Data for Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the trails above them, installed before you fly. Hong Kong is on the Asia plan, so the same eSIM carries on to Macau, Shenzhen, Taipei or Tokyo. The best view in town still costs from HK$5.
The Hong Kong plan covers Hong Kong only.
The same 10 GB in a package that keeps working past Hong Kong.
20 other countries share the package with Hong Kong. A few of them:
What's included, when it starts, and how to get connected.
The Star Ferry has crossed Victoria Harbour since 1888, and an upper-deck seat between Central and Tsim Sha Tsui costs HK$5 on weekdays and HK$6.5 at weekends (2026). Every boat’s name ends in Star, from Morning Star to Twinkling Star. Ride it at dusk, when the towers light up on both shores; the view from the Peak is the postcard, but this one moves.
The Central–Mid-Levels escalator, 800 metres of moving stairs and walkways opened in 1993, runs downhill until 10 a.m. and uphill after that. Wong Kar-wai shot Chungking Express (1994) along it because, he said, no one had made a film there, and The Dark Knight filmed on it in 2007. Ride it up from Central in the evening and step off wherever the bars look good.
Typhoon season runs from May to November, and the Observatory’s signals run the city. When the No. 8 signal goes up, government offices shut, most workplaces send people home and the ferries stop; the Observatory gives about two hours’ warning with a ‘pre-No. 8’ announcement. Plan an indoor day, keep the phone charged and follow the Observatory’s app, like everyone else.
Hong Kong’s came down from Guangzhou and went mainstream in the cha chaan tengs of the 1960s: smooth yellow custard in shortcrust or flaky pastry. Macau’s is Portuguese-style with a scorched top, the work of Andrew Stow, an English pharmacist who opened a bakery in Coloane in 1989 after tasting pastéis de nata in Lisbon. Try both, then pick a side.
Twenty-four country parks cover about two-fifths of Hong Kong’s land. The Hong Kong Trail runs 50 km from the Peak to the beach at Big Wave Bay, and its last stage crosses the Dragon’s Back, the ridge CNN put among the world’s best trails in 2019. In summer, go early, carry more water than you think and check the Observatory before you set off.
Hong Kong is on the Asia plan, and the connection follows a visitor almost everywhere: from the arrivals hall to the Airport Express, across the harbour, up to the Peak and underground, where mobile coverage runs through the MTR’s stations and tunnels. It thins in the deeper valleys of the country parks and on the far side of the outlying islands, as it does for everyone.
Macau and mainland China are listed separately on the same plan, so a day trip keeps the allowance: the 24-hour shuttle bus crosses the 55 km Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge, the ferry to Macau takes about an hour, and trains run to Shenzhen. The phone picks up a local network a minute or two after you cross. Check each one’s entry rules for your passport before you go.
Answers about data, coverage and setup for Hong Kong.
Yes. Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China are listed separately on the Asia plan, and all three are on it, so a day trip keeps the same allowance: the phone picks up a local network a minute or two after you cross. Each has its own entry rules, so check them for your passport. Before Shenzhen, set up Alipay or WeChat Pay: many foreign apps are blocked on the mainland, and paying by QR code is the norm. What to set up for the mainland
Only if you switch the line on there. A package starts the first time the phone connects anywhere on its list, and Hong Kong is on the Asia plan, so connecting during the stopover starts it in Hong Kong. That is fine if the trip carries on to Japan, Thailand or Vietnam on the same plan. If every day should count at your destination, keep the onesim line off until you land there.
On the MTR, yes: mobile coverage runs through the stations and the tunnels, so maps and messages carry on underground. On the trails it depends on where you are. Ridges within sight of the city usually have signal; deep valleys, remote beaches and the far side of the outlying islands can have little or none, as on any SIM. Download the route before a long hike, and carry water.
