Avoiding Problems

Honestly, not much. First of all, protests are easy to avoid. Many of the protests are openly advertised. Most of the daytime protests consist of marches and rallies. The heavier, more violent clashes occur on weekend nights. These protests are often spontaneous and involve Hong Kong citizens outfitted in black clothing and gas masks attempting to push back riot police forces. These conflicts often involve tear gas, Molotov cocktails, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds, pepper spray, batons, and other non-lethal (yet painful) means of controlling the streets. The best way to avoid these is stay away from areas like Causeway Bay, particularly Hennessy Road. I recommend not booking accommodation in this area as it is often a hotbed for turmoil. Public transportation often cancels routes to these areas during times of great unrest. Still, it is extremely rare for the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) to have all of its stations close due to protests, as well as the Airport Express train. Although there's been a lot of attention on protesters closing the airport or keeping people from leaving, this is a problem that doesn't seem to occur any longer. You can pretty safely assume you'll get to leave Hong Kong when you expect to.  

Where Is Safe?

The short answer is that everywhere is safe. Hong Kong is an incredibly safe country with typically kind people. Hong Kong is made up of several islands connected to the mainland. I stayed at a hotel on Tsing Yi and didn't have any problems with protests. You can also trust that all of the MTR stations between Tung Chung and Central will not close. I will say that the weekend I visited saw closings of Admiralty, Wan Chai, and Causeway Bay stations, so, once again, it is probably best to avoid staying in those areas. Visiting during the day, however, should be fine. An interesting thing to note is that protesters are typically rather responsible with their destruction. If there's a fiery barricade blocking a station entrance on a protest night, you can bet that it will be cleaned up by morning. It's not uncommon to run into some graffiti, however. 

What To Do