Postwar tong lau blocks rise over market stalls selling fabric, buttons, beads and electronics.
What Sham Shui Po looks like
Postwar tong lau blocks line the narrow streets, concrete walk ups seven to nine storeys with shops filling the ground floor and flats stacked above. Some older blocks still use the verandah style, a balcony held up on two floor to ceiling pillars at the pavement's edge. That design is common in the 1910s to 1930s, and newer postwar blocks switched instead to a cantilevered overhang with no pillar underneath.
runs an open air market for electronics and secondhand goods, folding tables and tarpaulin roofs packed along both kerbs under the tenement balconies. holds a similar market a few blocks over. Its red brick paving is crowded with clothing racks and footwear stalls, with bamboo scaffolding on the upper floors.
, Nam Cheong Street, and Tai Nan Street each specialise in one trade. Buttons, ribbon, beads and leather are sold out of narrow shopfronts stacked floor to ceiling with stock. sits on the corner of Tai Nan Street. It keeps its original verandah front and pillar, one of a handful still standing on the block.
stands on Yen Chow Street, a three storey neo-classical block finished in 1925. It still works as a police sub-station today. Its paired columns and symmetrical front are a contrast to the plain concrete blocks around it.
Shot in Sham Shui Po
Infernal Affairs sets its two undercover leads' first chance meeting on this stretch of Apliu Street, neither one recognising the other. The reality series The Amazing Race also ran a Detour challenge at Kong Wah Telecom, a shop near the Apliu Street and Kweilin Street junction.
Infernal Affairs, 2002
The two undercover leads have a chance meeting outside this shop, each one undercover without recognising the other side. The shop sits on the stretch of Apliu Street lined with electronics stalls and secondhand goods. Street View
What Sham Shui Po can double for
George Town in Penang, Malaysia
George Town's shophouses use a covered five foot way held up on pillars at the pavement, the same arcade principle as Sham Shui Po's pre-war verandah tong lau. Ki Lung Street's narrow shopfronts stacked with stock have a similar scale to George Town's trading streets. Tropical planting and brighter pastel paint make the comparison look Southeast Asian in a wide shot, so a tighter frame on the pillars and shopfronts holds the match better. Try searching five foot way shophouses now.
Dadaocheng's dry goods and herbal medicine shops run through narrow shopfronts under old apartment blocks, which plays the same trade market energy as Sham Shui Po's fabric streets. Both pack stock floor to ceiling and spill baskets onto the pavement. Dadaocheng's older Baroque style parapets and brick facades are more ornate than Sham Shui Po's plain postwar concrete, so a shot that includes the upper floors gives away the difference. Try searching dry goods shopfronts now.
Yaowarat in Bangkok, Thailand
Yaowarat Road runs through old shophouse blocks with ground floor trade and flats above, a similar layering to Sham Shui Po's tong lau streets. Gold shops and hardware stalls crowd the pavement the way Apliu Street's electronics stalls do. Yaowarat's dense neon signage and Thai script read differently from Sham Shui Po's bilingual shopfronts in any shot wide enough to catch the signs. Try searching old shophouse blocks now.
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