Having bargained hard, I end up with the watch for $150.

As soon as I'm back on the street someone else asks if I want to buy a watch. It turns out he has the same thing for under $100.

First rule of knock-off shopping: don't think the first person to offer you a watch will be the last.

Time for a snack. Being a vegetarian, I eat my meal with my back to the fishtank - they weren't there for their pretty colours - at the swanky Prince Restaurant in the new tower, No 1 Peking Rd, which is full of restaurants and hip bars such as the super-cool Aqua on the top floor - all darkness, glass and 360-degree views.

Then we're off to the Temple St market that closes at midnight.

Get your knock-offs here if you will. But also get traditional cheongsams, wooden toys, parasols and standard market jewellery. I did.

There's been a change of plan in the next day's itinerary. Before we get to the fabled shopping area that is Central, we're going to go 396m up to Victoria Peak by creaky tram.

Luckily, there are some cute traditional Chinese-figure Christmas decorations to buy as we queue for tickets and when we get to the top there are plenty more shops. I choose a Red Army cap.

Shopping aside, on a clear day the view is stunning. I'm not keen on the lunch at the restaurant, which is famed for its goose. I've always felt that a leisurely lunch is a complete waste of shopping time.

As World designer Francis Hooper, who just so happened to be born in Hong Kong, says: "There are only two things to do in Hong Kong - eat and shop."

Being the sole vegetarian in a party of carnivores - one of whom has a liking for chicken feet, pigeon and goose - I'm only too happy to forgo any opportunity to duck out on lunch in favour of the shops. Besides, research demands it.

In no time I've found the grand store Shanghai Tang, which is two levels of tradition-inspired fashion, lovely silk underwear and cheongsams for the 21st century, and lifestyle treats.

I settle for their own brand of ginger and lily perfume, a child's book and a nice green bowl that comes in a gorgeous green box. What I really want is the delicate blue teapot and cups with goldfish on, but I manage to show some restraint - there's still two days to go.

The three levels above Shanghai Tang in the Pedder Building are some of the most amazing shops. This is where the tai-tais (women married to rich men) come and unload their designer buys. My greatest regret is that I didn't find this until an hour before I had to leave for the airport and that's just not enough time to rummage.

A couple of doors down is a branch of On Pedder. It's dedicated to divine French shoes, bags and jewellery.

I want the lot but leave with a lovely pair of earrings with semi-precious stones.

Further along, Chater House could be renamed Armani House. Many of the shops in here are Armani.

Clothes aside, there's Armani Libri (books), Armani Casa (homeware) and even the florist Armani Fiori, where they'll do you a rectangle of palm leaf with a hole cut out and inside the hole sits a single pink peony - all of which can float.

Now, here's where it all goes wrong. In an effort to get to an authentic Chinese area with little winding streets that two of us had spotted on the way to a tea ceremony, we become lost in what seems like the meat district.

Keen to buy some tea, we take refuge in the Queens Rd Lock Cha Tea Shop, where a regular is getting the lowdown from the teamaster. They insist we join in and we leave clutching our osmanthus tea.

In Hong Kong shops everyone is so nice. Walk into Central's two-level Prada shop and there's a lovely young man who opens the door for you, even though you're wearing jandals. And they really don't mind if you actually touch the clothes. Compare that to the Sydney shop, where they try to make it look like they haven't opened yet, or pretend you're invisible.

After an exhausting day's shopping, dinner at Vong in the posh Mandarin Oriental Hotel (rooms come with a harbour view or a Prada view) perks me up no end, especially its vegetarian menu. They gave me the best tofu I've eaten.

The word is that Nicole Kidman loved the warm Valrhona chocolate cake. So did I.

The token bloke and confirmed non-shopper in the group would be shocked to know that I was relieved next day to be out of the shopping's way and taken to the fishing village of Tai O on Lantau Island for a voyeuristic look at how the not-so-rich Hong Kong population live - in makeshift stilt houses over the water, drying fish in their living quarters.

From there it's not far to the Buddhist monastery Po Lin, where they'll serve a vegetarian lunch with mock fish and chicken. Swing a left when you see the giant bronze Buddha.

Enough meditation. Time to shop.

The other natural-born shopper and I take a taxi to the famous Joyce Warehouse at Ap Lei Chau on the other side of Hong Kong Island.

This is where the famous Joyce store in the Horizon Plaza building gets rid of its old-season labels such as Giorgio Armani, Issey Miyake, Marni, Dries Van Noten and so on for a song - almost.

On this particular day it didn't live up to its reputation, but in the Horizon Plaza were some great toyshops where I found an Olivia musical jewellery box, a Babar the elephant and Monopoly pass-go whistles. It seems Monopoly is the new big thing.

A few minutes taxi ride from here and you're at the Space warehouse in Marina Square. Now, this is more like it. This is where past-season Prada, Miu Miu and Helmut Lang stock are sent to be reduced for a quick sale.

And there it was - the lovely pleated Prada skirt with gold thread. Tragically, I can't fit more than one thigh into it, so I round up the biggest sizes I can find. This means I'll take the polished cotton top with the grosgrain ribbon, a bargain at just $280, because it's the only thing I can fit and it will be good with jeans.

Another reason to be grateful for shopping here: the rule of Western shopper's natural selection applies, which states that we'll only fit 5 per cent of the retail gear which means your choice goes from being infinite to manageable.

I ask about shoes in my size but the assistant is distracted so I walk off. Minutes later, she has rounded up every large pair of shoes in the shop. See what I mean about service?

So I end up with sedate brown suede pumps, and the instep is that lovely pistachio green with "Prada" scrawled on - and all for $200.

By now, the obsessive shopper and I need another suitcase so we traipse back to Central, buy one from a street market, plus a skirt from one of the malls. We spend the evening repacking, making sure to leave some space for the next day's buys.

Before the shops open the next day there's a free tai chi class with Pandora Wu and her husband, 70-plus William Ng, as part of a cultural kaleidoscope programme. It's just the thing to refocus my mind on what I need to buy. Crikey, I almost forget the shopping so engrossed was I in the white-crane-flaps-its-wings movement.

Later, I have another moment of great inner peace that doesn't involve monetary exchange. We're on the way to the Stanley Bay market when the non-shopper says he wants to have a paddle in the South China Sea at Repulse Bay.

The water's like a bath and it's so hot that I'm almost tempted to forget the shopping and stay there. But I need souvenirs and the market is great for this as well as Baby Gap clothes going super-cheap.

Frantic buying ensues before we leave for another mall. This time it's Pacific Place in Admiralty. It's more compact than Harbour City but the shops are every bit as good. I buy a striped top from Marc Jacobs for the boyfriend and I'm done.

Even if I wanted anything else - and I do - I don't think my Visa would let me.

That's the other thing about shopping. You need money or lots of credit.



HOW TO GET THERE

Cathay Pacific has daily flights to Hong Kong (and twice daily on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday). There are packages that include airfare and four nights' accommodation, starting from $999. The fares must be bought before August 31 for departures until the end of November.

GETTING AROUND

The Mass Transit Railway, or MTR, is an efficient underground system that covers all major urban and shopping areas.

You can get an Octopus card, an electronic fare card accepted on almost all public transport. Any unspent money is refunded along with the HK$50 deposit. Call +852 2266 2266.

The eight-minute Star Ferry connects Central and Tsim Sha Tsui for about HK$2.20 and is a Hong Kong must-do.

Double-decker trams run along the harbour side of Hong Kong Island for HK$2.

Taxis are reasonably cheap and necessary to get to some outlying shopping areas such as the Joyce Warehouse in Ap Lei Chau. The fare from Central is NZ$20.

YEAR-ROUND SHOPPING

Hong Kong is a shopper's paradise all the time, not just during the Shopper's Festival, and shops keep long hours year-round. On Hong Kong Island, Central and Western are open from 10am to 7.30pm; Causeway Bay and Wan Chai, 10am to 9.30pm; Kowloon, Tsim Sha Tsui, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok, 10am to 9pm; and Tsim Sha Tsui East, 10am to 7.30pm. The Hong Kong Tourism Board has loads of great brochures on where to shop. The Visitor Hotline is +852 2508 1234 or go to Discover Hong Kong

Between shopping excursions The tourism board also runs a Cultural Kaleidoscope programme that includes a free tai chi class, feng chui class, Cantonese opera appreciation class, antiques appreciation class and a ride on a junk.

Call +852 2508 1234.