The art scene in Hong Kong is thriving and the Hong Kong Art Walk event at the beginning of each year is one proof of it. This year, the Art Walk was held in April. 2014's Art Walk will be in the month of March with tickets priced at HK$450 per pax.

This annual event has attracted millions of art enthusiasts and comprises of 70 galleries exhibiting artworks for charity. Visitors can walk any of the routes prepared by Art Walk and (re)visit galleries. If you are unable to be there during the Art Walk though, rest assured, the city still has much to offer throughout the months.

M+, the much awaited museum for visual culture as part of West Kowloon cultural district(WKCD) will be filled with eye-opening art, design, architecture and moving images. Focusing on 20th and 21st century art, this venue will showcase contemporary art and will be officially opened from 2017 onwards. Now, a temporary site is opened to public in the WKCD Promenade.

Art Basel's debut in Hong Kong shows that the West is beginning to place emphasis in Asia's art scene. What better way to propel art by installing this prestigious gallery in the nexus between East and West?

While these two are fairly new editions to the local art-scene, the city's existing 49 museums and numerous private galleries are already forces to be reckoned with. While you are here, do check out Art Museum in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Visual Arts Museum. For private galleries, The Guardian's review on the top 10 best in Hong Kong would be a substantial list.

Travelling into Hong Kong - The How, When, What, Who and Where

Hong Kong is the to-go destination when it comes to a vacation. Visitors are intrigued by this 426sq m city densely populated with 7 million inhabitants. Laden with entertainment and attractions in this tiny space, Hong Kong puts first-timers at awe and returning visitors in her entrance. This city received 42.6 million in 2012, a 16% increase from 2011. This article provides you with the know-how when travelling into Hong Kong.

How does one enter Hong Kong? Fly – there are a lot of budget airlines if you are coming from Asia Pacific namely Jetstar and Tiger or the usual commercial airlines.

How does one enter Hong Kong? Ferry – if you are coming in from Shenzhen, China or Macau, you can always take the ferries which are available throughout the day at affordable prices. Alternatively, you can take the MTR Subway to and fro Shenzen.

Some tourists might need a visa to enter the city, so do check the requirements needed before travelling!

When is the best time to visit Hong Kong? All year round. Having mild temperature, May-September would be the hottest and wettest months while mid September to end of February would be cooling, ranging from 10 to 20 degrees.

What to see in Hong Kong? This question a tricky but to condense this multinational place to a paragraph – the tourists spots would be Avenue Star, Hong Kong Disneyland, Ocean Park, the Peak, Ladies' Market, Temple Street Night Street, Clock Tower, Nathan Road, Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple.

If you are a nature lover, the outdoors are worth exploring as well. Of course, take your time to explore the hidden side of city as well after hitting major spots.

Who populates the city? 92% of the people here are Chinese according to the census taken on 2011. The rest make up of an international mix that defines its cosmopolitan and diverse ambience. The Chinese speak Cantonese; they are well versed in Mandarin and English as well, no worries if you don't speak the local dialect.

Where to stay? By far the most important question. There are a lot of hotels and hostels around – check out a few websites like Agoda.com, Hostelworld.com and Hostelbookers.com. You can also hit any international hotel and more often than not, there will be a branch in Hong Kong as well!

When there is talk about slums, imageries of the award winning "Slumdog Millionare" immediately comes to mind. Slums are perceived to be failures of a city. With increasing population and rapid modernization, it is inevitable that certain places would fail to catch up to the pace of urbanization. Slums are those that one-step-behinds; they are in the peripheral.

Recently, Hong Kong's Society for Community Organization (SoCO) has published a documentary of pictures which show the public how the poorest live in Hong Kong. These rooms, to most of us, would be the size of our home bathrooms. Yet, families live in these spaces and utilize them as their bedroom, kitchen, living room and pantries – basically an entire house fit into a 4ftx7ft room. Hong Kong's high cost of living and growing number of urban poor has perpetuated a serious social problem. These images were taken in famous tourist spots such as Sham Shui Po, Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon City. It is surprising that behind the façade of bustling street vendors and harried pedestrians lies pallid squalors that are dirty, crowded and dingy.

On one side, we see the giant corporations that run the skyscrapers of Hong Kong with her splendid parlor and wealth. In an interview with Mail Online, SoCO's director, Ho Hei Wah, opined that lurking beneath this prosperity which defines Hong Kong, is great inequality in wealth and a forgotten group of poor people. Beyond the skyscrapers, this city is beginning to feel the persisting problem of an overloaded population encumbered with social problems. Governmental measures will have to step in soon to improve the living conditions of these slum families and they have to be taken soon.

The Kowloon Walled city was part of an interesting history of this mega-city. Also known as Hak Nam, this giant slum was a towering city - one narrow tower on the verge of slapping another one. They formed a potential dominos effect if they collapsed. These cheek-by-jowl buildings were inhabited by the city's "unwanted" citizens - those who were too poor, involved in criminal activities and the marginalized. Approximately 35,000 people lived in this squalor where rubbishes piled up high, clean water were scarce and stale air reeked.

Isolated and desolate in the 1980s, the government finally evicted its occupants and successfully demolished the entire city in 1994. Today, it is called the Kowloon Walled City Park. Before its demolition though, Greg Girard documented the remaining years of this labyrinth in the late 80s and early 90s. He collaborated with Ian Lambot and had a 5-year project, producing a photo-book, titled City of Darkness: Life in Kowloon Walled City. Inspiring and revolting, the project is a living testament of societies living in the fringes – those who were unable to keep up with the paces of modernity.

Hak Nam was such a testament until the government picked up the pieces and gave these residents different lives to lead.