The Tai Po Market station building was erected in 1913 on what was then the Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). With its early-20th-century architectural style and traditional southern Chinese pitched roofs, the main building was declared a monument in 1984 and converted into a museum a year later.
The museum comprises an exhibition gallery, the old station ticket office and a signal box. On display are artefacts including old train tickets and model trains.
Most of the museum’s exhibits are to be found outdoors, from a narrow-gauge steam locomotive and a 1950s diesel-electric engine imported from Australia, to old passenger coaches, trolleys and semaphore signals.
13 Shung Tak Street, Tai Po Market, Tai Po, New Territories
2. Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware
Tea is widely believed to have originated in China some 5,000 years ago. Hong Kong’s modern tea culture evolved under colonial rule to be subtly different to that elsewhere in Greater China.
The Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware, a two-storey building set amid the lush greenery of Hong Kong Park in Admiralty, explains the history and culture of Chinese tea drinking, featuring teaware from the Western Zhou dynasty (1027BC to 771BC) to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
Built in 1846 in the Greek Revival style, Flagstaff House housed the office and residence of the commander of British forces in Hong Kong until 1978, and is one of the city’s oldest buildings. In 1984, it was converted to house the teaware museum, a branch of the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Inside Hong Kong Park, 10 Cotton Tree Drive, Central, Hong Kong Island
3. Hong Kong House of Stories
If you are more into discovering the heritage and life stories of ordinary Hongkongers, look no further than Wan Chai’s Blue House, a four-storey tenement block built in 1922 and listed as a grade-one historic building.
Created as part of a revitalisation of the Blue House, the Hong Kong House of Stories combines tangible and intangible heritage. Most of the staff are elderly volunteers; the museum believes the city’s elderly are a great asset when it comes to passing on cultural heritage.
Book a place on the Wanchai Haunted Tour to learn more about the district’s traditions, culture and history – and its urban legends and horror stories.
G/F, 72A Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai, Hong Kong Island
4. Hong Kong Film Archive
There is more to Hong Kong cinema than kung fu films and Wong Kar-wai movies, (although we wouldn’t blame you if Wong’s is the first name that comes to mind).
Founded in 1993 – and not a museum per se – the Hong Kong Film Archive is a member of the International Federation of Film Archives and is housed in a five-storey building in Sai Wan Ho, towards the eastern end of Hong Kong Island. It has a cinema, an exhibition hall, a resource centre, collection vaults and restoration laboratories.
It puts on a wide variety of screenings, including Hong Kong musicals, wuxia films, zombie films and crime movies.
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Aside from preserving and screening Hong Kong films and related materials, the archive hosts regular seminars on Hong Kong movie heritage and culture to promote film appreciation in the city.
50 Lei King Rd, Sai Wan Ho, Hong Kong Island
5. Sheung Yiu Folk Museum
The largest of the four indigenous Chinese subgroups in Hong Kong, the Hakka are thought to have lived in Hong Kong since 1688, migrating to the territory from what is now mainland China.
In the late 19th century, a Hakka family surnamed Wong immigrated to Hong Kong – by then under British rule – made a home in Sai Kung in the New Territories, and named the spot Sheung Yiu Village (meaning “above the kiln village”).
In 1981, the village and its neighbouring lime kilns were gazetted as monuments. In 1984 the village was restored and opened as a museum comprising features typical of rural Hakka clans: white-walled dwellings, lime kilns, cattle sheds, pigsties and a six-metre-high (20-foot) watchtower to look out for pirates.
The Sheung Yiu Folk Museum has nine galleries that recreate the atmosphere of a small Hakka village, showing farming implements, period village furniture and other objects used by Hakka families in daily life.
Inside Sai Kung Country Park on Pak Tam Chung Nature Trail, Sai Kung, New Territories
Looking for more? Don’t worry – the Hong Kong chief executive’s 2022 policy address sketched out a 10-year plan to increase the number of museums run by the government’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department from the current 15 to 19.
