I nor Grobbler are particularly cultured but the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts is actually rather good and definitely worth a visit if you’re either visiting or living in Hong Kong and looking for things to do.
We’ve been to Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts a couple of times now and whilst not being an absolute must-do in Hong Kong, if you’re in Central, it’s definitely worth checking out. Probably better suited to adults, but you can still bring the kids along and if you get them interested in some of the art there, and let them run around the prison and explain about that, they’ll have a good time.
To go, you need the Tai Kwun Pass, which can be got online at the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts website for free. Only a certain number of passes are available and a limited amount of walk-in visitors are allowed. Get the pass to be sure, and just pick the hour in which you you want to visit. Note you can stay for as long as you want, the Tai Kwun pass time is just the time you should enter. Not sure what happens if you’re late, but an hour window should be fine for most people.
To reach Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, head up the Mid Levels Escalators and you’ll see the entrance at the top of the second escalator. There’s entrances on other streets but in Hong Kong’s summer heat, you don’t want to be walking up to it or you’ll be drenched in sweat before you arrive.
There’s guided tours of Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts in both English and Cantonese, but you need to register for those (again, do that on the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts website). Best way is just to have a look around yourself. We headed straight to the old prison cells, where you’ll most likely find a bunch of dickheads taking selfies and photos inside the cells. When you get through these buildings, head to the Prison Yard where you can get some good photos of the architecture.
Then head to Tai Kwun Contemporary where the current (up until 19 August, 2-18) exhibit is Dismantling the Scaffold. This quite interesting, nice small spiral staircase and some interesting exhibits and art pieces including a few that the kids will probably find interesting. One room you can get your height measured and your name on the wall and some other areas are also suitable for kids.
You can probably spend an hour or so in here, then head down to 100 faces of Tai Kwun located in the Duplex Studio Block 001 in the main parade ground. This is ending in a week or so so probably not much point in describing this. There’s a few cafes, gift shop and tea shop and a book shop, which has some excellent artsy books and a few to keep the kids amused for a few minutes including the Little Book of Big Penises, the Little Book of Butts and so on.
Because they limit the amount of people that go in to Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts, it doesn’t get too busy, although I’ve only been weekdays first thing in the morning at 11.a, which is when the Tai Kwun Contemporary and other exhibits open. (You can go in early and hang out in the parade ground or prison yard).
Overall, even if you’re into the arts, I think you’ll enjoy Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts. It’s be lovely on a nice day, and even though both days we went were crap and raining, we had a good time. You can probably spend an hour or two with kids, and probably longer without them.
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