Bedding down at a Hong Kong hotel can come with a credit card melting price tag attached, so each month we try and bring you the best deals, promotions and give aways on hotel stays in the city

This month you can live the highlife in the five star Langham Hotel's Grand Room, which is offering one night free on five night stays, while the Regal in Kowloon is offering up to 30% off rack rates for guests who book far enough in advance. Find out more about these and other Hong Kong hotel deals in our monthly Best Hong Kong Hotel Deals

Vampires are breaking out their toothbrushes and werewolves are warming up their curling tongs, as Halloween in Hong Kong gets underway.

The city doesn't have a great tradition of celebrating Halloween but events this year are expected to be the biggest ever. Celebrations for the kids revolve around the haunted parades and spooky shows at Hong Kong Disneyland and Ocean Park, while adults can strut their stuff at the costume parties in Lam Kwai Fong.

If you're wondering what the rest of the world gets up to on October 31st, take a trip over to our Ultimate Halloween Travel Guide which covers the ghostly goings on from Salem to Scandinavia.

As if the Chinese visa situation in Hong Kong wasn't complicated enough, the authorities have now added a new type of visa. Called the "144-hour Convenient Visa Guangdong Province, China", it certainly wins the most ridiculously titled visa award.

The visa is only for foreign nationals visiting Hong Kong and allows group visits to Gunagdong Province via Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Zhaoqing and Huizhou.

There are a couple of major drawbacks to the visa. You must travel in a group, with a minimum of 3, and you must all enter and leave the country together. And the real reason for introducing it; you must arrange a 'tour' through a Hong Kong Travel Agent. This may not necessarily mean booking a six day, guide led, itinerary packed tour, but simply paying a fee to the tour agency to win yourself the visa. Another Chinese visa scheme that helps the travel agent and not the traveller. You can use CTS or Grayline to book the tour and visa. You can get an in depth, blow by blow of the new visa in our guide to the Guangdong Group Visa.

Individuals will need to use the Shenzhen Visa, if they want a taste of China, or a full Chinese visa if they are ineligible for the Shenzhen Visa or travelling to areas in Guangdong outside the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone.

After the debacle of knocking down Hong Kong's Star Ferry Pier and putting several historic markets in Wan Chai out of business - all in the name of progress - Hong Kongs' government took a beating on the public opinion front. Protests, petitions and rock bottom popularity made the government think again about their policy of knocking anything down when a businessman flashed a smile and his bulging briefcase.

Now, proof that they've put their bulldozers away, at least for now, in a plan to conserve key areas of the Central Financial District. The plan promises access to the waterfront for the public, the conservation of Central's bustling market and the preservation of key colonial buildings in the area. That said, it's unlikely any of these impressive and important buildings will survive intact, with most likely to end up as 'heritage projects'. Hotels and shopping malls to you and me. Still, it's a step in the right direction.

See some of Hong Kong's Historic Buildings

Half Day Hong Kong Colonial Tour

Tea at the Peninsula Hotel