Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ming Tang-Evans/APA Publications
The border between Central and Sheung Wan is roughly drawn at Aberdeen Street, west
of which is one of Hong Kong's oldest neighbourhoods where narrow streets hide a collec-
tion of traditional shops. Opposite the Macau Ferry Terminal you'll find
Western Market
£
[map]
, a former wet market built in 1906, now home to gift shops, a café, and fabric
stalls. For an interesting glimpse of small and family-owned shops walk up and down Jer-
vois Street, Bonham Strand, Mercer, Hillier and Cleverly streets. Man Wa Lane is dedicated
to craftsmen making traditional Chinese seals or chops, and elsewhere, in between modern
grocers, printers, florists and cafés, are old-style tea, noodle and rice merchants, shops
selling bamboo steamers and clay-pots for casseroles, or Chinese-style sweets, nuts and
snacks, plus an astounding amount of dried seafood, herbs and medicine.
West of Sheung Wan Fong, an open piazza constantly bustling with shoppers and deliv-
eries, the trade in items used in traditional Chinese medicine and cuisine begins to dominate.
Wing Lok Street, Bonham Strand West and Ko Shing Street in particular are home to shops
trading in birds' nests, dried abalone, dried herbs, roots and fungi, ginseng and, disturbingly,
shark's fin. This is the centre of the global trade in shark's fin, claimed as a Chinese delic-
acy. Once enjoyed by very few, increased affluence has driven demand and many species of
shark are now in danger of extinction.
Nearby Possession Street is where the British made their claim on Hong Kong Island in
1841. A short walk along Queen's Road West are what appear to be colourful party decora-
tions shops, with lanterns and buntings, but they also specialise in funeral accessories.
Mourners buy paper items to burn for their loved ones - everything from colourful sacks of
'hell' money, so the deceased have some pocket money, to handmade paper models of daily
essentials. As well as houses, cars, servants and clothes, today's afterlife accessories include
Louis Vuitton luggage, flat-screen televisions and pets.
Take a taxi or any bus heading south (4, 7, 37, 71, 90) up the steep streets to Pok Fu Lam
and
Hong Kong University's
campus, which has some original Edwardian buildings. The
1910 foundation stone reveals HKU was established largely with funds from Hormusjee
Naorojee Mody, an Indian businessman. The University
Museum and Art Gallery
(94
Bonham Road;
www.hkumag.hku.hk
;
Mon-Sat 9.30am-6pm, Sun 1-6pm; free) holds a sig-
nificant collection of antiquities: bronzes dating from 3000BC; ceramics including Han
Dynasty tomb pottery; and the world's largest collection of Nestorian crosses from the Yuan
Dynasty period. At the Tea Gallery, friendly staff explain some of the subtleties of Chinese
tea.
Wan Chai
Just to the east of the financial district,
Wan Chai
was once an area of sleazy clubs and top-
less bars; this was the setting for
The World of Suzie Wong
. Servicemen relaxing from the
rigours of the Vietnam War poured millions of dollars into the Wan Chai boom of the 1960s.
