Central old-street walk: from Stone Slab Street to the Mid-Levels escalator

Central has two levels, and most visitors only see the upper one.

Central is one of Hong Kong's earliest developed districts and also its financial centre. These two things sit on top of each other in the same place, creating a peculiar structure: above ground are orderly malls, office towers and a network of footbridges; below ground and between the slopes is another world — narrow lanes, stone steps, old shops, herbal medicine stores, and old buildings that were never fully redeveloped. Most visitors come out of Central MTR station, walk via the footbridges into a mall, and take the footbridges back to the station when they're done, barely setting foot on a real street the whole time.

This article takes a different route: starting from the granite steps of Pottinger Street, heading uphill past Hollywood Road and Staunton Street, and finally taking the Mid-Levels escalator further up. The whole route is about 1.5 km and can be walked in two hours. There are plenty of slopes and stairs, so you'll need a comfortable pair of shoes.

Stop one: Pottinger Street, known as Stone Slab Street

Pottinger Street is the starting point of this route, and locals almost all call it Stone Slab Street. The street is paved with granite slabs of varying sizes and slopes upward the whole way. This design isn't decorative — the stone paving was meant to prevent slipping and aid drainage on rainy days, and it was a common practice for hillside streets in early Hong Kong. Today it has become one of the most photographed streets in Central, but its existence is practical: infrastructure left behind by the old city.

Both sides of the street are lined with small stalls and old shops, mostly selling everyday sundries, accessories and festive goods. Mornings are quieter, a good time to photograph empty scenes and look around slowly; it gets busier from afternoon into evening. Watch your step on the stone steps — the slabs are uneven, and they get slippier when it rains.

Turning onto Hollywood Road: a street where old and new sit side by side

Walking up from Stone Slab Street to Hollywood Road is the most comfortable stretch of this route. Hollywood Road is one of the streets that existed in Hong Kong's earliest colonial days, and several completely different things coexist along it: antique and furniture shops, temples, old-style barbershops, and the cafés and galleries that have appeared in recent years. There's no tidy planning — one shop sits right next to another, and it's exactly this mix that makes it worth walking.

You don't need to seek out anything in particular on this stretch. What's worth noticing is the shopfronts themselves: old shops have narrow doors, small signs, and goods piled up to the entrance — a density you won't find in a mall. If you have time, turn into the side streets on either side; the slope will tell you what the terrain here used to be like.

Staunton Street: a place to stop and sit for a while

Continuing south to the Staunton Street area, the pace slows down. Shops here are generally smaller, with a concentration of eateries and select shops — good for "stopping in along the way" rather than making a special trip. It's busy at lunchtime and relatively quiet on weekday afternoons.

From here, you can either keep walking up the slope or switch to the Mid-Levels escalator — the latter is less tiring and more distinctly Central.

The Mid-Levels escalator: a "road" that changes direction

The Central to Mid-Levels escalator system is one of the longest outdoor covered escalator systems in the world, about 800 metres long and connecting Central with the Mid-Levels. It's not just a passage but part of locals' commute — carrying people down to work in the morning and up home in the afternoon.

Here's an easy pitfall: the escalator's **direction of travel changes by time of day**. The downhill direction runs in the morning, and it switches to uphill from the afternoon. If you're going the opposite way, you can only take the stone steps alongside or wait for the next time slot. Check the direction sign before you set off — it'll save you a lot of effort.

Stand on the right when riding the escalator and leave the left for people in a hurry — this is a local convention, not a rule, but following it makes the whole route much smoother. Along the way you'll pass through old buildings and small lanes; this is the stretch of the route that feels most like "everyday life".

When to go, and how to get there

Timing: weekday mornings to 3 pm is the most comfortable window for this route — fewer people, good light, and most shops open. On weekends the crowds concentrate around the malls, while the old streets are actually quieter, though some old shops close. You can walk it in the rain, but Stone Slab Street gets slippery, so take the steps slowly.

Transport: Central station on the MTR Island Line and Tsuen Wan Line is the main entrance, with direct access from inside the station to street level; if you want to start from the Sheung Wan side, you can also walk over from Sheung Wan station. For the return trip, you can take the escalator down and walk back to Central station, or transfer to other transport in the Mid-Levels area.

How people who live here would walk it

When you tell friends about this route, the question you'll hear most is "why not go to a mall?". The answer: malls are another side of Hong Kong, but that side can be found in any international city; the look of slopes, stone steps, old shops and escalators layered together only appears in Central. Walk this in two hours and what you see isn't a tourist attraction but an old district that's still running.

If you want to bring something back after the walk, the select shops around Stone Slab Street and Hollywood Road usually make it easier to find local handmade goods and small items than malls do — which is also why many people pair "walking" with "bringing something home" on the same trip.