The experience of the Sheung Wan Tour

Experiencing the Old Hong Kong

     Smelling the air inside old dried seafood retail shops which are much older than us, we felt like we were back to the 1980s. Listening to one eighty-year-old shop owner telling us the past operation mode of Sheung Wan made us think about how much memory was left among Hong Kong people?


                 Sheung Wan, a place right next to the financial centre of Hong Kong-  Central and the shopping paradise -Causeway Bay ,though with high accessibility, seldom are there people visiting this district. In fact, a hundred years ago, Sheung Wan was as busy as today’s Central and it contributed a lot to Hong Kong’s prosperous economic development. Since Hong Kong is trying hard to develop itself into an international financial city, the development in other aspects, such as trading in Sheung Wan started to decline. And it is no longer as prosperous as before. Visiting Sheung Wan allows us to explore those valuable stories of the old Hong Kong.

            Getting out from the Sheung Wan MTR station, the view  outside was not much different from other places. Walking towards the starting point of our tour, we could see a lot of dried seafood shops putting their goods along the streets. We visited different shops and briefly understood the characteristics of different dried seafood and Chinese medicine. The most unforgettable experience was that a few old shop owners shared with us their feeling about Sheung Wan and their profession on dried seafood. In the past, without the help of machines and computers, all the work was done by men. They also emphasized on building mutual trust between sellers and buyers. The past stories of Nam Pak Hong (南北巷) were the very important history of Hong Kong.

          This project allows us to visit Sheung Wan which is a strange place to all of us. Before visiting this place, we have searched different information about it,such as its history, attractions or its future development. We have invited a few of our friends to go with us, also we act as tour guides to introduce them different culinary shops. Being a tour guide was not an easy task as we had to speak fluently ,consider tourists’ responses and the most important point is that we must have in-depth understanding of that place. It was an interesting and precious experience to us! 
         
          The trip to Sheung Wan did not just give us chances to be a tour guide, but also aroused our awareness and inspired us to make reflection. Culinary shops in Sheung Wan, for example, were something not-so-special to most teenagers nowadays. Who are willing to spend a whole day visiting shops that have existed since they were born? Looking at the interior design and shopkeepers of those shops, we instantly felt sorry for them as most citizens take them for granted. Everything in those shops tells a story. Unfortunately, few people really care for them. Could you believe that there is a person using Chinese brush to record transactions on an accounting book? There is such a shopowner in a culinary shop in Sheung Wan doing so. Nevertheless, who know this? Even residents living there do not know this. That’s because insufficient attention was paid to the old shops. Every day they just walk by the shops without a glimpse of the shops. To most of them, they are as ordinary as other shops.

          The Tourism Broad has got their job done in terms of promoting Hong Kong’s famous tourist attractions like the Ocean Park and the Peak. They, however, overlook another aspect of Hong Kong—the cultural, educational and thought-provoking one. Though they are no longer as important as other tourist attractions to Hong Kong’s economy, they are indispensable to Hong Kong, recording Hong Kong’s greatest change. They are like the supporting actors essential in a drama but they are never in the spotlight. It is not because they do not have any charisma, but because no one knows their existence. The sparkle of a diamond is not naturally formed; it shines just after experts’ segment and polish. The same theory can be applied to Sheung Wan. Sheung Wan is actually a lovely place but the government has made no effort to showcase the inner beauty of Sheung Wan to the world, or even to the local. Then, how can we expect the youth ask their overseas friends to come to those shops?
  

    Therefore, we hope the government can play a role to make Sheung Wan shine. The least expectation we can have of our government is that it pools its resources to stir a culture and promote some one-day trips visiting these precious places of historical values to the younger generation so as to pass the flame of remembrance of the old Hong Kong.      
          
         With rapid economic development in Hong Kong after World War Two, Sheung Wan’s role in Hong Kong econmony was not as important as in the past. At the same time, people began to forget this important origin. Sheung Wan is now facing many inner city problems that should be resolved as soon as possible, for example the decaying community and ageing population. Together with the construction of the West Island Line, the shop owners can no longer afford the rising land rent. Many Hong Kong people just focus on their work without paying attention to things around them. There are many places in Hong Kong, like Sheung Wan and Kowloon City, are worthwhile to visit. Just like our theme “outside the spotlight”, we hope that more Hong Kong people can go and visit these less famous areas. It is understandable that tourists would like to go to those tourist attractions, but being a Hong Kong people, at least we should know more about our community and our local history. Go outside the spotlight, you may find more treasure and surprise.