Fancy a round-the-world trip when nobody’s flying anywhere? Then step up for a tour of the hang-outs in Hong Kong where international celebrities and politicians once trod, taking in Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the gilded shores of Discovery Bay on Lantau Island.
1. José Rizal
Ophthalmologist, artist, poet, engineer and the Philippines’ biggest national hero, José Rizal lived at Rednaxela Terrace for the first half of 1892 and worked from his clinic in D’Aguilar Street, Central.
He was a busy chap, not least when it came to entertaining female company, who ranged – he recorded in his memoirs – from the daughter of a wealthy European tycoon to an aristocratic Japanese, as well as a distant cousin whom he had incorporated, thinly disguised, into his novel Noli Me Tángere (1887), which has been described as the country’s national epic.
Famous Filipinos José Rizal and Imelda Marcos and their Hong Kong connection
Rizal’s sojourn in Hong Kong was perhaps the last truly carefree time in his life. After returning to Manila, he became involved in politics and in 1896 was tried for sedition and executed by firing squad.
2. Ho Chi Minh
Possibly Hong Kong’s most reluctant famous guest, Ho Chi Minh was incarcerated in Victoria Prison in 1931 by the authorities, who were unimpressed by his communist leanings. He was released and deported after his case was taken up by firebrand left-wing British lawyer Frank Loseby, heading to Shanghai and later fame as Vietnam’s first president.
Victoria Prison went on to greater things too, having been sensitively restored to form part of the arts and culture destination Tai Kwun, which thankfully escaped the machinations of Hong Kong’ more avaricious developers.
Complete the Vietnamese experience at Bun Cha Café, which is a short stroll away at 49 Aberdeen Street.
3. John Lennon
Few attractions were more “trippy” than the bizarre, cod-mythological theme park Tiger Balm Garden, once one of Hong Kong’s must-sees but long demolished. It was an automatic choice for John “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” Lennon when he pitched up in Hong Kong with his son, Sean, in May 1977 for a long weekend, on his way to Japan.
Built by millionaire Aw Boon Haw and his family in 1935, the gardens were above Tai Hang and surrounded the only part that remains, Haw Par Mansion. Urban legend has it that David Bowie was in Hong Kong at the same time as the Lennons, and took the “Look-here’s-us-in-the-exotic East” photos.
4. Jacob Rees-Mogg
Anyone wanting a caricature of the quintessential “I’m On Expat Terms Actually” Brit need look no further than gangling Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, who worked for fund manager Lloyd George Management in Sheung Wan in the 1990s.
Rare was the Sunday when he could not be found in the same pew as Governor Chris Patten at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, on Caine Road, and later making free with the canapés and dry sherry at Government House.
Rees-Mogg spread his social net far and wide in Hong Kong, and made sure he was invited to lunch at Sir David Tang’s waterfront mansion in Sai Kung when Margaret Thatcher was visiting. Tang – an extremely well connected socialite who was all too happy to mix with the rich and powerful – later recorded that when Rees-Mogg questioned the Iron Lady about “surrendering” Hong Kong, he was “slapped down with a belligerent reply”.
5. Michael Hutchence
Some of Michael Hutchence’s old haunts have, like the Australian lead singer of INXS, ceased to be. He and his family took refuge in the Hilton Hotel (since demolished to make way for the Cheung Kong Center) during the 1967 riots, and he was regularly spotted at the alternative Lan Kwai Fong drinking hole Club 64 months before his death, in November 1997.
A bit of a gypsy as far as an actual residence was concerned, he lived in Old Peak Road as a child and later in Stanley, Kowloon and Tai Tam. The pupils at King George V School in Ho Man Tin may be more proud than the teachers that the rebel rocker was an alumnus.
6. Adrienne Clarkson
The trajectory from refugee to governor general is pretty steep, perhaps even more so for a female of Hakka descent, but Adrienne Louise Poy, later Clarkson, achieved exactly that.
As a two-year-old she sheltered with her family in various basements on Cross Street in Wan Chai during the Japanese military bombardment in 1941, and later escaped across the Pacific to Ottawa, Canada, thanks to the diplomatic connections of her father, who had been employed by the Canadian government in Hong Kong.
Clarkson’s high-flying career in journalism led to a slew of honours and awards, and a series of official appointments. In 1999, Clarkson became the 26th governor general of Canada.
7. Grace Mugabe
Don’t mess with Grace Mugabe, 55-year-old widow of the late and little lamented Zimbabwean dictator Robert. “Gucci Grace”, as she doesn’t like to be known, was less than amused to see photographer Richard Jones snapping away as she left the Kowloon Shangri-La in January 2009, and laid into him, lacerating his face with her diamond-ringed fists.
Jones survived the ordeal, while his assailant claimed diplomatic immunity and jetted home with her plethora of purchases.
The 2,761 square foot House 3, on Tai Po’s JC Castle estate, in which Mugabe and her daughter, Bona, lived, was sold at the beginning of 2019.
8. Bruce Lee
Who could possibly be more Hong Kong, and more famous, than San Francisco-born Bruce Lee Jun-fan? The sad fate of his two-storey residence – The Crane’s Nest, 41 Cumberland Road, in Kowloon Tong – is a very Hong Kong tale too.
Rather than being preserved as a permanent memorial to the talents of the ultimate martial arts hero, the house was torn down in 2019 to make way for a cultural studies centre, as its decrepit state made it “too costly” to repair.
When he wasn’t filming, one of Lee’s favourite hang-outs was the Lung Wah restaurant in Sha Tin, which had won a reputation for itself as the best place to dine on pigeon.
Lee was just one of many well-known faces who used to drop by with friends and family for a meal. A (totally unfounded) rumour circulated that he had filmed part of his martial arts blockbuster The Big Boss there, prompting fans to rush to the restaurant in the hope stardust would rub off on them. Lee died in 1973 at the age of 32, but Lung Wah is still going strong – and its pigeons are as succulent as ever.
9. Countess of Frederiksborg
Discovery Bay is where investment banker Alexandra Manley – who counted English, Chinese, Czechs and Austrians among her forebears – was living when she met Prince Joachim of Denmark, in January 1994.
All went swimmingly and romantically to start with (he went down on one knee to present her with a diamond and ruby engagement ring while they were on holiday in Boracay, in the Philippines), with tabloid journalists proclaiming her the “Princess Diana of the North”; but a happy-ever-after ending was never really on the cards and their marriage ended in divorce in 2005.
At least she is still Countess of Frederiksborg, which must be handy for scoring restaurant reservations and the like.
