Hong Kong is a place that will surely quicken your pulse. Just imagine being surrounded by skyscrapers, luxurious shops, five-star hotels and locals rushing everywhere. It's a city of business full of dynamism where you can feel posh for a while. Moreover,

if you are a travel foodie, Hong Kong will warmly welcome you with delicious dim sum, smoked pork and bubble tea.

Let's say you are just passing by Hong Kong to pick up your Chinese visa or it is an one day stop on your way to Macau. You still want to discover what Hong Kong has to offer, but you don't have enough time to do so. The good news is that you can do it in just 24 hours without missing anything important. Here is how:

Although Hong Kong is not perceived as a budget-friendly city, you can still enjoy it on the cheap. In terms of accommodation, there is one destination every budget traveller should consider as the first point of call – Chungking Mansions in Kowloon.

This is a huge building divided into 5 blocks where all small hostels are placed. There are plenty of small hostels and travel agencies located on each floor, so you can head it there straight, find a room and bargain hard to get it for less than HK$100, leave your stuff and get yourself for a nice walk.

Note: Chunking Mansions is located at 36-44 Nathan Road. Nearby MTR station: Tsim Sha Tsui, a perfect place to start the search for a good deal on cheap hotel or hostel. Many owners will approach you to offer accommodation.

If you need to stay overnight and prefer to book a hotel in advance, I highly recommend Agoda. They have some of the cheapest rooms in Hong Kong.

Another good budget option is Airbnb! Live like a local and rent a room or apartment from a local! Here are $30 travel credits for your first Airbnb booking!

Dim sum (點心) literally meaning "touch the heart”. There are are small, bite-sized portions of food that are often served in traditional bamboo steamer baskets. The food can be cooked, steamed, fried, baked with shrimp, chicken with pine nuts, spinach and mushrooms or vegetables and rice noodles. Some dishes contain broccoli, fried eggplant, bamboo shoots topped with sticky sauce. It's a traditional breakfast, lunch and dinner dish you can share with others.

Place Recommendation: I strongly recommend to visit the restaurant called Dim Sum Square (聚點坊), located at 88 Jervois St, Sheung Wan in Hong Kong. It is a very small but cozy place where you can get a great variety of dim sum dishes, freshly prepared in a few minutes. You can get a great variety of different food, from baked shrimp, grilled pork to vegetables buns.

Once you find the place to dine out, spend an hour to fully appreciate the taste and aroma of traditional Hong Kongese cuisine before you head for your first sightseeing adventure.

Kowloon park is a great place to have a seat, read a book and have a walk after your meal. Because the weather is usually pleasant in Hong Kong, visitors and locals alike love to congregate at Kowloon Park's outdoor facilities, so you can try to do the same!

The Hong Kong Space Museum is a museum of astronomy and space science in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. It's a great place to explore for 1 hours or so and get familiar with the astronomy.

Admission to Exhibition Halls costs only HK$10 and you can explores the human journey into space, with exhibits on ancient astronomical history, science fiction, early rockets, manned space flights, and future space programs!

If you are not a big fan of that, try local art gallery.

Once you get to Lantau Island, you can see Tian Tan Buddha which is considered to be the biggest seated Buddha in the world. Moreover, it’s one of the five largest Buddha statues in China, it’s 34 metres tall, weighs 250 tons and it’s made of bronze. That's impressive you must admit that!

There are also some Buddhist temples in the island so you can explore them as well. There are several ways to get there:

One is to take a subway to the Central station where the fast ferry station is located. It usually takes about 30 minutes by fast ferry to get to Lantau Island (costs HK$ 29) or 1 hour by slow ferry (costs HK$14). When you get off the ferry, take the New Lantau Bus No. 23 to Ngong Ping (approximately 40 minutes) and you are already there!

Another great option is to take the cable car from Tung Chung MTR station to Lantau Island. Not for the faint-hearted, but the view is absolutely breathtaking!

Stanley Beach, located at Hong Kong island, is one of the less crowded beaches in Hong Kong. It's quiet there so you can take some food with you and have a nice picnic followed by swimming in the sea and sunbathing. If you prefer, you can do some hiking there before you decide to get lazy on the beach.

The International Finance Centre building offers a great view of the harbour and surrounding it buildings. The access to Hong Kong Monetary Authority Information Centre on the 55th floor is open to the public for free. Although this skyscraper has 88 floors (lucky number for Chinese) the view from 55th floor is impressive!

The view of Hong Kong city seen from the ferry is magnificent. You can see neon lights everywhere and you are are lucky enough you can see the light show which is just spectacular. The ferry cruise costs only HK$ 3.40 (weekend fee, HK$ 2.50) one way and it is definitely worth it to enjoy the lovely scenery during the daytime as well as at night.

As you can see impossible is nothing. Get up early, don’t waste your time, grab a map of the city with a small subway map and get yourself into a real experience of Hong Kong!

You have more than 24 hours in Hong Kong? Even better! Go check out Tripadvisor for a detailed list of all top sights, things to do and fun activities in Hong Kong! And if you need help in finding great hotels in Hong Kong, check out Agoda, their prices are unbeatable! Happy travels!

If you have anything to add, please share your Hong Kong experience in the comments below.

Thanks to Agness Walewinder for contributing this article. Agness a Polish traveler and blogger, living and traveling in China since 2011. She is well known for traveling the world for less than $25 per day and she shares her tricks and tips with the readers of her blog called eTramping.com.

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