What are the customs limits for duty free items that I can have in my luggage?

Mark, HK has very strict rules against alcohol and cigars. No matter you are resident of HK or passenger, you can take as many as 19 cigarette sticks and 1 cigar. For alcohol, you can take 1L in total. So I think you'd better not take alcohol or cigars to HK. Instead, you can buy them at the duty-free shops in the airport. Then you just need to know how many cigarettes, cigars and alcohol you can bring into your destination country.