Most Government offices will start service to public from 09:00 to 17:00 on Weekdays, for private business companies, usually they will start from 08:30 and work until 18:00. Department Stores and Shopping Malls will open daily from 10:00-22:00.

The banking hours are normally from 09:00 to 16:30 on Weekdays and 09:00 to 12:00 on Saturday. Some branches in the tourist and commercial areas will open until 18:00 on Weekdays and 15:00 on Saturday.

Most offices will close on Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Public Holidays.

Time:

There is no limitation on the amount of foreign currency or Hong Kong money that you may bringing in or out of Hong Kong.

Hong Kong road signs conform to the International protocol on Road Signs. The normal driving speed is 50Km/h in urban area, while the road signs is in White characters with Blue background. Highways speed are from 70Km/h to 110Km/h, and the signs is in White characters with Green background. Pedestrains are not allowed to walk along the Highways.

Communications system is excellent here. Hong Kong, most probably is the cheapest country for local telephone calls. We paid at a fixed monthly charges regardless of how many calls we have made. But when you make a call in a hotel's room, be prepared they will have extra service charges. There are lot of public telephone booth at the street corners or in front of a shop. After you dropped in HK$1 then you can freely to make a local call for 5 minutes. If you want to talk longer, make sure you keep on drop in the coins for every 5 minutes (a warning tone will beep 20 seconds before). It accepted $1, $2, $5 and $10 coins, but without changes. If you want to make an International Calls, better to buy a Phonecard from HK Telecom shops or the 24-hours grocery shop "7-Eleven", so that you don't have to keep a stack of coins in front of you. Or if you have credits cards, you can simply to use a credit card to make your calls.

It is not necessary to put an area codes before the numbers. All the Business and Domestic numbers will start at "2" or "3", Mobile at "6" or "9", Pager at "7", "1" is usually for some special service, like telephone companies, or the customer service operators for some companies.

No need to insert coins for EMERGENCY CALLS or for telephone enquiry or telephone operators assistant.

Postage is also convenient here. You can buy stamps either at the Post Office or at "7-Eleven".

Postage Rates for Inland letters and postcards not exceed 30g are only $1.4 and $2.2 for not exceed 50g. Usually it only take a day to reach the other side. Letters (not exceed 20g) to Mainland China, Macau & Taiwan are $1.8, within Southeast Asia countries (Zone 1) $2.4, and other than SEA countries (Zone 2) $3.0. Additional charges $13.0 for Registration and $6.0 for Express service. The Post Office is also provide door pickup Speedpost Service, please call 2921-2288 for details about their service and charges.

If you are a non-Hong Kong resident (not holding a HK ID Card) who seeking for medical treatment at Public Hospitals, a different charges rates will applied. The charges is included everything (Room Charges, Doctor's Visit, Dressing, Medicine, X-Ray etc). For Private Hospitals, the charges rates is different from hospitals to hospitals. And the charges for Bed, Operation Theatre, Dressing are seperated. Usually they will requested the deposit money before you admitted to the hospitals unless for Emergency. Better to check with them first. The followings are the charges rates for all Public Hospitals in HK Dollars:

Queen Mary Hospital*
 102 Pokfulam Road, Pokfulam