Can Hong Kong’s Park Lane shopping strip come back to life? Owners hope adding food, drinks will help
- Pandemic has hit fortunes of Tsim Sha Tsui shopping row, once a magnet for mainland Chinese visitors
- Green group raises concerns that emissions from cafes could affect old banyan trees in the area
Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium is among the shops still open along Hong Kong’s Park Lane Shoppers’ Boulevard, a once-thriving tourist draw in Tsim Sha Tsui struggling to come back to life.
“Because of the pandemic, everything is gone. The place is very quiet now,” said Andrew Yu Wai-kit, director of the department store that was among the first to open in the area in 1986.
A third of the 70 shops in the famous row along Nathan Road shut their doors for good during the Covid-19 pandemic as Hong Kong closed to visitors and what used to be a magnet for mainland Chinese visitors is now a shadow of its former self.
Yu’s company owns 19 shops along the strip and, as chairman of the boulevard’s group of owners, he has worked with owners to revive its fortunes.
For starters, they hope to attract more Hong Kong shoppers, instead of waiting for mainland visitors to return.
They have applied for planning approval to convert some units into cafes selling coffee, tea and pastries, among other goods.
But, because of the nearby Kowloon Park, the strip has been barred from having restaurants to prevent environmental pollution.
