Things To Do
The Best Things to Do in Hong Kong This Week
By Edison — HK Expat Editor · Week of May 26–June 1, 2026 · Updated weekly
The last week of May is, if you know where to look, one of Hong Kong's better cultural moments. The Art Basel adrenaline has worn off; the Rugby Sevens is a memory; the full humidity of summer hasn't yet descended with its usual comprehensiveness. What you're left with is a city in a genuinely pleasant holding pattern — the French May arts festival in its final stretch, a remarkable Korean contemporary art retrospective at M+, a comic convention with genuinely interesting guests, and more new restaurant options than a reasonable person can process in a week. This is the week's best 11 picks.
Three days of comics, anime, TV and pop culture at the HKCEC. This year's celebrity guest list is genuinely strong: Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), Katie Leung (Harry Potter), Mads Mikkelsen (too many great things to list), Giancarlo Esposito, and Christopher Lloyd. Panel talks, live Q&As, cosplay showcases, and meet-and-greets. Even if the cosplay competition is the only thing you attend, it's worth an afternoon.
Cheung Chau's extraordinary annual festival — vegetarian food, lion dances, elaborate floats with children appearing to float in mid-air, towering bun pagodas, and the midnight Bun Scrambling Competition. This is one of Hong Kong's most remarkable annual events and it has UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage recognition. Go for the parade day. Stay for the vegetarian food stalls. Take the last ferry back and accept that you'll be standing the whole journey.
A comprehensive retrospective of Korean contemporary artist Lee Bul — over 200 pieces spanning from the late 1990s to the present, presented jointly by M+ and Seoul's Leeum Museum of Art. Lee Bul's work (giant cyborg sculptures, immersive karaoke booths, crumpled silver utopias) is some of the most formally ambitious and intellectually rigorous in contemporary Asian art. This is the show of the year at M+. Do not miss it.
The French May Arts Festival enters its final stretch with the highlight events still to come: DJ Snake at the Sino-French Electronic Music Show, the immersive "Meet Mona Lisa & Portraying the Renaissance" exhibition, and the French GourMay culinary programme focused on the Savoie region. If you haven't engaged with French May yet this year, this week is the time. The citywide programme spans visual art, film, food, music, and performance.
The Affordable Art Fair returns to Hong Kong with 90+ local and international galleries presenting works under HKD 100,000 — genuinely accessible price points compared to the Art Basel circuit. This is where first-time collectors buy their first piece and where experienced collectors find works that didn't fit the major fairs. Friendly, unpretentious, and surprisingly fun. Worth going specifically to have a conversation with a gallerist about a piece you wouldn't buy — education is free.
"From Memory to Horizon: The Visual Language of Hong Kong Tourism" — spanning seven decades of how Hong Kong branded itself to the world, from the post-war period through Handover and into the present. For anyone with a genuine interest in Hong Kong's visual history, this is a quietly extraordinary show. Free admission until July 6, 2026. The combination of archival posters, promotional films, and contemporary commentary is better than you'd expect from a tourism-adjacent premise.
French GourMay focuses on the French Alps — specifically Savoie — with gourmet stalls, live cooking demonstrations, and curated wine tastings from the region. Savoyard cuisine (raclette, tartiflette, lake fish, alpine charcuterie) is one of France's most underrepresented regional traditions outside France, and the participating restaurants and pop-ups this month are making a genuine case for it. The wine tastings focusing on Savoie's distinctive whites are particularly good.
The Happy Valley racing season is approaching its close — catch the remaining Wednesday night meetings while you can. Night racing at Happy Valley, surrounded by the lit apartment towers of the valley, is one of Hong Kong's most specifically Hong Kong experiences. Go for the atmosphere as much as the horses. The food is better than racecourse food has any right to be. See our full Happy Valley Horse Racing guide for everything you need to know.
The late-May weather window — before the full June humidity — is one of the year's best for a self-guided street art walk through Sheung Wan's lane network. The murals around Pound Lane, Aberdeen Street, and the PMQ precinct are regularly updated; there is almost certainly something new since you last walked through. Morning is best: the light is right, the tourists haven't arrived, and the local shopkeepers are just opening. See our complete Hong Kong street art walking guide.
This week's recommendation: take the MTR to North Point or Quarry Bay and walk into any traditional dim sum restaurant that looks full of locals. This is a weekly ritual for a significant portion of Hong Kong's population and participating in it correctly — by arriving before 10am, sharing a table, ordering the trolley items, and drinking strong tea — gives you more cultural context for the city than almost any museum. See our guide to Best Dim Sum in Hong Kong 2026 for specific addresses.
The Friday before June is the last properly comfortable outdoor evening before the humidity becomes a dominant consideration. The rooftop bars and elevated terraces of Wan Chai and the neighbouring streets are where Hong Kong's after-work scene lives on Friday evenings — drinks with harbour views, the city's particular end-of-week energy, and the comfortable feeling that summer is close but not yet here. Start at the area around Star Street or the WAN building; follow the crowd. For the full Wan Chai bar circuit, see our guide to hidden bars in Hong Kong.
See our guide to Hong Kong Summer 2026 Events for what's coming up across June–September. For ongoing dining picks: Best Dim Sum and Best Cha Chaan Teng.