OK Hong Kong - everyone thinks shopping and highrise hotels and decadence...but you will need patience and tolerance to take in the true Hong Kong.

1 - Head out to Lamma for some walking hills and eating great seafood. You can either:

Take the ferry out to Yung Shue Wan walk 1-1.5hrs to Sok Kwu Wan with typical island life (this is where I lived, no roads etc) and eat at the Lamma Hilton (a rip off of the hotel's name, but has become very famous in it's own right)

Or do it the other way around and end up in Yung Shue Wan in the evening where the bars and restaurants are for the Gwailo (white ghost/expat) population. There are plenty of cheap and cheerful places from Thai, Japanese and Indian. Have a drink in the Deli where some of mine and Johnny's most sordid pasts have been played out)

2 - Take the tram from Kennedy town to North Point. It costs 15p and will take you through the opulent malls and downtrodden townblocks to crowds and markets and back again.

3 - take the Star Ferry from Hong Kong to Kowloon or vice-versa and take in the harbour and the impressive skyscrapers.

4 - Go round to Aberdeen on the South of Hong Kong island and take a sampan (small floating cradle of a boat) out to Lamma or just around the harbour. This is the fishing village/market where all the 'native' boat people live and again gives you an insight into the grotty everyday life that is full of colour that no one thinks of.

5 - Go for the ultimate Kitsch dinner at the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. A huge floating glowing hub of light bulbs and gold dragons rocking gently in Aberdeen's harbour.

6 - Go for a drink in Lang Kwai Fong. This is where everyone hangs out in the street to drink in the evening or you can head up to SoHo (South of Hollywood Road) which has an ever burgeoning restaurant and bar nightlife and is quite the place to be.

7 - Walk the lanes in Central and Wanchai. Just take in the signs and madness.

8 - Go into ChungKing Mansions, where the lowlife of the world come to live and die. If you can get past the Indian's offering to tailor you a suit (like you'll need one!!!) you'll find the towerblock littered with great cheap Indian food and beer. (Just don't look for the needles and cockroaches on the stairs!)

There's loads more, but this should give you colour and life that the general 'Tourist map' might not point out. (Although I worked for the tourist authority for years!) Depends what you are out for.

Not the lay of the land, but here's a few gems off the beaten path:

I lived and did research in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone just over the Chinese border from Hong Kong and my best friend lives in Tokyo, so I visited there a few times over the years...

In HK do go up the peak Tram to see the amazing view, and near its station check out the peaceful zoo with screaming gibbons - surreal in the midst of the urban density - both in 'Central' district

avoid spending too much time in Lan Kwai Fong (yuppie entertainment zone also in central) unless looking for a pick up...

instead go towards Wan Chai on the HK island side, or over to Kowloon to see more local urban culture. Also in Kowloon go to the Felix bar (designed by Philippe Starck) at the top of the Peninsula Hotel, it feels like being in a UFO hovering over Victoria harbour and offers an amazing view.

Get out of HK itself and take a tour of the New Territories to see a glimpse of Chinese rural culture, make sure you visit at leat one old clan hall to get a sense of the old China (these will be advertised in HK Tourist Association brochures).

take the MTR to the border at Lo Wu and go P. R. China (Shenzhen) at least for a day - everyone in HK will say "why do you want to go to Shenzhen" but do it anyway and you will learn more about globalisation and urbanisation in one day than from reading a hundred text books.

Shenzhen is an incredible boomtown - founded by Deng Xiaoping to be a showcase of economic reform - it was the first place market (capitalist) practices were allowed since the revolution and grew from 30,000 to 3 million in 15 years.

It has several bizarre and incredible theme parks: one showcasing traditional ethnic cultures - "China Folk Culture Villages" another showing all the sites of China in minature -"Splendid China", and a third showing the whole world's sites in minature " Windows on the World" (for Chinese who never go abroad?) all very post-modern and fascinating.

There is also a really tall Rodgers-esque building called the DiWang Tower, ethnic Chines food of every variety (try Chinese muslim food for example), and when I left in '96 micro-breweries and beer gardens were all the rage.

Go to JJ's disco in the centre of town and dance for all you're worth - you should enjoy being regarded as a foreign god.

warning: a good proportion of the women on the street and in restaurants and bars will be prostitutues or mistressess, so be careful. With economic liberalisation comes moral liberalisation too.

In Tokyo - go to all the wellknown places: Ginza for biz district, Shibuya and Harajuku for youth culture, see the love hotel district around kabuki-cho.

A really pleasant and one of the only tree-lined streets is Omote-Sando (also the tube stop) so peacuful urban oases are the Meiji-Jingu shrine and park and Basho's hut - one of Japan's most famous haiku poets.