Scrooge would feel right at home at transformed Pacific Place mall
The owner of a shop that sells miniature figurines has helped transform Pacific Place into a scene out of A Christmas Carol
It's beginning to look a lot like a Dickens novel. Pacific Place mall has been decked out in homage to one - featuring a mock-up Victorian village complete with red letter boxes, plastic snow and a life-sized model of a portly man in a top hat.
The idea to decorate the luxury city-centre mall after a scene from A Christmas Carol was first broached by Scottish figurine-shop owner Andy Neilson, a long-time Hongkonger who is delighted to see his vision of tiny ye-olde-English men and women and their quaint thatched homes blown up to human proportions.
"It reminds people a bit of Disneyland, but that's not a bad thing," he said. "Walt Disney wanted to create a memory of the past - and we're doing this here - transporting people back in time. Kids love it, and I wish it could stay like this forever."
Neilson, a 65-year-old graphic designer from Renfrew on the outskirts of Glasgow, first set up King and Country - a shop selling high-end toy soldiers and other miniature collectibles - 24 years ago, after a stint in Hong Kong's police force and as the first bar owner in Lan Kwai Fong.
"My hobby was always collecting toy soldiers, and finally my wife Lauren suggested I start making my own, so I did," he said.
Among his loyal fan base are celebrity Mike Myers, who had to be wrenched away by his assistant while going through his stock, and Chris Patten, who in his time as governor would visit the shop on a monthly basis.