One of the first places I visited in HK after my ‘quarantine’ period was over was the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD). Built on reclaimed land from the 90’s, the arts district has been expanding in phases and is still under development. However there’s lots of areas to explore already and I saw many families enjoying the free outdoor parks on the day I went. 

The reason I was interested in going was because there was a Kusama Yayoi exhibition being held at the M+ Museum which had just opened a couple weeks ago. Tickets for the exhibit are available online if you want to purchase in advance, but you need to make an account with them first. I ended up calling their information desk that morning and was told there would likely be tickets at the door if I arrived around noon, so I beelined for the museum and was able to get tickets once I got there. 

The Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now exhibit itself was split into two parts. I went to the basement first to see one of her infinity mirror rooms. I was fully expecting it to be busy since I remember her exhibit in Toronto had quite the line up, but maybe because it was a weekday and also during covid times, there wasn’t as many people at the museum. Since the room was limited to two people at a time for 15 seconds, I ended up lining up three times to make sure I got the full experience.

After I finished exploring the basement, I made a quick break for lunch at their cafe. I ordered a matcha latte and their kabocha soup off their featured menu. Then it was off to see the remainder of the exhibit on the upper level. The ticket also included access to the entire museum, so I spent the majority of the afternoon going through all the rooms to make sure I got through all the permanent galleries as well.

Prior to leaving the museum, I took the elevator up to their rooftop to enjoy the gardens. The gardens is free to enter and it was worth visiting as you can take in the view of the harbour and all the development that’s currently happening in the arts district. Overall I had a great time visiting WKCD and I’m not surprised that it’s becoming one of the more popular up-and-coming attractions for people to visit in HK.