Best things to do in Kowloon City, whether it's 3pm or 3am

Kowloon City's small grid of streets is so hemmed in by main roads, it's a wonder this place maintains its vivacity against such a grim backdrop. Maybe it's the pavements wider than anywhere else in Hong Kong, maybe it's the heady ethnic mix, or maybe it's a lingering hint of anarchy and separateness from the old Walled City. Whatever the case, it makes the neighbourhood a real day-and-night affair that's good for food, history and shopping before dark, and for beer, karaoke and dancing after dark. We've decided to pull the full 12 hours tasting both sides of this sometimes forgotten area.

Afternoon coffee and culture

In an area that so often eschews style in favour of substance, it's interesting to find Pantry Bread & Pastries, a very modern coffee house on Hau Wong Road. The minimalist decor is stylish and the seating area spacious. They do a good line of elaborately decorated cakes, and we tried their Lego block-shaped raspberry mousse, which housed a light jam and sponge centre. It was a nice treat for HK$54, and put to rest the thinking that elaborate cakes lack flavour.

We popped next door to check out the newly opened - and very friendly - HighFive restaurant and art space. Opened last month by a Chinese-Canadian who grew up only a few blocks away, it's running a small exhibition of lively paintings by local artist Daryl Cheung until early July. More exhibitions will follow.

Relax in historic surroundings

To walk off that calorific mousse, we went for a stroll in Kowloon Walled City Park, on the site of the famous Walled City: a shanty town of dwellings and factories which was rendered essentially lawless by a quirk of Sino-British diplomacy. It was bulldozed in the 1990s, and replaced by the park, landscaped in homage to the Jiangmen style popular during the early Qing period. Among the waterfalls, ornate pavilions and the impressively loud cicadas, it's a super-serene spot for getting away from the cars and concrete of Kowloon. And the Lung Nam Pavilion is a particularly good spot for terrapin-spotting on a lazy afternoon. For those who want to learn more about the site's colourful past, the park has a small but informative exhibition (closed on Wednesdays) with stores, pictures and videos which convey a lot about what is surely one of the most curious subplots in Hong Kong's history.