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Arts is the Hong Kong Arts Centre. Along with theatres, including the important Agnès B Cinema (Click here), you’ll also find here the Pao Sui Loong & Pao Yue Kong Galleries ( 2824 53302582 0200; admission free; 10am-6pm, to 8pm during exhibitions). Extending over floors Nanshan four and five, there’s room to host retrospectives and group shows in all visual media.

HONG KONG ACADEMY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS Map

2584 8500; www.hkapa.edu; 1 Gloucester Rd, Wan Chai; MTR Admiralty (exit E2)

With its striking triangular atrium and an exterior Meccano-like frame, which is a work of art in itself, the academy building (1985) is a Wan Chai landmark and an important venue for music, dance and scholarship.

HUNG SHING TEMPLE Map

2527 0804; 129-131 Queen’s Rd East, Wan Chai; 6am-6pm; 6 or 6A

Nestled in a nook on the southern side of Queen’s Rd East, this narrow, dark and rather forbidding temple (also called Tai Wong Temple) is built atop huge boulders. It was erected in honour of a Tang-dynasty official who was known for his virtue (important) and ability to make predictions of great value to traders (ultra-important).

WAN CHAI

OLD WAN CHAI POST OFFICE Map

Cnr Queen’s Rd East & Wan Chai Gap Rd, Wan Chai; 6 or 6A

A short distance to the east of Wan Chai Market is this tiny but important colonial-style building erected in 1913 and now serving as a resource centre operated by the Environmental Protection Department ( 2893 2856; 10am-5pm Mon-Tue & Thu-Sat, 10am-1pm Wed, 1-5pm Sun).

WAN CHAI LIVELIHOOD MUSEUM Map

2835 4376; http://cds.sev227.001at.com; 85 Stone Nullah Lane, Wan Chai; 11am-5pm; 6 or 6A

Established by local residents and cultural enthusiasts, this small museum in the historic Blue House (so known as it is a house and it’s blue) celebrates local life over the decades in the tenement buildings around here, particularly the local handicrafts and small-scale factories once busy in the area (and in some cases still clinging on). There’s also a small selection of local souvenirs.

LOVER’S ROCK Map

off Bowen Rd; green minibus 24A

A kilometre or so northeast of the Police Museum is what the Chinese call Yan Yuen Sek, a phallus-shaped boulder on a bluff at the end of a track above Bowen Rd. This is a favourite pilgrimage site for childless women and those who think their lovers, husbands or sons could use the help of prayer and a joss stick or two. It’s especially busy during the Maidens’ Festival, held on the seventh day of the seventh moon (mid-August). The easiest way to reach here is to take green minibus 24A from the Admiralty bus station. Get off at the terminus (Shiu Fai Tce) and walk up the path behind the housing complex.

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OLD WAN CHAI’S FORGOTTEN STREETS

Walking Tour

1 Wanchai Livelihood Museum A short stroll from the main bus routes and Wan Chai MTR (exit A3), you’ll start to get a feel for the neighbourhood as it was in the last century at this small museum (left).

2 Wan Chai Market The Streamline Moderne or Bauhaus-style exterior of this handsome and historic building is all that will remain (at least we hope it will remain…) of the market by the time you read this as a shopping centre goes up behind it. Once the hub of the neighbourhood, it was also used as a mortuary by Japanese forces in WWII.

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WALK FACTS

Start Wan Chai Livelihood Museum

End Star St

Distance 1.2km

Time Two hours

Fuel stop Star Street

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TRANSPORT – WAN CHAI

MTR Wan Chai station is on the Island line and is the best way to reach this district.

Star Ferry Wan Chai ferry pier to Hung Hom and Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon.

Tram They run east along Queensway, Johnston Rd and Hennessy Rd to Causeway Bay; and west to Central and Sheung Wan.

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3 Old Wan Chai Post Office This pocket-sized post office (opposite) is a charming and rare neighbourhood colonial relic.

4 Hung Shing Temple Peep inside this grand (if gloomy) temple ( Click here) to this civil-servant-turned-god, built in 1847.

5 55 Nam Koo Terrace Just west of the