HK Island Districts

[mercedes]

Hi, will likely be moving to HK in the next couple of months (keeps being postponed but looks like this is it!) and would really appreciate if someone could point me in the direction of a decent map that shows the various districts and areas of Hong Kong Island.
I'm trying to figure out where I would like to live and am having great difficulty forming a clear idea of the various districts in terms of:
- distance from Central
- avg. cost of accommodation
- availability of shops/restaurants/bars etc...

Also, to give me a concept of distances, If one were living say in Stanley, how long would it take to get to Central for work by bus or MTR or whatever would be the most logical form of transport? Also, how much would it cost to take a taxi between the two?

Finally, out of curiosity, I seen pictures on the internet of serviced apartments in the range of HK$ 15,000 - 20,000 and they look GORGEOUS... new looking, clean looking etc... but the photos I see of standard furnished apartments tend to look hideous. Can you find a standard furnished apartment that looks like a serviced one but is cheaper because it's not serviced?????

Thanks very much
mercedes

[avla]

See if this one works for you.

http://www.ypmap.com/en/viewer.asp?m...ce=LocationMap

[KnowItAll]

You'd be surprised how ordinary the serviced apartments look when you visit them.

[JJexpat]

Checked out several Serviced Apartments when I first arrived. In fact, the cheapest "gorgeous" one I found was 1K and not in a "nice" location. The next was 19K in Hung Hom in a very nice facility. The next were comparable in apointments - all nicely upscale - for 26500...and then up from there.

You can find cheaper, but they sure do not look like the advertisements. And, I found a 50k one that was APPALLING. All in all, as someone used to a lot of space, I opted for a partially furnished apartment (really unfurnished ut I got the last tenants leftovers) in an old building with no services. The rade off is higher cielings, lots of light and some green to look out on. Oh, Kowloon side which is actually just fine.