When I first moved to Hong Kong in 1999, I despaired of finding a pool that was not crowded and was swimmable! The public pools were open weird hours and tended to have a lot of traffic- closed at lunchtime- go figure. Additionally many very poor swimmers thought that they should be swimming in lap lanes. There turned out to be several rather expensive options.

As I was working in Pacific Place, it made sense to become a member of the Island Shangri-la Hotel gym. At the time the fee was HKD 30,000 a year (nearly USD4000)! this took some getting use to! That said, this is a beautiful pool with a gym and spa attached- heated and open all year round. It is an oasis within the frenetic environment that is Hong Kong. A day pass is available for HKD 500 a day and a book of 10 is available for HKD 4,000 (USD 500). Other options are to send an email to the Athletic Veterans Association and ask them whether it is possible to join the AVA (about HKD 1600 per year). This allows swimming at the WanChai training pool between 12-2pm weekdays and Saturdays in two dedicated club lanes. If you are in HK for a period of a week or two it is worth it.