Hong Kong and Macau_ City Guide (Lonely Planet, 14th Edition) - Andrew Stone [41]
6 Star St neighbourhood This is a quiet little corner of town that manages to contain the old, including a traditional, family-run dai pai dong (dai pàai dawng) on St Francis St (see the boxed text, and the new, in the form of excellent little shops, cafes and bars. Admir-alty MTR can be reached by an escalator and underground travelator entered at the bottom of Wing Fung St.
Return to beginning of chapter
LAN KWAI FONG & SOHO
Eating Click here; Drinking Click here; Nightlife Click here; The Arts Click here
Lan Kwai Fong ( Map), Hong Kong’s party zone, has grown so fast that it is spilling out of its former boundaries – a narrow, L-shaped pedestrian street south of Queen’s Rd Central and up hilly D’Aguilar St. These days the action now spills uphill along Wyndham St and up to Arbuthnot St. Popular with both Western expats and locals, in recent years it has become one of the first ports of call for mainland tour groups, although most often they’re here to gawp – not to party. Lan Kwai Fong proper is a great place to head to if you want to sample the buzz of crowds of drinkers making merry en masse, especially at happy hour. If you’re looking for a quiet beer or something a tad more stylish and less beer-sodden, explore further west along Wyndham St or into Soho (from ‘South Of HOllywood Rd’), which is above Hollywood Rd and another good hunting ground for great food and nightlife.
CENTRAL DISTRICT POLICE STATION Map
10 Hollywood Rd; 26
For years a rather dismal air of abandonment has hung over this declared but boarded-up monument, which is a former police station and jail. By the time you read this, it’s just possible that plans to repurpose and revamp the building as an art gallery, cinema, museum and boutique shopping mall will be taking physical shape. Defenders of Hong Kong’s heritage buildings are hopeful the redevelopment plans, due for completion in 2012, will ensure the site avoids the fate of many other such sites – too often they are bulldozed to make space for a modern high-rise or suffer heavily commercialised reinterpretations, such as that visited on the handsome former Marine Police HQ in Tsim Sha Tsui ( Click here) – although not everyone is keen on the architect’s initial concepts (see Click here).
LI YUEN STREET EAST & WEST Map
10am-7pm; MTR Central (exit C)
These two narrow and crowded alleyways linking Des Voeux Rd Central with Queen’s Rd Central are called ‘the lanes’ by Hong Kong residents, and were traditionally the place to go for fabric and piece goods. Most vendors have now moved to Western Market ( Click here) in Sheung Wan, but while it’s no great retail hunting ground you’ll still find a mishmash of cheap clothing, handbags, backpacks and costume jewellery here.
* * *
TRANSPORT – LAN KWAI FONG & SOHO
Bus Buses 5 and 5A from Central call at 10 Des Voeux Rd ( Map) and bus 26 runs along Holly-wood Rd.
MTR Central station on the Island and Tsuen Wan lines is at the heart of the neighbourhood.
* * *
ICE HOUSE STREET & LOWER ALBERT RD Map
MTR Central (exit G)
This street has many interesting buildings. The attractive off-white stucco and red-brick structure at the top of the road is the Dairy Farm Building, built for the Dairy Farm Ice & Cold Storage Company in 1898 and renovated in 1913. Today it houses the Fringe Club (Click here) and the illustrious Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong ( 2521 1511; www.fcchk.org). Towering above the Dairy Farm Building on the opposite side of the road is the Bishop’s House, built in 1851 and the official residence of the Anglican Bishop of Victoria.
From the Dairy Farm Building, Ice House St doglegs into Queen’s Rd Central. Just before it turns north, a wide flight of stone steps leads down to Duddell St. The four wrought-iron China