Walk within the City, Unfold the Stories Untold

Discover hidden stories by taking a stroll through the Lee Gardens Area with an array of cultural contrast and diversity.

When stepping into the Lee Gardens Area, it does not take much for one to discover that it is a diverse and inclusive community that artfully blends Eastern and Western elements.  Historical buildings and shops of unique styles and characters are nestled in the heart of this vibrant landscape in alternate layers, providing different options for visitors. When we explore the Lee Gardens Area with City Walk and see the area with a new perspective, we may even discover new untold stories.

Inspired by London Walk in the United Kingdom, City Walk is a tour that offers people the chance to explore the rich history and culture of the city while appreciating its authentic beauty. Nowadays, City Walk has become an emerging tourism concept. Everyone is free to join the walk and explore areas of their interest, searching for special moments and places within the city to their liking. When joining a guided tour, one may learn more about the city from different perspectives, including its architecture, history, geography, and culture.

On a traditional sightseeing tour, you may only get a glimpse of the surface, whereas City Walk takes you in deeper where you can connect with locals. It lets you experience their history, learn about local favourites, and discover little secrets tucked away in the corners of the city. You may also have the chance to participate in local traditional festivals, such as the Running of the Bulls in Spain, the Sendai Tanabata Festival, or the Shirakawa-go Winter Light-up. These events allow you to integrate with the locals and get a taste of their everyday lives.

As City Walk becomes more popular, some may leave their high-paying jobs to guide people through the streets and alleys of Hong Kong. Paul Chan Chi-yuan resigned from a government job over a decade ago and co-founded a local tourism group - “Walk in Hong Kong”. Over the years, he has guided many visitors to different parts of the city, embellishing their experience with different stories. For example, he has taken visitors to local cafes to try classic Hong Kong-style milk tea, to classic film locations to discover their hidden stories, and to master craftsmen to learn movable type printing. Visitors have been able to see Hong Kong from different angles and know more about its lesser-known history and culture, creating a unique and unforgettable travel experience.

Paul co-founded a local tourism group - “Walk in Hong Kong” to create original experiences for tourists.

After graduating with his master's degree, Paul journeyed to various countries and participated in different guided tours. Thinking back on his first experience, he remembers the feeling of joy, awe, and excitement. "The tour guide took us to see the city through his lenses; the stories, the happenings, the past and present through their interpretation." Unlike traditional tours, these tour guides must have a deep understanding of the route and be able to articulate information. Along the tour, they may project a different viewpoint of the city and share the history and culture of the place, giving a local perspective that cannot be found in books. Paul also discovered that tourism is a good medium to showcase a city, and guided tours are usually what give the first impression to tourists. As a result, he came up with the idea of ​​providing immersive tours of Hong Kong that allow everyone to explore lesser-known areas and create their own memorable scenes in the city.

“Tourists who visited Hong Kong over a decade ago had a relatively stereotyped impression of Hong Kong. That was mainly because their impression of Hong Kong only scraped the surface, which consisted largely of skyscrapers, shopping malls, the Peak, and other scenic spots." Paul explained. But through in-depth tourism, they will discover that Hong Kong is layered and is more than just a city to "Eat, Shop, and Play". More importantly, they will learn that it is a city worth visiting again. Taking the Lee Gardens Area as an example, Paul once co-organised the “Lee Gardens Under the Invisibility Cloak" guided tour with Lee Gardens Association. The tour took participants to post-war tenement buildings and encouraged them to engage their five senses while visiting different shops in Lee Gardens Area.

"After thoroughly exploring each store, I discovered that there are secrets within this cluster of tenement buildings," he recalled. There are playful innovative shops, such as Badges Story which collects many out-of-print Queen Elizabeth II series coins, banknotes, and stamps. There is the century-old Tai Ping Koon Restaurant, a traditional time-honoured brand that retains old Hong Kong vibes. There are also localised foreign brand shops, such as the first Leica Camera flagship store in Hong Kong. Not only can people go shopping and enjoy diverse cuisines, but also join guided tours. They visit tenement buildings, check out old and new shops, and then have in-depth conversations with shop owners to learn about their store concepts. Paul believes that this unique experience opens up Lee Gardens Area for exploration, where people can blend different perspectives, discover its humanity, and uncover its history and culture.

Paul once co-organised the “Lee Gardens Under the Invisibility Cloak" guided tour with Lee Gardens Association, touring participants around post-war tenement buildings to uncover the historical and cultural roots of the area.

We barely delve into the backstories of the streets we often pass by. However, when these places and stories are tied together with a theme, it becomes easier to arouse people’s curiosity. The Java apple trees on Hysan Avenue bear fruit every summer. Using it as a core theme, Paul created a guided tour in Causeway Bay centred on these trees. He even brought along Java apples, so participants could taste the sweet and sour flavour of the fruit as they walked under the Java apple trees. These ideas may be small, but it’s the thoughtfulness of these ideas that draws people back to visit again.

Paul also organised a comprehensive tour centred around films and trams. The tours began on a tram from Causeway Bay that passed through Causeway Bay Road, Hysan Place, and then to Sheung Wan. Participants then visited different nearby locations, including Kau U Fong, Mee Lun Street, PMQ, Tank Lane, and Western Market. During the tour, they searched for locations where classic film scenes were shot, including the films Rouge, In the Mood for Love, Internal Affairs, and The Way We Dance. These first-hand experiences allowed them to be more immersed in the films. New directors were invited to share their behind-the-scenes stories and creative inspirations for film production. "The most unexpected thing is that in addition to locals coming on the tour, there are also many tourists from Shenzhen and Guangzhou," Paul recalled.

He also found that tourists from Guangzhou and Shenzhen enjoy watching modern Hong Kong films. He was pleasantly surprised. "Hong Kong's popular culture has a strong influence. Some tourists even seek specific spots where certain films were shot." He believes that the way to expand in-depth tourism is to combine it with popular culture. "These films capture the beauty of the place. When people watch them, they become fascinated and develop the desire to explore and build connections with such places,” he explained. Visitors are captivated throughout these tours by familiar locations from films. Real-life scenery intertwines with imagery from the films to create an intimate and immersive experience that evokes emotions.

Paul also organised an in-depth tour that combined films and trams, allowing visitors to ride the tram and view film locations from different perspectives.

Gary Wong, the founder of Film Pilgrimage, is a cinephile and devotes his free time to his interests. He created the page, gathered information, interviewed film producers, and wrote articles, bringing forth the behind-the-scenes magic of Hong Kong films. Later, he wrote books, held lectures and seminars, and even collaborated with different films to organise guided tours. Hong Kong is also known as the "Hollywood of the East". He hopes that through Hong Kong's rich film resources, more people will start paying more attention to the city’s aesthetics and development.

Gary Wong, the founder of Film Pilgrimage, has kept records of Hong Kong films and stories. He hopes to share the beauty of the city with more people.

"Locals sometimes just see the streets and alleys of the city for what they are." Gary said. They live in the same place day in, day out, so they may focus on their lives instead of looking for details and stories behind these places. Gary had once thought the same until he met a Japanese friend who loved Hong Kong films. When this friend visited Hong Kong, he took him around to explore some of the hidden Hong Kong film locations. This experience made him realise that those ordinary streets contain stories worth exploring. He also met the British website Hong Kong Cinemagic moderator by chance. He was surprised that there were foreigners who loved Hong Kong films so much that they would form a comprehensive database about them, including film information, interviews with film stars, and film trailers. This prompted him to start Film Pilgrimage, hoping to create different ways for people to get to know Hong Kong and the uniqueness of its films, "Hong Kong films are comparable to western films because behind every filming location lies the distinctive culture and history of the city. Every part is a fusion of past and present Hong Kong with a touch of influence from China and other countries."

Most Hong Kong films are shot on location, so there is a certain connection between the film and the city. Gary believes that the city and films have a symbiotic relationship where the city enriches the film, and the film becomes a medium to preserve the city’s past. For example, the design concept of Sunning Plaza, now merged with Sunning Court and redeveloped as Lee Garden Three, by I.M. Pei is to setback the building to free up space between the building and the road. The space between them serves as a lobby square, thus enhancing the majesty of the building. In the Hong Kong film A Better Tomorrow, the scene of Big Brother Cheng, played by Waise Lee, walking out of the main entrance of Sunning Plaza complements the grandeur of the building, making it one of the most classic scenes in history.

"Modern directors, that I know of, pay more attention to scene setups because they have witnessed the changes in Hong Kong in recent years and hope to capture elements that are about to fade," Gary further discovered. When selecting film locations, new directors may choose places that hold special meanings to them, so they can create more compelling stories that resonate with the audience. For example, director Chan Kin-long used to live in Yau Tsim Mong and studied in Sham Shui Po. When filming Hand Rolled Cigarette, he would use locations close to where he grew up, such as Chungking Mansions, Mirador Mansion, Kansu Street, Parkes Street, Ning Po Street, Nathan Road, and Tai Nan Street. These perspectives and personal experiences of locals add a personal dimension to the film, making the story more real and relatable.

Hong Kong films are a fusion of past and present Hong Kong with a touch of influence from China and other countries.

Since Gary started sharing Hong Kong film locations on Film Pilgrimage, he has been in contact with people from different walks of life, including filmmakers. During exclusive interviews with directors, they discuss the production process of the film, he asks questions about the connection between the film and the city. Gary posts these exclusive interviews on his page. "Filmmakers share stories of their filmmaking process. Stories that we would never know otherwise, and they provide a new insight into the film world.” He once conducted an exclusive interview with director Soi Cheang. In the film Limbo, the director searched for locations that would soon be changed so that he could record the appearance of Hong Kong during that period. The ending scenes of the film were shot at To Kwa Wan and Kwun Tong, where redevelopment has been taking place. These two communities were extremely prosperous in the past, full of factories such as shipyards, garment factories, cotton mills, old shops, open-air food stalls, and cinemas. When the film was released, both districts were already under reconstruction such that Limbo became an important medium in preserving its history. The director's stories broadened the audience’s perspective on the film and their understanding of the area, making the experience much deeper and more meaningful.

"Films record the history of a city. When the city has changed and you want to see what it looked like in the past, you can only see it through films." Gary said emotionally. Several old tenement buildings are along the way in the bustling streets of Causeway Bay. Among them, the tenement building at No. 58 to 60 Percival Street deeply captivated him. "This building is part of the main scene in G Affairs. Many distinctive scenes were recorded in the film that showcased the local elements of Hong Kong. For example, the green terrazzo handrails on the stairs of tenement buildings are becoming increasingly rare nowadays. Through these films, we can appreciate the delicate craftsmanship of places everyone often overlooks.

The film G Affairs showcased the meticulous craftsmanship of tenement buildings.

He also described the Lee Gardens Area as a “film world” due to the many films shot there. For example, Wonder Women, Lee Rock, and Young Cops all used the Lee Gardens Area as their background; The Laser People record store on Hoi Ping Road was filmed in All’s Well, Ends Well; In the Mood for Love, 2046, Final Victory, The Longest Nite, etc. were all filmed at the Goldfinch Restaurant on Lan Fong Road; and Bruce Lee's Game of Death was filmed in The Red Pepper Restaurant. These locations created classic films one after another, but in the end, they could not withstand the changes of the times and eventually disappeared. "In films, we can still see the urban landscapes of the past," said Gary. The old streets may have become part of history, but fortunately, some films have recorded their appearance and will forever preserve them.

Gary also believes that films can reintroduce lost culture. "Through films, you can see the social life and status of Hong Kong at that time." Take the film The Longest Nite as an example. One of the characters tells another character that they can find out who they are just by dialling the phone. The line refers to the old rotary phones that require rotating the dial instead of pressing a button when making a phone call. This dialogue is a record of that specific time. Through the film, people today can learn more about the culture and the language they used in the past." Gary explained. We can look back on the past and feel the changes and the flow of history. Little by little, we are introduced to the city once again.

Lee Gardens Area is a “film world” due to the many films shot there. The Red Pepper Restaurant is one of the filming locations of Game of Death starring Mr. Bruce Lee.

As time passes, some of the scenery we take for granted may disappear. However, the history and cultural stories remain. When we view our community from different perspectives, we can discover its hidden charms: City Walk allows people to take in Hong Kong's essence; films create snapshots of our society at that time. Though the filming location no longer mirrors its former self, it still preserves the city’s rich historical legacy.       Let us slow down our pace, take the time to explore the past and present of this city, and discover its unsung community stories.