Visitor Information--The Hong Kong Tourist Board (HKTB) is an excellent source for tourist information. Before coming, check out their website at www.discoverhongkong.com.

Their office in the arrivals hall of the Hong Kong International Airport is open daily from 7am to 11pm.

In town, there are two HKTB offices located on both sides of the harbor ready to serve you. On the Kowloon side, there's a convenient office in Tsim Sha Tsui, right in the Star Ferry concourse, open daily from 8am to 6pm.

On Hong Kong Island, the larger, main HKTB office is located in the Central District at 99 Queen's Rd. Central, also open daily from 8am to 6pm. It's rather inconvenient, however--about a 10-minute walk west of the Star Ferry pier and Central MTR station.

If you have a question about Hong Kong, you can call the English-speaking HKTB Visitor Hotline (tel. 852/2508 1234), available daily from 8am to 6pm. After hours a telephone-answering device will take your call and a member of HKTB will contact you the next day at your hotel.

The HKTB publishes a large assortment of free, excellent literature about Hong Kong. Visitor's Kit is a booklet that gives a brief rundown of Hong Kong's major tourist attractions and how to reach them with public transportation. Be sure to get a free map of Hong Kong from HKTB, providing close-ups of Tsim Sha Tsui, the Central District, Wan Chai, and Causeway Bay. There are also brochures outlining various organized tours. In addition, invaluable leaflets are available showing the major bus routes throughout Hong Kong, including Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. If you plan to visit any of the outlying islands, be sure to get the current ferry schedules at HKTB as well.

To find out what's going on during your stay in Hong Kong, go to a tourist board office and pick up What's On--Hong Kong, a HKTB leaflet published weekly that tells what's happening in theater, music, and the arts, including concerts and special exhibitions in museums. HK Magazine, distributed free at restaurants, bars, and other outlets around town (and aimed at a young expat readership), is a weekly that lists what's going on at the city's theaters and other venues, including plays, concerts, exhibitions, the cinema, and events in Hong Kong's alternative scene. Where Hong Kong and bc are two other magazines published monthly with information on Hong Kong. Where Hong Kong is distributed to rooms in major hotels. bc is at bookstores. All of the above are free.