Wedding Card Street in Wan Chai vanishes off map for 'high street' plan

The name of Lee Tung Street will vanish from the city's map as developers remodel the heart of old Wan Chai as "the perfect high street".

The 200-metre pedestrian precinct that is replacing what was once affectionately known as "Wedding Card Street" has been dubbed Avenue Walk.

Sino Land associate director Roger Poon said "the name Lee Tung Street will no longer exist on the map" as the area would be traffic-free and not regarded as a street in the government registry.

"We want to re-create the intimate atmosphere of old Wan Chai," Poon said. In Chinese it will be known as or "lane of double happiness", which sounds like the Cantonese phrase, "I like you." Poon said it was an intended coincidence to invoke a sense of belonging.

But activists who campaigned for years against the redevelopment and mounted bitter protests when the site was cleared in 2007, think differently.

Wong Ho-yin, convenor of urban-planning group Land Justice League, said loss of the street name amounted to "erasing the history and identity of the place".