Hong Kong’s Chung Ying Street, den of smugglers and thieves: the story behind its name

It is difficult to set foot in Chung Ying Street. Visitors need first to obtain a permit at the Sheung Shui police station before they are allowed to pass a checkpoint in the border town of Sha Tau Kok, where Chinese tourists can be seen dragging along suitcases and boxes of baby formula.

Chung Ying Street, which literally translates to China England Street, lies on the border between Hong Kong and Shenzhen and straddled the boundary between China and British Hong Kong during the colonial era.

Being the only area in Hong Kong people from China could access in the early 1980s, Sha Tau Kok was flooded by Chinese tourists, who came to buy goods such as soaps, bolts of fabric and electronic appliances. This turned Chung Ying Street into a bustling shopping area. In the 1980s and 1990s the area received nearly 100,000 tourists a day, says Professor Lau Chi-pang of Lingnan University. Sensing a business opportunity, gold shops and jewellery stores sprang up in Sha Tau Kok.

Lau said Sha Tau Kok residents and shop owners recall the shops selling out of goods and how, before they could even restock the shelves, customers would grab goods directly from the delivery trucks.