Lan Kwai Fong - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Lan Kwai Fong is a small square of streets in Central

Central, Hong Kong

Central is the central business district of Hong Kong. It is located in Central and Western District, on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui, the southernmost point of Kowloon Peninsula...

, Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. The area was dedicated to hawkers

Hawker (trade)

A hawker is a vendor of merchandise that can be easily transported; the term is roughly synonymous with peddler or costermonger. In most places where the term is used, a hawker sells items or food that are native to the area...

before the Second World War, but underwent a renaissance in the mid 1980s. It is now a popular expatriate

Expatriate

An expatriate is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing...

haunt in Hong Kong

Hong Kong

for drinking, clubbing and dining. The street Lan Kwai Fong is an L-shape with two ends joining with D'Aguilar Street

D'Aguilar Street

D'Aguilar Street is a street in Central, Hong Kong. It is an L-shaped street starting from Queen's Road Central, at Entertainment Building. It runs uphill and meets various featured streets Stanley Street, Wellington Street, Wo On Lane and Lan Kwai Fong in the area...

History

Before the Second World War, Lan Kwai Fong was previously dedicated to hawkers

Hawker (trade)

.

In early days, the square housed many mui yan (媒人, lit. medium person), or marriage arrangers, a role exclusively held by females. Mui yan was a marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

medium between two families in the olden days. It was thus known as Mui Yan Hong (媒人巷, lit. medium person lane) or Hong Leung Hong (紅娘巷).

In 1975, German-Canadian businessman Allan Zeman

Allan Zeman

Allan Zeman GBM, GBS, JP is a Hong Kong billionaire businessman. He was born in Germany, raised in Canada and is of Jewish descent. He is known in Hong Kong as the Father of Lan Kwai Fong ....

, also known as the father of Lan Kwai Fong, moved to Hong Kong. He felt it needed a western style restaurant, so he opened “California” in 1983 in Lan Kwai Fong which became his claim to fame. One year later, following this success, Zeman invested HK$32 million to buy a whole block and began a new career as an entertainer and property developer eventually founding the Lan Kwai Group and developing this location into one of Hong Kong’s most popular entertainment destinations for expatriates as well as tourists. Friday and Saturday nights are often jammed with people, leading to vehicle traffic being suspended at certain times, giving the streets over to pedestrians. The square, together with a gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

club "Disco Disco" founded earlier in 1978 in D'Aguilar Street, made Lan Kwai Fong and its surroundings a famous spot for night life.

From 2011, a massive change was underway, following Zeman's decision to replace his block in Lan Kwai Fong. This led to a substantial area of Lan Kwai Fong becoming a construction site, surely helping boost business in the booming bars just above, along Wyndham Street.

Location

Lan Kwai Fong as an area is defined by D'Aguilar Street and the smaller lane, Lan Kwai Fong, an L-shaped, cobble-stoned lane. Both streets turn 90 degrees to form a rectangle. From the west side of the rectangle, Wo On Lane and Wing Wah Lane extend to host several more spots for drinks and food. The area arguably extends to Wellington Street

Wellington Street, Hong Kong

Wellington Street is a street in Central and Sheung Wan on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is a straight road running downward and westward from Wyndham Street to Queen's Road Central. The two sides of street is a mosaic of old and new buildings. Varieties of trades can be found on the street level...

and Wyndham Street

Wyndham Street

Wyndham Street is a one-way street in Central, Hong Kong. It is one of the earliest colonial streets, once known as Pedder Hill.It starts at the junction with Hollywood Road and Arbuthnot Road, near the Central Police Station, and heads downhill to terminate at Queen's Road Central, near the...

, through to the Hong Kong Fringe Club

Hong Kong Fringe Club

The Hong Kong Fringe Club is a not-for-profit organisation in Hong Kong. It is located in the "Old Dairy Farm Depot" at 2 Lower Albert Road in Central, next to the Foreign Correspondents' Club...

. It is also home to a small number of art galleries.

Special occasions

The crowds during special occasions such as Halloween

Halloween

Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...

or New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

put the place at a literal standstill with the large numbers. Police

Hong Kong Police Force

The Hong Kong Police Force is the largest disciplined service under the Security Bureau of Hong Kong. It is the world's second, and Asia's first, police agency to operate with a modern policing system. It was formed on 1 May 1844, with a strength of 32 officers...

control is guaranteed, to manage the crowds.

Stampede

On 1 January 1993, 21 people were killed and 48 injured in a large-scale human stampede whilst celebrating the New Year's Day

New Year's Day

New Year's Day is observed on January 1, the first day of the year on the modern Gregorian calendar as well as the Julian calendar used in ancient Rome...

in Lan Kwai Fong. The location's narrow streets and a sloped gradient, poor police planning and bad weather all contributed to this disaster

Disaster

A disaster is a natural or man-made hazard that has come to fruition, resulting in an event of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life, or drastic change to the environment...

.

More than 15,000 people were crammed into the area for the New Year countdown at the time. The Hong Kong government appointed then-Court of First Instance

Court of First Instance (Hong Kong)

The Court of First Instance is one of two courts in the High Court of Hong Kong. The court has unlimited jurisdiction in both civil and criminal matters...

judge Kemal Bokhary

Kemal Bokhary

Syed Kemal Shah Bokhary is a judge in Hong Kong. , he serves as one of the three Permanent Judges of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal.-Early life and family:...

to conduct an inquest into the disaster. The stringent crowd control measures now in force at major holiday events are a direct consequence of the inquest's recommendations.

Transport

There are several ways to access Lan Kwai Fong other than taxi, which include:

Public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

MTR
MTR
Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system in Hong Kong. Originally opened in 1979, the system now includes 211.6 km of rail with 155 stations, including 86 railway stations and 69 light rail stops...

, Central Station
Central (MTR)
Central station is an MTR station located in the Central area of Hong Kong Island. The station's livery is firebrick red, except for the station's Tsuen Wan Line platform where its livery is dark brown...

, Exit "D2"
Airport Express
Airport Express
Airport Express can refer to the following:*AirPort Express, a wireless product by Apple Inc.*Several airport rail links are named Airport Express:**Airport Express , the airport transit service in Beijing, China...

, Hong Kong Station
Hong Kong (MTR)
Hong Kong Station is the eastern terminus of the Tung Chung Line and Airport Express of the Hong Kong MTR metro system, situated between Man Cheung Street and Harbour View Street, Central, Hong Kong Island, and sits underneath the International Finance Centre...

, Exit "B2"

Public bus
Bus
A bus is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers. Buses can have a capacity as high as 300 passengers. The most common type of bus is the single-decker bus, with larger loads carried by double-decker buses and articulated buses, and smaller loads carried by midibuses and minibuses; coaches are...

, route no. 12m, 13, 23A and 40M

Green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

light bus
Public light bus
A Public light bus is a common public mode of transport in Hong Kong. It mainly serves the area that standard Hong Kong bus lines cannot reach as efficiently. It is also colloquially known as a minibus or a van, defined as a kind of share taxi....

, route no. 10A & 10B

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