The airport express train takes less than 25 minutes to the city centre, so with hours before your next flight there is time for a flying visit to cafes and sights – and maybe even some shopping

Hong Kong is the perfect stopover city. It’s small and densely packed, with everything from frantic street life to sky-high rooftop bars all packed into a postage stamp of an island. The Airport Express train takes just 24 minutes to zip from Chek Lap Kok airport to the heart of it all – meaning that you can really make the most of a day in the city.

Dim Sum and shopping

Start off by indulging in Hong Kong’s twin passions: eating and shopping. You can get dim sum anywhere in the world these days, but a trip to Lin Heung Tea House (162 Wellington Street, Central) is the real deal, with grumpy servers pushing around trolleys laden with steaming buns and dumplings, and tables shared with six other diners intent on the latest racing news. Be prepared to do as the locals do and fight your way to the trolleys, because the best food is all well contested. The ever-present threat of property development in the city means that this age-old restaurant’s days may be numbered. Thankfully, there’s always semi-sister restaurant Lin Heung Kui (46-50 Des Voeux Road West, Sheung Wan), about a 15-minute walk away.

Walk off that jasmine tea high at the nearby PMQ (35 Aberdeen Street, Central). The former Police Married Quarters was recently transformed into a culture and arts hub, with shops selling quirky made-in-Hong-Kong clothes, jewellery and leather goods. Keep an eye out for Goods of Desire, Kapok and Loom Loop.

Welcome to Hollywood

Hollywood Road is packed with galleries and antiques shops, a fast-disappearing slice of old Hong Kong that sits shoulder-to-shoulder with hipster cafes and clothing stores. Stop at Grana (108 Hollywood Road): this Hong Kong startup’s affordable, trendy and high-quality basics have made waves in the fashion industry. Best of all for the stopover tourist, all clothes have to be ordered online for international delivery – so you won’t be laden down for the rest of the day.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest With an abundance of cafes, bars and tea restaurants, you won’t need to go far to find a quick meal in Hong Kong.

Wander into the Man Mo Temple (124-126 Hollywood Road), which confusingly worships the gods of both literature and war. The main courtyard features layer upon layer of incense coils with prayers dangling beneath – as the smoke rises, so too do the hopes of each devotee. If you’re in need of tchotchkes and souvenirs, head to Upper Lascar Row, better known as Cat Street: a short strip stuffed with everything from jade pendants to Chairman Mao watches. For classier souvenirs, 15 Squarestreet (15 Square Street, Sheung Wan) stocks cutting-edge Scandinavian-cool timepieces and kicks.

Cut and dried

At the end of Hollywood Road, Central district gives way to the more residential Sheung Wan. Explore the dried seafood market clustered around Des Veoux Road West, Wing Lok and Ko Shing Streets. The countless stalls of this area are home to an array of unusual smells, tastes and textures, including the “four treasures” of dried seafood: abalone, sea cucumber, fish maw (that’s swim bladder) … and the much more controversial shark’s fin. Alongside these expensive (and largely tasteless) ingredients, far more accessible fare is sold: dried scallops, shrimps, and pork sausages that lend a hit of flavour to the most humble bowl of rice.

Your friendly neighbourhood calorie bomb

Grab an afternoon snack at Hoi On Cafe (17 Connaught Road, Sheung Wan), one of the city’s hundreds of cha chaan tengs, or “tea restaurants”. These low-key eateries sprang up in the 1950s to shovel nutrition into the city’s exploding number of factory workers, and they’re still an essential part of the Hong Kong day. Keep your flagging energy levels up with an HK-style French toast: two slices of white bread with peanut butter in the middle, dipped in egg and deep fried – and then served with a huge pat of butter and a drizzle of golden syrup. Wash it down with an HK-style milk tea, served unreasonably strong and sweet.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Victoria Peak offers stunning views of Hong Kong’s sea of skyscrapers. Photograph: Iakov Kalinin/Getty Images

The high life

You can’t leave Hong Kong without having seen it from Victoria Peak. The island’s highest point offers a stunning view of a densely packed sea of skyscrapers. The Peak Tram trundles up the mountain at a gradient of some 27 degrees, but the queues can be punishing. As you’re pressed for time, hop in a taxi on the way up and get the tram back down – the queue is shorter. If you time your ascent right, you’ll arrive at the Peak just in time to see the day turn into night, and the lights sparkle on in this vertiginous city.

Into the night

‘After dinner, Hong Kong’s nightlife awaits. The city has no shortage of bars.’ Photograph: Getty Images

For dinner, pull up a stool at Sing Kee (9-10 Stanley Street, Central) one of the city’s few remaining dai pai dongs – open-air restaurants that have increasingly been forced indoors over time. This is classic Hong Kong food, stir-fried at searingly hot temperatures so that the wok hei – the “breath of the wok” – imparts a rich charred note to each dish.

After dinner, Hong Kong’s nightlife awaits. The city has no shortage of bars – one worth checking out is Sevva (25/F, Prince’s Building, 10 Chater Road, Central) , whose terrace offers a beautiful and unusual view of the city, with the harbour stretching out beyond a mix of gleaming architecture and some of the city’s final remaining colonial buildings.

If there’s still some energy left in the tank, then the 90-odd bars of the Lan Kwai Fong nightlife district stay open ’til the early hours, and you’re guaranteed to find a drinking companion or six. The only thing you have to remember? The time of your flight.