Experience of Sheung Wan tour

We went for a culinary tour to Sheung Wan in order to be better prepared for our project of planning a walking tour in Hong Kong.

The tour in Sheung Wan took us about 3 hours to walk through the streets in Sheung Wan and to be exposed to cultural heritage of this area.

Sheung Wan is to some extent known for the dried food and seafood stores opened there. Before the land reclamation, some streets in this area were just next to the sea and people sold the seafood they fished just on the street. That is the origin of so many dried food stores there today. Many stores there have been open for more than a century.

We had also walked into several stores and talked with the storekeeper. They not only introduced to us different functions of different kinds of food, but also tell the history of this area that they had witnessed for the past many years. The storekeepers were all warm-hearted, talkative and willing to help us even they knew we would not buy anything.

The experience enabled us to think more deeply about the tour organized by ourselves. We acknowledged much from the culinary tour about the food as well as the history and culture. And what we want the people joining our tour to get from taking tour? The tasty food, the beautiful scenery, or something may have deeper impression on them? We thought this should be the problem to be worked out. 

Travel Through Time - Our Trip to the Wan Chai District

Footbridge Gallery

It was a warm and sunny day. We started our trip at the Footbridge Gallery at 10 o’clock in the morning. It was a nice place to start the trip. There were 50 columns on the bridge, each covered by the paintings of buildings in Wan Chai, industries that can be found in Wan Chai and paintings about the lives of Wan Chai residents in early times, etc. It gave us a brief picture of both the old and modern Wan Chai.

Hung Shing Temple

We then walk along the Queen’s Road East to the Hung Shing Temple after visiting the Footbridge Gallery. The Hung Shing Temple marked the starting point of our journey to the old Wan Chai. The temple was built for the deity of fisherman—Hung Shing Tai Wong, and it was originally built in 1847 next to the shoreline, facing the sea. In the past, people usually visit the temple on 1^st and 15^th day of every lunar month and also on the birthday of the Chinese Goddess of Mercy – Kwun Yum. However, most of the people do not visit the temple to pray anymore, especially for the younger generations. Majority of the visitors of the temple are tourists and elderly only. But we still can have a glimpse of the lives of Wan Chai people in the past through visiting it.

Green House

When we arrived in the street where the Green House locates, we were expecting to see a building. However we discovered that the whole building was covered by brown cloths. The Green House was undergoing renovation and revitalization process at that time. This Grade II historic building will be transformed form a residential building to an art community. It will act as a Comix Home Base as well as a platform for art exchange and interaction locally and overseas. We are looking forward to the re-opening of the Green House after its revitalization project completes.

Capital Cafe

After visiting the Green House, it was the time for our lunch. We had our lunch in the Capital Cafe – a very famous local restaurant that sells authentic Hong Kong food.

Blue House

Now comes to the afternoon part of our trip. After we all filled up our stomach, we walked to the Blue House and the Yellow House. It was quite a long walk, it took us 10~15 minutes to walk from the Capital Cafe to the Blue House. But the good thing was that this helped us to digest what we just ate.

The Blue House was classified as the Grade I historic building. It was named for the bright blue colour painted on its external walls. It was one of the few remaining examples of Tong Lau of the balcony type in Hong Kong. It was really amazing to see that how a building built in nearly a century ago can be preserved so well.

We can join various activities in the Blue House, for example traditional lantern making, snacks making and painting on an umbrella, etc.

Old Wan Chai Post Office

A few steps away from the Blue House we can find the Old Wan Chai Post Office - the oldest surviving post office building in Hong Kong. Although it is no longer a post office, the mail boxes and the wooden front desk are still preserved inside the building. We can still imagine the busy lives of the post workers inside the office.

Tai Yuen Street

Tai Yuen Street (Toy Street) is similar to the Temple Street and the Ladies Street in other parts of Hong Kong. There were numerous shops and stalls lined on the two sides of the street. The sellers there do not always stay in the cashier, instead they stand in front of their stalls or shops to interact with the passer-by. When you are there, you will feel that you are part of the community. The warm and cosy atmosphere will make you don't want to move on to the next destination.

Canal Road West

We then walked to the Canal Road West and when we walked through the Ngo Keng Kiu (Goose Neck Bridge), we saw an old lady was making such ceremony called “打小人”.

Ngo Keng Kiu was named after the shape of this area before urban development, which looked like the neck of a goose. And on the bridge, there were such traditional ceremonies for people who had a person making trouble in their life. They went for this ceremony and hoped to get rid of that troublesome person by doing “打小人”.

Time Square
After we walked through Canal Road West, we continued to walk to Time Square.

Time Square is a major shopping centre and office tower complex in Causeway Bay. There are shops for both local and international brands, in terms of a variety of categories. We went around the shopping centre and had a nice dinner on the floor of tasty foods.

Tram

After we had dinner in Time Square, we started the evening part of the tour. We took the tram back to Wan Chai and were going to visit the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.

Tram is one of the public transports in Hong Kong, which has a history of about 100 years. The tram runs on Hong Kong Island from Shau Kei Wan to Kenndy Town. Tram is not only a tourist attraction but also one of the most environmentally friendly mass transit systems.

Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center

Then, we came to the HKCEC. The HKCEC was located in the heart of Hong Kong just on the Victoria Harbor. It was one of the two major convention and exhibition venues in Hong Kong and it was even connected to two world-class hotels: the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong and the Renaissance Harbor View Hotel. Every year, there are hundreds of events holding on there, bringing millions of people to visit Hong Kong.

Golden Bauhinia Square

Went out of the HKCEC, it was the Golden Bauhinia Square. The square was named after the giant statues of a golden bauhinia in the centre of the area and it was also one of the hottest tourist attractions for mainland visitors because the square was the place where the ceremony held in July, 1997 for the establishment of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The golden bauhinia sculpture was the symbol of reunification and we saw many people taking a photo in front of the statues.

The Symphony of Light

The clock pointed to 8 pm. The Symphony of Light got started!

There were many colorful lights shooting from the top of the buildings both on the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. The lights flashed with the background music and asides. It was really enjoyable scenery on Victoria Harbor.