- Hong Kong's most expensive neighborhood is the Peak.
- The Peak is a gorgeous, secluded neighborhood that overlooks Hong Kong and is home to bankers, expatriates, Hong Kong business magnates and celebrities, and Chinese millionaires and billionaires.
- Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is reported to have purchased a $191 million mansion in the neighborhood, but it has never been confirmed.
Every city has that neighborhood, an address that simply signifies wealth. New York City has Fifth Avenue, London has Kensington, and Miami has South Beach.
Hong Kong has the Peak — short for Victoria Peak — a neighborhood that has been synonymous with wealth, luxury, and exclusivity since the colonial era.
As the least affordable city in the world for eight years running, Hong Kong takes the cake when it comes to luxury real estate.
At various times over the last decade, Pollock’s Path, Barker Road, and Severn Road — all streets on The Peak — have each claimed the title of the world’s most expensive street.
The neighborhood is home to a mix of bankers, expatriates, Hong Kong business magnates and celebrities, and, more recently, Chinese millionaires and billionaires looking for a place to invest or vacation away from the mainland's polluted cities.
It's the kind of neighborhood where records are repeatedly broken for the most expensive real estate in the world. In 2015, it was rumored that Alibaba founder and Chinese billionaire Jack Ma purchased a $191 million mansion in the neighborhood, but the purchase has never been confirmed.
Last month, an unidentified buyer broke the record for the most expensive real estate in Asia, purchasing a 9,217-square-foot villa on the Peak for $178.4 million, making it $19,400 per square foot.
I recently visited the ritzy neighborhood to see why it continues to be one of the most coveted addresses in the world. It did not disappoint.
The Peak is the neighborhood surrounding Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island at 1,811 feet tall. I took a taxi to get to Victoria Peak Lookout, a major tourist destination in Hong Kong.
Most tourists ride the Peak Tram up. The Peak Galleria, a mega-mall (read: tourist trap), is built at the top of the tramway, complete with souvenirs and a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
The Peak has been the city's most exclusive neighborhood for more than 100 years. Until 1947, only the British and Europeans were allowed to live there, a policy that infuriated Hong Kong's Chinese citizens. Prior to the building of the tramway, residents were carried up on sedan chairs carried by migrant laborers.
Source: Frommers, CNN Travel
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