Stanley

Stanley sits at the southern tip of Hong Kong Island, facing the South China Sea. It is quieter than the city across the hills, its pace deliberately slower, and on a clear day it is simply beautiful — a bay backed by green headlands, with the old colonial buildings of the waterfront and the busy market lanes behind them. It makes a very good half-day excursion.

A Little Background

Stanley was one of the first areas settled by the British after they took Hong Kong in 1841, chosen for its sheltered bay and strategic position. Before that it was home to the Tanka people, fisher-folk who have been on these waters for centuries, and to a community centred on the Tin Hau Temple, which dates to 1767 and still stands in the market area. During the Second World War, the area’s civilian population and prisoners of war were interned at Stanley Camp in conditions that were brutal and prolonged.

The most striking building on the waterfront is Murray House — a three-storey Victorian colonial structure originally built in 1846 in Central Hong Kong. When its Central site was redeveloped, the building was painstakingly dismantled stone by stone, every block numbered, stored, and eventually re-erected here in Stanley over a process that took twenty years (1982–2002). It now houses several restaurants and looks entirely at home. The story of Murray House — and the broader colonial architectural heritage of Hong Kong — is part of our History, Heritage & Museums guide.

What You'll Enjoy

The Stanley Market is the main draw for most visitors — a covered warren of lanes selling silks, linens, clothing, souvenirs, and trinkets at negotiable prices. It is tourist-oriented and cheerfully so, but the quality of goods is generally decent and the atmosphere lively. For full market details, including opening times and what to look for see our Hong Kong Street Markets guide.

The Tin Hau Temple is worth a visit — incense, offerings, and the particular unhurried devotion of a working temple rather than a tourist exhibit. One of the oldest on Hong Kong Island, it has been in continuous use since 1767.

The waterfront is excellent for a walk or a meal — restaurants and cafés line the promenade facing the bay, and the views across to the outlying islands are hard to improve on.

St Stephen’s Beach, a little further along the headland, is one of the more pleasant stretches of sand close to the city. More on Stanley Beach and nearby swimming options are covered in our Hong Kong Beaches guide.

Getting There

The most scenic route from Central is by bus over the hills — the journey is half the pleasure. Bus 6 from Exchange Square (near Hong Kong Station) takes around 75 minutes and follows a winding mountain road with vertiginous views across the south side of the island. Bus 6X covers the same route faster (around 45 minutes) with fewer stops. Both run every 20–30 minutes, roughly 7am to 8:45pm, and cost around HK$10–14. Get off at Stanley Village — not one of the other Stanley stops. For more information about local transport, see our guide to Getting Around Hong Kong

Cost and Hours

The market and streets are free to enter and open daily, typically from around 10am to 6pm, though some stalls keep longer hours. Murray House restaurants keep their own hours. The Tin Hau Temple is open to visitors throughout the day.

Stanley features as a Day 3 afternoon option in one of our Hong Kong itineraries – combining well with a morning in Sheung Wan and a ferry to Lamma Island for lunch.

Pause and Notice

Stanley undoes your idea of Hong Kong within minutes. The bus crests the hills and sets you down in a seaside village — low buildings, open sky, the bay bright, the air suddenly salt and clean — and the body relaxes into a register the city never allows: unhurried, holiday-loose, the day pleasantly without urgency. You browse the tidy market lanes, eat at a table looking out over the water, and time goes soft. And yet the place is quietly double. A short walk away the war cemetery keeps its impeccable rows; the ground you are idling on once held an internment camp, hunger, loss. The colonial house on the front was carried here brick by brick from somewhere else. None of it disturbs the calm — that is the strange thing — but it deepens it. To sit in the sun here is to feel, faintly, how much gentleness has been laid over how much that was not gentle at all.

Explore further

Janice Y K Lee, 2009, The Piano Teacher – Novel concerning wartime HK and the Japanese occupation, including Stanley internment.

Geoffrey C. Emerson 2008, Hong Kong Internment, 1942-1945: Life in the Japanese Civilian Camp at Stanley. HKU Press.

Barbara Anslow, 2018, Tin Hats & Rice,. Memoir / diary of internment, including Stanley. In Print.

Sir Chaloner Alabaster (ed. Banham et al.) 2022, More than 1001 Days and Nights of Hong Kong Internment. Wartime Journal of Stanley Internment. In Print.