Hong Kong is a tiny city-state that is more well known for finance and business than history. But the fact is Hong Kong, as an urban settlement, has a history of over 150 years, while villages in its rural New Territories have been around for over 500! The Hong Kong Museum of History is a very decent place to find out about Hong Kong’s history, culture and people.
The museum features eight permanent galleries over two floors, ranging from prehistoric times to folk culture to the growth of Hong Kong into a bustling business hub to Japanese occupation during World War II.
The folk culture exhibit features the four main Chinese ethnic groups in Hong Kong – Cantonese, Hakka, Tanka boat dwelling people, and Hoklo. Other interesting exhibits are those on the Opium War, which is how the British obtained Hong Kong after defeating China’s Qing Dynasty, and three full-size replicas of the giant 60-feet bun towers used in the Cheung Chau Bun/Da Jiu festival, where people compete to scale bamboo towers filled with “buns.” However, nowadays, one single steel tower is used instead of three, while plastic buns are used instead of actual buns like in the past.
The museum features really good displays such as full-size and vivid replicas of boats, traditional shops, village houses and religious gods, as well as the aforementioned bun towers. It does not have a very large collection of artifacts but the interactive displays more than make up for that.
How to get there: Located in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon, the museum is on the southeastern corner of Chatham Road and Cheong Wan Road. The closest subway station is Jordan, on the Tsuen Wan MTR line. You can get out at Exit D, walk down Nathan Road, then turn left on Austin Road. Walk straight for 6-10 minutes until you reach the intersection with Chatham Road (Austin Road becomes Cheong Wan Road after this point).
Note: The museum is closed on Tuesdays (except if it is a public holiday) and the first two days of Chinese New Year.
A house boat of the Tanka people. They mostly do not live on boats anymore.
Lin Zexu, a Qing Dynasty viceroy in Guangdong renowned for confiscating and burning opium shipments, which soon led to the Opium War. 
World War II uniform, weapons and regalia of invading Japanese soldiers
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who negotiated the handover of Hong Kong from the UK to China
