Transportation in Hong Kong

Subway / Metro / MTR

The subway is called metro or MTR in Hong Kong, it actually works really well and the trains run frequent, about one per two minutes during daytime. The price depends on where you are going and range from under HK $4 to HK $26. You can buy a ticket from cash machines at every station, but it is much easier to have a card, a so called Octopus card. You can charge it with money so you do not need to think about buying a ticket every time you want to take the metro.

With the Octopus card, you can also pay in some shops, parking meters, vending machines and so on.

Taxi

It is quite cheap to take a taxi in Hong Kong. The starting price is HK $15 and for that you can go 2 km. Thereafter, it costs HK $1.40 per 200 meters.

The cars are all Toyota Crown, quite large and can hold 5 passengers (three in the back seat and two in the front seat next to the driver).

The first day in Hong Kong, we were ripped off by a taxi driver who charged us HK $5 extra for a receipt. No major loss, but quite annoying. Dishonest drivers know that newly arrived tourists are an easy prey.

Besides that first time, it worked fine. Everyone I met could speak English, so there was never any problem getting anywhere. A big advantage is that most places in Hong Kong also have English names, so you rarely need to worry about the Chinese.

Bus

I myself didn’t take the bus so much in Hong Kong, but it seems to be well developed and work well as far as I could see from the streets. If you do not have the Octopus card, you must pay the exact amount in cash on the bus. You will not get any change back.