Is Hong Kong Safe to Visit Since the China Crackdown?
Hong Kong was once one of Asia’s most popular tourist destinations, but after the pro-democracy demonstrations in 2019, the introduction of a new Beijing-backed security law in 2020 and the arrest of activists, student leaders and former lawmakers in 2021, many countries issued travel warnings for Hong Kong citing fears that visitors could be detained without charge and denied access to a lawyer.
This resulted in a significant drop in overseas visitor numbers from a peak of 65 million in 2018 to only 600,000 in 2022. Of course, the Covid pandemic had as much to do with the massive decline in visitor numbers as government travel warnings, but Hong Kong didn’t experience the same post-pandemic recovery as other popular tourist destinations in Asia.
Whereas cities like Tokyo and Bangkok surpassed their pre-pandemic tourist arrival figures by 2023, Hong Kong was only receiving a little more than half the number of tourists that visited before Covid – and most of those were from mainland China.
So was it the travel warnings by western governments that were causing non-Chinese tourists to avoid Hong Kong? And was the prospect of being arrested for no reason at all a real possibility as some of the more dire travel warnings suggested could be the case. I decided to take a trip to Hong Kong to find out.
The iconic nighttime view of Hong Kong from the Peak.
We booked a flight from Phuket to Hong Kong on Hong Kong Airways and the first thing we noticed was that there were very few westerners on the flight. When we arrived in Hong Kong we made our way to Immigration and discovered that there was nobody queuing in the non-Hong Kong residents or non-Chinese lanes.
“Wow, this is great”, I thought. A big contrast to my last two outbound flights to Japan and Vietnam. I recalled queuing for 90 minutes at Immigration in Ho Chi Minh City – longer than it took to fly from Phuket.
In Hong Kong the immigration procedures took one minute. A quick check of our passports and our visas-on-arrival were issued on a small slip of white paper that looked like a parking meter receipt. Not even a stamp in the passport.
As we headed into the city on the double-decker airport bus, aside from a lot of construction going on near the airport, things looked much the same as they did on my last visit some 15 years ago.
Fewer westerners are visiting Hong Kong these days.
One thing that was different was that there were very few westerners on the bus. Most were Asian and some online research later confirmed that the majority of non-Chinese tourists to Hong Kong these days are from South Korea, Japan, Philippines and Thailand.
The next day the reduction in westerners in Hong Kong was even more noticeable. On my previous trips to the city, the area around Central and Admiralty used to be buzzing with westerners – many employed by the financial institutions and international companies operating out of the high-rise office buildings in that area.
Sure, there were still some around, but very few compared to 15 years ago. It gave a completely different feel to the financial districts. And the absence of western tourists was particularly noticeable – it was only when we went up to the Peak did we see any significant number of western tourists.
After trying to change some money on the second day, I wondered whether it was really the travel warnings that were keeping western tourists away, or whether it was the high cost of visiting Hong Kong. I handed over some Australian dollars at a money exchange expecting to get something like HKD8 to AUD1, but I got a shock when I received only HKD4.2 – making things in Hong Kong almost twice as expensive as when I used to regularly visit.
Tourist numbers are still only half the 2018 arrivals figure.
Of course, that painful drop in spending power may be more due to the depreciation of the Australian dollar over those years than any price increases in Hong Kong, but for many nationalities Hong Kong is now an expensive destination with accommodation costing at least double what similar accommodation can be booked for in mainland China.
Likewise, meals and transportation is double what it costs in mainland China, and paying 35-40 Hong Kong dollars for a cup of coffee took some of the pleasure out of our visit (however, Hong Kong has really improved it’s coffee culture over the past 15 years, and the city has many excellent coffee shops now).
So what about the security situation? Did I feel that there was much difference to 15 years ago? Not really. Maybe a few more police on patrol and definitely more CCTV cameras around the city, but there was nothing that made me feel that visitors were being more closely monitored.
The MTR has far fewer security checks and onboard patrols compared to the subway systems in mainland China, and Hong Kong is still a very easy city to get around using Uber, local taxis, buses or the MRT.
Not a lot has changed on Hong Kong Island.
Aside from the security situation, has Hong Kong physically changed much over the past 15 years? Apart from the opening of the West Kowloon Cultural District on reclaimed land and the redevelopment of Tai Kwun (the former Central Police Station Compound) into a heritage and arts centre, there is not much new to see for visitors who have previously been to Hong Kong.
However, the West Kowloon Cultural District (known locally as ‘WestK’) may be a sufficient drawcard for those interested in Chinese culture and arts to return to Hong Kong. Whilst the massive Performing Arts Centre is still under construction (scheduled to be completed in 2026), there are two impressive museums and two theatre complexes already open.
The Hong Kong Palace Museum has both permanent exhibitions of Chinese arts and antiquities (including over 900 items from the Beijing Palace Museum) as well as special thematic exhibitions of art and treasures from other parts of the world. The other new museum is M+ which describes itself as “Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture”.
The two theatre complexes are Freespace and the Xiqu Centre. The newest complex, Freespace, presents contemporary multi-genre performances, and features a large black box theatre as well, whilst the Xiqu Centre has two theatres presenting productions of Cantonese opera.
An event at the Art Park in West Kowloon.
WestK’s Art Park – an open space between the Hong Kong Palace Museum and Freespace – is also a venue for outdoor events, open-air performances and other cultural activities. SmartBikes can be rented to explore the parklands and enjoy the harbour vistas from WestK’s extensive waterfront promenades,
For first-time visitors there is a lot to see and do in Hong Kong (if you can afford the high cost of accommodation), and for those interested in Chinese arts and culture, the exhibitions and events at WestK may provide good reasons for return visits.
Should the travel warnings by western governments deter people from visiting? Based on what I observed during my visit, I would say definitely no. In my opinion the warnings are overblown.
Certainly, if you’ve been involved in any democracy protests in the past or have posted content on social media critical of China, you have good reason to heed the travel warnings, but if you are an ordinary tourist with no anti-China sentiments, then you will find Hong Kong as safe and welcoming as it was before the crackdown.
These days you are far more likely to be arbitrarily detained travelling to the USA than you are to Hong Kong.
All images: © David Astley
