Bar Leone Named World’s Best Bar…

At an event in Hong Kong, sponsored by the Hong Kong Tourist Board, “The World’s 50 Best Bars” this week announced Hong Kong’s Bar Leone as the World’s Best Bar in 2025.

Bar Leone is certainly a good bar – sadly now to be drowned in people wanting to say they’ve ‘drunk in the World’s Best Bar’! – but is it the World’s Best? Sadly, The World’s 50 Best Bars website doesn’t list any criteria to support the award.

What constitutes ‘best’ is apparently left to the judgment of 800 “drinks experts”. Each voter casts eight votes based on their best bar experiences of the previous 18 months, with a maximum of five bars in their own country. The list is the result of a simple vote count – no totals are released. No breakdown of where the ‘experts’ are from or how many are based in each country/region.

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So congratulations to Bar Leone and the other bars on the list, but take the list with a large pinch of salt and get out and explore different bars to find those you enjoy.

Bar Leone
11-15 Bridges Street
Central
Hong Kong
Open: Tuesday-Sunday 17:00-late
No Reservations

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images: The World’s 50 Best Bars

Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races 2025

Under blue skies and bright sunshine, Victoria Harbour provided a stunning backdrop for the 2025 Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races. Fans packed the shoreline to watch local and international teams compete to be the best of the best.

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Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races
Date: 31 May 0-8 June, 2025
Venue: Central Harbourfront
Tickets: Free

images: HK Tourism Board

Cultural Beat Drone Show, 1 May 2025

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) launched a new seasonal thematic promotion Hong Kong Cultural Beat with a drone show over Victoria Harbour on 1 May.

Themed around Hong Kong’s cultural festivals—the Tin Hau Festival, the Tam Kung Festival, and the iconic Cheung Chau Bun Festival—the 12-minute show featured a fleet of 1,000 drones. And while beautiful, if we’re being honest, the drone show sadly paled in comparison to some recent ones seen north of the border.

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image: HK Tourism

Chinese New Year Night Parade 2025

The Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) annual Chinese New Year Night Parade lit up the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui to celebrate the first day of the Year of the Snake.

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The, Unfold a Year of Good Fortune, themed parade featured nine floats and 46 performing groups representing 14 countries: including K-pop girl band, Kep1er, and Thai boyband, LYKN.

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Find out more events to celebrate the start of the Year of the Snake at the HKTB Guide to Chinese New Year in Hong Kong website.

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International Chinese New Year Night Parade 2025
Date: 8pm, 29 January, 2025
Venue: Tsim Sha Tsui
Tickets: Free

Hong Kong Halloween

Halloween starts early this year with a 3D light show projected onto the domed roof of the Hong Kong Space Museum on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront. The show runs from 20:15-22:30 daily until 31 October.

Characters include a hungry pumpkin enjoying local delicacies, a funky ghost DJ playing music through the 1night, a friendly pineapple bun inviting passers-by to pose for selfies, a romantic galactic spirit exploring Hong Kong on an iconic tram, and a party-loving bat toasting the Halloween season.

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Also look out for the Halloween tram…

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Halloween 3D Celestial Projection Show
Date: 18-31 October, 2024
Venue: Hong Kong Space Museum
Tickets: Free

image: HK Tourism

Galloping Horses in the Sky

The evening sky over Victoria Harbour became a canvas as 1,500 drones paid tribute to Chinese painter Xu Beihong recreating his paintings as Galloping Horses in the Sky.

Organised by the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) the cover image is Xu’s most renowned work, “Galloping Horses”. It shows six horses charging forward in unison with unstoppable momentum.

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Xu’s Galloping Horse created in 1942, the magnificent stallion embodies boundless power.

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Based on Xu’s 1934 work “Vigorous with New Life”, the roaring lion leaps in hope, reflecting HongKongers “Lion Rock Spirit”.

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Xu’s “Chinese Redbud”, an illuminated bauhinia blossom signifies Hong Kong’s vibrant and colourful nature.

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Galloping Horses in the Sky – National Day Drone Show
Date:
 8pm, 28 September, 2024
Venue: Victoria Harbour
Tickets: Free

image: HK Tourism

Tai Hang Fire Dragon Festival 2024

On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, the streets of Tai Hang resonate with the vibrant sounds of gongs and drums. And the intense smell of incense heralds the arrival of the century-old fire dragon as it dances for good fortune.

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The Tai Hang Fire Dragon Dance is staged for three consecutive nights (16 to 18 September) on the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival to bring good fortune to the neighbourhood and its residents.

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The 220-foot dragon is handcrafted each year by the Tai Hang Residents’ Welfare Association, a process that takes around two months. The head and tail sections are constructed of rattan, and the body of thick rope with the dragon’s body then wrapped in chamber bitter leaves.

The dragon’s body is pierced with incense sticks ahead of the consecration ceremony which takes place the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival, at the  Lin Fa Kung Temple. After the dragon’s eyes are painted on, the fire dragon is alive.

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This year the traditional joss sticks have been replaced with 10,000 LED
bulbs and the route extended so more people can enjoy the dance up-close.

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images: HK Tourism

Tuen Ng Festival Drone Show

A festive Dragon Boat drone show organised by Hong Kong Tourism Board to celebrate the Tuen Ng festival attracted the crowds to the harbourfront last night.

A fleet of 1,000 illuminated drones used the sky as their canvas and painted drums, dragon boat races, and other topical images, showcasing Hong Kong’s traditions.

There’s another drone show on Saturday 15 June, the first day of the Hong Kong International Dragon Boat Races.

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Tuen Ng Festival Drone Show
Date:
8pm, 10 June, 2024
Venue: Victoria Harbour
Tickets: Free

image: HK Tourism