Chocoolate preferred to milk tea as landlord raises rent

Lan Fong Cafe, a typical cha chaan teng serving milk tea and Swiss sauce chicken wings near Times Square, closed its doors at the weekend after serving the neighbourhood for more than two decades.

Its rent more than doubled, forcing it out in favour of clothing retailer I.T, according to Lan Fong staff. Its neighbouring stores are Chocoolate, a brand under I.T, and clothing brand Roxy.

Lan Fong is just the latest victim of soaring rents in an area popular with mainlanders. As Chinese University's associate professor of economics Terence Chong Tai-leung put it: 'Only big brands can survive. It's impossible to sell egg tarts next to a Louis Vuitton flagship store.'

The UA Cinema, which had operated on the second floor of Times Square for 18 years, has closed and will move to the 12th floor of the mall. Louis Vuitton will move into the prime space it used to occupy.

Old San Yang, a shop selling traditional food and hairy crabs on the busy pedestrian link between Times Square and the Sogo department store, moved to a quieter street last year after three decades in business.

In Tsim Sha Tsui, the flagship bookshop of The Commercial Press moved from Star House next to Harbour City - a magnet for tourists - to the Miramar Shopping Centre as long ago as 2007. Hon Wing Book, having operated in Sai Yeung Choi Street for four decades, packed up its textbooks and headed to Jordan last year.