My Recent Trip To Hong Kong

[shuuemura]

I thought I would share some photos of my recent vacation in Hong Kong which I enjoyed tremendously. Of course, as a pen aficionado, my trip wouldn't have been complete without some pen hunting, and it is the photos of the pen shops I visited in HK that I present below for your viewing pleasure.

 

First off, we visited Hop Cheong, famously described before as the world's "smallest but mightiest pen shop." Indeed, this shop occupies a tiny physical footprint, but the array of pens that are on display is amazing. There are no fancy displays, just pens lined up row after row from the floor all the way to the ceiling, sorted by brand. The two staff members, John and Addy, were extremely friendly and willing to show me all the pens I desired to look at. Sadly none caught my eye, so I moved on to the shop just across the road.

 

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Which was called Winner Pens Collection. This shop was more organized and had some pens which I had long desired to see in person but never had the chance, such as the Pilot Custom 845 (the top of the line fountain pen from Pilot besides their Namiki Maki-e series, but usually only sold in Japan), Parker Sonnets in Black or Red lacquer finish with 18K gold nibs, and the Waterman Exception Ideal Black pen. Having many Japanese pens, two Montblancs and two S.T. Dupont pens in my collection, I was eager to try out some new brands, and the Waterman Exception caught my attention. They allowed me to dip the nib and test it, and I liked it enough to buy it on the spot.

 

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The pen writes okay with the supplied Waterman Florida Blue cartridges (have never been a fan of Waterman Florida Blue), slightly hard-starting at times. After I got home and changed to Namiki Black the hard-starting problem went away and the pen writes like a dream now.

 

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Look at the beautiful 18K gold nib! If I'm not mistaken, Waterman is one of the few European pen companies still making their own nibs, which makes it an "in-house" manufacture similar to the terminology used for watch companies which make their own movements.

 

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The next day we randomly happened across a stationery store called Chung Nam Book Store (at http://www.chungnamhk.iyp.hk/index.html). Unfortunately I did not take any photos of the shop, but they had a great selection of pens including Montblanc, Pilot, S.T. Dupont, Waldmann, Parker and Sailor. They also had bottles of Hero ink, which was interesting to me as I had read a lot about the ink on this forum but had never seen it in person. However, they did not carry any Hero pens, and as I learnt later from the staff of another pen shop (Feng Yuan Co.), most fine pen shops in HK avoid carrying fountain pens of Chinese manufacture because they believe their quality to be suspect.

 

I also found another bookstore near my hotel in Yau Ma Tei called Kubrick. It is in the same building as Hong Kong's most popular art-house cinema (according to this CNN review http://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/shop/kubrick-425332) and they sold TWSBI fountain pens and J. Herbin ink, both at pretty reasonable prices. I didn't get any but was happy to see the TWSBI pens in person too.

 

The following day we visited Macau. Didn't see any pen shops there but I spotted an S.T. Dupont boutique at the Venetian casino. S.T. Dupont seems to be pretty popular in Hong Kong as well because I saw another boutique at the Landmark Mall later.

 

On my second-to-last day, I went to two pen shops in Tsim Sha Tsui, Chun Kee Stationery Co, Ltd, and Feng Yuan Co. Bought a 350 mL bottle of Pilot Blue-Black from Feng Yuan Co. That bottle should last me quite a while!

 

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I hope you guys have enjoyed reading my trip report. Below are the links I used to research the pen shops in Hong Kong. Hope they are of some use to members thinking of visiting Hong Kong!

 

http://kmpn.blogspot.sg/2009/03/pen-shops-in-hong-kong.html

http://houseofpens.blogspot.sg/2012/12/hong-kong-pen-shops.html

https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&source=embed&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=206187178221287229736.000475f1e7a7ef04c37e3

[MisterBoll]

Thanks. I felt like I was there - almost. I've always wanted to go to HK. I'm glad you found a wonderful pen that will remind you of this trip.

[RMN]

That's quite a display there, at the PenShop. And that's just the Winners......

 

Interesting to see. Thanks

 

D.ick

[pen2paper]

Congratulations on your new pen!

Thank you for sharing the pen related highlights of your trip.

[Simius]

Thanks for the travelog. It brought back many pleasant memories.

 

I've bought several pens from Hop Cheong. They have a great collection and good prices (considering their location). I've found John to be very knowledgeable. Similar experiences with Winner (which, IIRC, is a much newer store). The store in Yau Ma Tei has much more of a local flavor that I really liked.

[elysee]

Thank you VERY much for sharing your trip! The pictures were great!

 

How did your purchases fare during your travels home? Did you pack them as carry-on, in checked luggage, or ship/mail them to yourself?

[shuuemura]

Thank you VERY much for sharing your trip! The pictures were great!

 

How did your purchases fare during your travels home? Did you pack them as carry-on, in checked luggage, or ship/mail them to yourself?

 

Thank you for your kind words. I placed the pen and pen box in my carry-on. The 350 mL ink bottle went thrice-wrapped in plastic bags in my checked luggage. Both survived the trip back unscathed.

[Kit4pens]

Great place for good deals on pens.