Hong Kong Space Museum
The only dome on Tsim Sha Tsui's waterfront is also Hong Kong's sole planetarium — and it once held the world's first computerized one.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Hong Kong offline.
Opened in 1980 with Carl Zeiss equipment that made it the world's first computerized planetarium, the museum got a HK$34 million digital overhaul in 2008. The new high-resolution dome system — found in only a handful of museums globally — can simulate stars, planets, and celestial objects from any point in the universe. The main building alongside the dome covers the Solar System, cosmology, and spaceflight.
What to look for
- The hemispherical exterior — the shape is the building's entire identity, and nothing else on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront looks like it
- The digital dome projection system, successor to the 1974 Carl Zeiss equipment that launched the world's first computerized planetarium
- Exhibits on the Solar System, cosmology, and spaceflight in the main facility next to the planetarium dome
Enter from Salisbury Road; the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower are directly adjacent, making this an easy cluster visit.
Hong Kong Space Museum is one of 34 sights worth the detour in Hong Kong, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Hong Kong pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Hong Kong
- International Commerce CentreAt 484 m, this is the only building in Hong Kong with more than 100 floors — and it had to be trimmed down so it wouldn't overtop the surrounding mountains.
- Bank of China TowerThe first skyscraper outside the United States to break 1,000 feet — its glass triangles cut the Central skyline unlike anything around it.
- Central PlazaA four-bar neon clock 374 metres above Wan Chai changes colour every 15 minutes, blinking at each quarter-hour change.
- Hong Kong DisneylandThe only Disneyland where a walkway was deliberately bent so good qi energy would not drain into the South China Sea.
- The CenterAfter dark, hundreds of neon bars scroll slowly through the full color spectrum from base to crown — a light show wired into the steel itself.
- Tsing Ma BridgeThe span that ended Lantau Island's water-only isolation — 1,377 metres of road and rail hung from two towers.