Tai Kwun Hong Kong — Fat Chicken Meal

Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts located in Central is now a popular place to visit! We of course took the opportunity to catch the trend when we’re in Hong Kong for Chinese New Year! This restored former Central Police Station compound comprises of three declared monuments: the former Central Police Station, Central Magistracy and Victoria Prison.

Wondering what “Tai Kwun” means? I had the same question when I first heard of the name – it only meant “big center/museum” to me which doesn’t carry any specific meaning. So I checked on the Tai Kwun website. It says “The name ‘Tai Kwun’ in Chinese means 'big station', the colloquial name used by police officers and the public alike to refer to the former law enforcement complex.”. For more information on Tai Kwun, please visit its official website: https://www.taikwun.hk/en/.

We were mostly taking photos, but here's a short video of our tour at Tai Kwun.

Getting there is quite easy even with our princess’s private vehicle (stroller) 😊 We took train to the Hong Kong station (which is connected to the Central station), walked along the bridge until Hang Seng Bank Headquarters Building, and then just rode along the Mid-levels Escalators. You’ll know when you have reached there. It’s difficult to miss with the visitors taking photos, and the buildings also stand out from the surrounding ones.

Following the steps and a narrow entrance, a courtyard with buildings on both sides welcomed us. We first went to the building on the left. It has a Taschen outlet and Nils said he could stay there for the whole day…😅 With some persuasion, he bought a book so we could begin our tour at Tai Kwun haha!

We took some pictures at the courtyard and walked across to the other side. The bars and restaurants there looked quite cool. Would have tried it out if we had more time and if the princess wasn’t sleeping (if you’re a parent you’ll know that in general kids sleep better when the stroller is moving…).

Seeing people walking up the stairs…we frowned. Olivia is now over 12kg…plus the stroller it would be quite an exercise to climb the narrow staircase. But then…aha! Very glad to see the elevator! 😁 What a great invention.

Landed on the first floor and passed through some buildings, we reached the prison area...! I always have some anxiety when visiting former prisons...as I don't know if it's really for display, or a trap to lure us into it...Plus the entrance to this prison hall B is somehow at the back which you need to go through a quiet walkway to get there...Making it even more suspicious. Anyway, it's all in my head!

Next, we went up to another courtyard, and then ventured into the JC Contemporary centre. The current complimentary exhibition is Contagious Cities: Far Away, Too Close. It's until 21 April 2019 and the centre is open from 11am to 7pm (till 9pm on Fridays).

The staircase is artistic and thus very instagrammable 😄 After the exhibition, we went to the top floor where there's a restaurant and a reading corner. But do you know where the crowd is? Right, the spiral staircase. We waited for no less than 15 minutes to take a few "clean" shots. Please tell me it was worth the wait?

Olivia loves staircase so walking up and down the stairs and drinking Hokkaido 3.6 milk at the main courtyard were her highlights at Tai Kwun. Needless to say Taschen was the number one spot for Nils.

The easy access to most of the buildings and levels within the compound makes it a stroller-friendly place for families with babies or young children. Entry is complimentary, so it's a good option to spend a few hours there. We're thinking to go to Tai Kwun again when we visit Hong Kong next time, as we didn't explore the entire compound due to the packed schedule.