Thanks then I should put the local 711 to use.

Hi,

as for tap water in hotels..well, there should be a kettle to boil the water.

Well, if the water is not safe, the human body largest surface,will be the first to be contaminated..your skin when you shower.

Well,most hotels in HK provide two bottles of complimentary bottled water..finish that first,then boil water overnight to let it cool,and next morning, refill bottle. Then the next day, housekeeping replenish two more free bottled water.

As for public place, if it is from a water fountain, well, guess should be okay,then again, I have come across some folks spitting here,rinsing their mouth,and in some cases,where the filter media cartridge could be seen..it is brownish coloured...will you drink?

The water itself should have been safe but it's the pipe that is worrying... the infrastructure for the pipe system in HK is not as advanced as this city should have been. Maybe alright from a new 5 stars hotel... anyway, fluoride is added to the water in HK so there is a strange taste to it if it was not boiled... I usually drink bottled water mainly for that reason

Fair. I think too much of an effort boiling water on vacation :). Will stick to bottled water. Are local brands OK, or is there a Yes and No there as well and one should stick to the Nestle's of the world.

Hi,

haha..of course local brands.

Watson's is good enough. 430ml around HKD3.5

Or well have a Coke,but will be BonAqua

Nestle's of the world- you mean like AcquaPanna, Perrier, S.Pellegrino,Vittel..yep, you can get them in HK too.

Thanks as always

I occasionally drink from the tap, we usually boil the water. Especially in summer.

Now the water is perfectly safe to drink when it's pumped out from the pumping station into the network, it comes out of the pipe at my home at about 30°C (I shower "cold" normally). The part that's been in the exposed pipe is sometimes too hot to shower in, so >45°C. That's temperatures bacteria grow, and this is why I boil the water as extra precaution. It shouldn't really be necessary though.

When out in the countryside, I drink straight from the rivers (they're short, it's basically straight from the well). Many hikers do. This is something I will not recommend to visitors, as after 12 years in HK I'm pretty hardened against whatever is in the water here, you as visitor are not (when in your home country, that'll be the exact opposite :) )

For you as a visitor, just boil the water at your hotel room and you're safe. You'll need more than that - you'll have to drink half a liter to one liter an hour when walking out in the heat.

For buying water, I prefer to go to the small independent dispensaries or newspaper vendors, they sell the exact same bottles of water as the 7-11 and other convenience stores but for about half the price. 7-11 is a rip-off when it comes to just water. Bonaqua and Cool are the ones I normally buy. The cheapest brands. Water is water, after all, and they're all safe.

Right, there are parts in my city, where tap water is just about ok, but the pipe networks make us boil. However having water or UV filters is the norm now everywhere from residential to commercial places. I think the only place I actually had tap water was Germany, besides that its been bottled.

I had a HK local friend who swore to me he only drinks the local tap water after it's been boiled. "Not safe," he said.

So I asked him what he thought it was that bubbled up from all those fountain coolers in the gym he and I both use. "Oh," he said, "Is that tap water?" Yes, indeed. As is the tap water in the drinking fountains in public parks, etc. etc. There are plenty of people in HK who drink unboiled tap water, though they may prefer to think that's not the case. As long as the pipes are good, the water is bacteriologically clean.