Public Libraries Across Hong Kong: Unbeatable Convenience
Every district across Hong Kong has a public library, including the main outlying islands with established local communities and villages such as Cheung Chau, Lamma Island, and Peng Chau. On Lamma Island, as soon as you step off the ferry at Yung Shue Wan, you can see a tall public library building just behind the leaves of a banyan tree—that is the North Point Library. Near the other end of the island, around Sok Kwu Wan, there is another public library. For more remote island communities with smaller populations where a permanent library is not feasible—such as Yat Tung Estate on Tung Chung, Discovery Bay, Pui O, Shui Hau, and Tong Fuk—mobile library vans make regular stops to meet local residents’ reading needs.
North Lama Public Library & Heritage and Cultural Showroom
Hong Kong’s public library system is organized into eight tiers: the Central Library, major libraries, district libraries, small libraries, mobile library vans, self-service library kiosks, book drop boxes, and community libraries. The first seven tiers are all directly managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD). Across the city, there are currently 71 public libraries: one Central Library, six major libraries, 32 district libraries distributed across various neighborhoods (including the Yau Ma Tei Library, which I often visit), and 32 small libraries located within municipal buildings, public housing estates, and shopping malls in densely populated areas that do not yet have a full district library. Examples include Fanling South Public Library, which covers 560 square meters and holds around 50,000 books; Pok Fu Lam Public Library, approximately 600 square meters in size; Tsz Wan Shan Public Library, situated on the 7th floor of Tsz Wan Shan Shopping Centre; and Sau Mau Ping Public Library, located within a public housing estate.
Under that, the system also includes 12 mobile library vans (book-laden buses) that provide borrowing and reader registration services to housing estates, schools, and remote locations not covered by fixed libraries—including some of the more distant outlying island areas I mentioned earlier. Additionally, there are three unstaffed self-service library kiosks (fixed machines) for borrowing, returning, and fee payments, along with multiple book drop boxes located in 12 MTR stations and outside nearly every fixed library. Furthermore, over a hundred community libraries, operated by charitable organizations under LCSD guidance, serve local neighborhoods extensively. All of these libraries share a single integrated management system, allowing a book borrowed from any branch to be returned to any other—whether a mobile van, kiosk, drop box, or fixed library—with the system automatically syncing all transactions. It truly is a public library network that is both extensive and remarkably convenient.
Every district library has its own study room and book collection area. Take the Yau Ma Tei Library, which is the closest one to where I live in Jordan. On the ground floor, the study room resembles a large office: long, continuous tables divided by partitions into individual workstations, each equipped with a power outlet. At the front of the room, a security guard sits, keeping an eye on things—ensuring that no one talks or eats. From around midday, the room is usually packed. Many people are busy working on their laptops; some wear earphones while watching videos or films, and there are also elderly or middle-aged individuals in modest clothing sitting there, resting or charging their phones. By the time school lets out in the afternoon, a stream of primary and secondary students in uniform arrives to do their homework.
The 1/Floor study room at Yau Ma Tei Public Library
While many of Hong Kong’s public libraries may lack the lavish, glitzy exteriors, lighting, or interior décor often seen in mainland China, they are exceptionally well equipped, and their collections are impressively rich. They offer many great books that are difficult to find on the mainland, including a large selection of English titles. In addition to comprehensive classic literature series, these libraries also boast strong collections of contemporary modernist and postmodernist literary works in both English and Chinese, clearly keeping pace with current developments in world literature.
Both the libraries and their study rooms are free to use. You don’t need a card to enter and read or study, but you do need one to borrow books. To obtain a library card, all you need is your Hong Kong identity card and proof of address from the last three months (you may also use a declared address statement sworn at a government office). Once you have your card, you can use it at any branch across the city. You can borrow up to ten items at a time, with a loan period of fourteen days. As long as no one else has placed a hold on an item, you can renew it online up to five consecutive times.
I often spend time at the Yau Ma Tei Library—mostly in the ground-floor study room working on my computer, and sometimes upstairs in the book stack area, either reading or completing tasks. There are sofas and chairs along the walls, with power outlets on the floor. My usual spot is a quarter-circle sofa by the wall, next to a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Public Square Street and Nga Tsin Street. When I get tired, I simply gaze out the window—the blue sky outside is as calm and still as the air inside the library. Nearby, the view of the playground on Nga Tsin Street and, further away, the park on Cherry Street, with people passing by, appears as clear and vivid as if reflected in water.
The library area on the 2/Floor of Yau Ma Tei Public Library
The opening hours for the book stack area and the study room are not always the same. For example, at Yau Ma Tei Library, the book stack area is open on Monday from noon to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday to Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and on Sundays and public holidays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The study room, however, is open on Monday from noon to 10:00 p.m., Tuesday to Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., and Sundays and public holidays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. During exam seasons, the study rooms have different opening hours. The libraries are closed all day on New Year’s Day, the first three days of the Lunar New Year, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. For full details on the opening hours of each branch, please visit the official Hong Kong Public Libraries website at www.hkpl.gov.hk.
In Hong Kong, the concept of reading for everyone is not merely a slogan—it is a reality that has been deeply embedded in everyday life for a long time. The habit of reading is firmly woven into the fabric of the community. (Donnie Wang)
