Central Plaza: Wan Chai Travel Guide (4.0★)

A concrete tower on the Wan Chai waterfront

Central Plaza is mostly concrete, not steel. That is unusual for a skyscraper this tall. When it was finished in 1992 it was the tallest reinforced-concrete building in the world. It was also the tallest building in Asia for a few years, until towers in mainland China overtook it later in the decade.

It rises 374m to the tip of its mast over 78 floors. The floor plan is a triangle with the corners cut off, so the tower looks different from each side of the harbour. Gold-tinted and silver glass wraps the whole shaft. At the top sits a glass pyramid with a needle rising out of it, and that is the shape you pick out from Kowloon.

This is a working office tower first. On weekdays the lobby is full of lanyards and coffee cups. Treat it as a landmark you look at, walk around and sometimes go up in, not a visitor attraction with a ticket desk.

Reading the clock at the top

The crown is also a clock. Bands of coloured light around the top change in sequence through the evening, and the colour pattern tells you the time. The system shifts on a quarter-hour cycle, so if you watch for fifteen minutes you will see the bands change.

Decoding it takes a key, and most people standing on the promenade simply enjoy the colours. If you want to read it properly, look up the colour code before you go and time it against your phone. It is the building’s party trick, and very few towers anywhere do anything like it.

• Best vantage for the clock: across the water from Tsim Sha Tsui, where the whole crown is visible
• Best time: after dark, when the bands are brightest against the sky
• How long: 15 to 20 minutes lets you see at least one change

Walking in above the traffic

Most people arrive without ever touching a pavement. From Wan Chai MTR Station (Island Line), take Exit A5. Then follow the covered footbridges north over Gloucester Road and Harbour Road. The elevated walkway runs through neighbouring office towers and drops you at Central Plaza’s podium.

There are other ways in:

• Exhibition Centre Station (East Rail Line) is a short walk east along Harbour Road
• Wan Chai Ferry Pier has the Star Ferry to Tsim Sha Tsui, a few minutes’ walk from the tower’s harbour side
• Taxis can drop you at 18 Harbour Road; the podium entrance is set back from the street

The footbridges are signposted in English and Chinese. Follow the signs for Central Plaza, the Convention Centre or Harbour Road.

Where to stand for the whole thing

Close up, you can’t really see it. From the base, the tower fills your field of view and the crown disappears behind the podium. The classic view is from the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Kowloon, around the Avenue of Stars. From there Central Plaza stands out among the Wan Chai towers, with its mast and pyramid easy to spot.

Closer in, the Wan Chai waterfront promenade behind the Convention Centre gives you a steep upward angle across open ground. Golden Bauhinia Square, just north of the Convention Centre, adds the harbour in the foreground. The Star Ferry crossing from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui is a cheap, slow pan past the tower and the whole Island skyline.

Going up: the sky lobby question

Central Plaza has a high-level sky lobby around the 46th floor. For years it has been known as a place where visitors could look out over Victoria Harbour without a paid observation deck. Access for the public has changed over time, and ID or registration at ground-floor security may be needed.

Ask at the lobby reception desk before you count on it. If you do get up, remember it is still an office floor. Keep your voice down, stay in the public area and don’t point cameras at company reception desks. Weekday office hours are the likeliest time to find the lifts running for visitors, so a late-night visit is for the view from outside.

Around Harbour Road

The tower sits in Wan Chai North, a grid of reclaimed land full of institutions. It pairs easily with:

• Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the wing-roofed hall on the water, a few minutes north
• Golden Bauhinia Square, with its gilded bauhinia statue and a flag-raising ceremony each morning
• Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, both on Harbour Road to the west
• Old Wan Chai south of Hennessy Road, for tong lau walk-ups, street markets and the tram

An hour covers the tower and the waterfront. Add the Star Ferry and the Tsim Sha Tsui view and you have a relaxed evening.

Footbridges, Octopus cards and office manners

Hongkongers move through Wan Chai North on the footbridges, not at street level, and you should too. The bridges are covered, the crossings are long and the junctions below are built for traffic. Keep to the left-hand flow on busy walkways and step aside to check your map. Stopping in the middle of a bridge is how you get bumped at rush hour.

Pay for the MTR and Star Ferry with an Octopus card or a contactless bank card at the gates. Both are standard here, and fumbling for coins slows the queue. Fares are shown at the station gates and ferry turnstiles.

The building is open 24 hours, but its rhythm follows the working week. On weekdays the podium and lobby are quietest between 10pm and 11pm. That is also a good hour to watch the crown clock from the promenade. At weekends the whole area calms down, and it stays quiet from 7am to 11pm. That makes Saturday or Sunday the easy choice for lingering at the base and taking photos without the office crowds.