Straddling the neck of Hong Kong’s most southerly peninsula, Stanley isa moderately attractive residential village, of which perhaps the main draw is the bustling covered market, the clutch of pubs and restaurants catering to expa- triates and colonial Murray House. However, the annual Dragon Boat Races on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar are Hong Kong’s largest and are great fun. Stanley’s a tiny place - walk downhill fi’om the bus stot) and you’ll soon find Stanley Market (selling a mish-mash of beaded and sequinned outfits, cheap clothing, bedlinen, prints and tourist souvenirs), while a little way to the north of here is Stanley Beach which, although not suit- able for swinnning, has a little row of great seafront restaurants. Ifyou contin- ue walking beyond the restaurants, you’ll come to another Tin Hau Temple, built in 1767, on the western side of the peninsula. Inside there is a large tiger skin, the renrains of an animal shot near here in 1942 - there could hardly be a more poignant symbol of how the area has changed. The temple is sur- rounded by Stanley Plaza, replete with shops, a village square and Murray House on the shoreline. One of Hong Kong’s oldest colonial buildings, this two-storey mansion was dismantled and removed from its original site in Central to make way for the Bank of China. Today, its colonnades house styl- ish stores, bars and restaurants, as well as a basement exhibition about its histo- ry. tn the opposite direction, south down the peninsula along Wong Ma Kok Road, it’s about a ten-minute walk to the fairly pleasant St Stephen’s Beach, accessible by steps down to the right immediately after a playing field. Beyond here is Stanley Military Cemetery, on Wong Ma Kok Road, containing the graves of many of those killed fighting the Japanese in World War ii, and also the top-security Stanley Prison. The southern part of the peninsula is a closed military zone. Stanley is accessible on buses #6 and #260 from Central, or #73 from Aberdeen or Repulse Bay.
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