Feel the irreplaceable kaifong intimacy in the Wanchai rooted family-run shops
- Spring Garden Lane, Wanchai
Spring Garden Lane
This lane is not named after a garden but the impressive villa of opium merchant John Dent. He snapped up the plot at Hong Kong’s first land auction in 1841. Spring Garden was a respectable residential area with tycoon villas. Even Sir George Bonham, the third governor of Hong Kong had his house here.
Melting pot
Later Wanchai became the place to go shopping and get things made: goldsmiths, traders, merchants, pawnbrokers, street markets, hawker stalls, taverns, bakeries, tailors and curio shops. A multicultural melting pot, the foreigners left their footprint. Spring Garden Lane with its many bars and brothels was known as “Little Tokyo”.
Kaifong intimacy
Spring Garden Lane has always remained busy and vibrant. Today, it’s a street still filled with mum-and-pop shops satisfying your daily needs with affordable Cantonese dishes, haircuts, stationery, flowers, Chinese offerings… Few of those have been rooted in the community for decades.
This is where I felt the true community spirit. I still remember running up and down the street and got chased by a dog when I was a kid!