Inside the most expensive part of the world's most expensive city, the Hong Kong billionaire enclave where Alibaba founder Jack Ma may have bought a $191 million mansion

• Hong Kong's most expensive neighborhood is The Peak.
• The Peak is a gorgeous, secluded neighborhood that overlooks Hong Kong and is home to bankers, expatriates, business magnates, celebrities, and millionaires and billionaires.
• Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire who founded Alibaba, is said to have purchased a $191 million mansion in the neighborhood in 2015, but it has never been confirmed.

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Every city has that neighborhood — an address that signifies wealth. New York City has Fifth Avenue, London has Kensington, and Miami has South Beach.

Hong Kong has The Peak — short for Victoria Peak — a neighborhood that has been synonymous with wealth, luxury, and exclusivity since the colonial era.

As the least affordable city in the world for eight years running, Hong Kong takes the cake when it comes to luxury real estate.

At various times over the past decade, Pollock's Path, Barker Road, and Severn Road — all streets on The Peak — have claimed the title of the world's most expensive street.

The neighborhood is home to a mix of bankers, expatriates, business magnates, celebrities, and, more recently, Chinese millionaires and billionaires looking for a place to invest or vacation away from pollution in cities on the mainland.

It's the kind of neighborhood that consistently breaks records for the most expensive real estate in the world. In 2015, it was rumored that Jack Ma, the Chinese billionaire who founded Alibaba, purchased a $191 million mansion there, but it has never been confirmed.

Last month, an unidentified buyer broke the record for the most expensive real estate in Asia, purchasing a 9,217-square-foot villa on The Peak for about $180 million, making it about $19,400 per square foot.

I recently visited the ritzy neighborhood to see why it continues to house some of the most coveted addresses in the world. It did not disappoint.

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The Peak is the neighborhood surrounding Victoria Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island, with an elevation of 1,811 feet. I took a taxi to get to Victoria Peak Lookout, a major tourist destination.

Most tourists ride the Peak Tram up. The Peak Galleria, a mega mall (read: tourist trap) at the top of the tramway is complete with souvenirs and a Madame Tussauds.

The Peak has been the city's most exclusive neighborhood for more than 100 years. Until 1947, only the British and Europeans were allowed to live there — a policy that infuriated Hong Kong's Chinese citizens. Before the tramway, residents were carried up the mountain on sedan chairs carried by migrant laborers.

Source: Frommer's, CNN Travel

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