Our journey to...
Sheung Wan
Sheung Wan, a place with vital historic meanings, It was the earliest occupied area in 1842 by the British troop. The occupation of Hong Kong Island began at Possession Street, which was the shoreline at that time, `You can find a plaque in Hollywood Road Park about the British Occupation.
This journey to Sheung Wan has opened a door for us to see the cultural sides of Hong Kong!
Hey, travellers! Are you ready to start the journey? Let's Go!!
Preservation with nostalgia - the Wing Lee street
Narrator: Chester
With mountains of modern skycrappers in Sheung Wan, there is a street tracing the time back to 1960s. Walking through this street, you could feel every bricks and walls reflecting their old stories...
Wing Lee Street is a street located on the middle of the mountain slope. This special feature had isolated Wing Lee Street from the crowd and it then became a small community in the 60s. The old tenement buildings were enclosed with some little fences where children would play their games, housewives would make the meals and men would even do their washings here in the old days.
Besides, there were many small traditional factories in the past like some small printing factories and shoes shops in Wing Lee Street. Therefore, most of the men here only needed to walk for a few steps and work nearby in those factories. These scences of the “old Hong Kong” were not only the collective memories of the older generation in Hong Kong , but also become the inspiration of people nowadays towards the past century. Credit to the movie, the Echoes of the Rainbow, Wing Lee street is now well preserved with renovation, even the damaged walls and the broken fabrics are now repaired for public admiration.
Although Wing Lee Street is now renovated and renewed, the traditional nostalgic atmosphere has not disappeared . Stepping up the staircases in the tenement buildings, we could still feel how the lives of the past used to be. In my opinion, preserving Wing Lee Street does not only keep the memories of an old era, but also give us a chance to cherish the past living styles in Hong Kong where people were diligent and would think happily and optimistically with simplicity even when they were facing the hard time. It is really grateful that the nostalgic street can eventually be presevered as keeping our cultural herritage for the next generation.
(Photo source: the echoes of the Rainbow. Retrieved from: http://lifetea.org/article/2691/-)
