TWENTY FIVE years ago, Tsim Sha Tsui was the beating heart of Hong Kong, a mecca for tourists, shoppers and night-time revellers. After dark, expatriates and local celebrities would queue outside Polaris at the Hyatt or The Peninsula's basement disco while the surrounding bars thronged with party-goers. 'It's where everybody went,' recalls lawyer and businessman Robert Wang, who grew up in Nathan Road's Mirador Mansion in the 1960s and 70s.
Nathan Road was then the Golden Mile. Now it is better known for tourist rip-offs than as one of the most sought-after stretches of property in the world. Tsim Sha Tsui has become a giant building site as the KCRC digs for its East Rail project; pedestrians need a hard hat, earplugs and the body-swerving ability of a break dancer to negotiate its shabby streets. Even travel agents have warned tourists away.
'The heart has been ripped out,' says Wang. 'All you can see is faded glory. In the 1970s there was hardly any nightlife in Central, Wan Chai was still for sailors and Suzie Wong while Causeway Bay wasn't a dining and entertainment district. Tsim Sha Tsui was the place to hang out.'
Stephen Anderson, owner of the Kangaroo Pub, which has been on Ashley Road for more than a decade, agrees. 'Twenty years ago this area was packed. This was where people came,' he says. Over the past two decades, however, Lan Kwai Fong and SoHo have sprung up in Central, Wan Chai engineered a makeover and Causeway Bay became a nightlife hub. While Tsim Sha Tsui developed Knutsford Terrace and scattered bars sprung up, Wang and Anderson believe the area has stagnated while others have prospered.
Both Wang and Anderson, however, have separate plans to put the heart - and soul - back into TST, or Tsimsy, as it is affectionately known. So too does the Miramar Hotel and Investment Company. All three are aiming to develop focused entertainment districts in TST, complete with outdoor dining, entertainment and Mediterranean-style terraces. Perhaps predictably, the proposals - at least those of Wang and the Miramar Group - aim to position TST as Kowloon's Lan Kwai Fong. They are within five minutes' walk of each other.
Wang was first to go public with his scheme. In April he announced that together withentrepreneur Giacondo Maurellio - one of the first restaurateurs attracted to LKF in the early 80s - he intended to turn Minden Avenue, east of Nathan Road, into Kowloon's Lan Kwai Fong by the end of 2003. Backed by heavyweight developers Henderson Land and Sun Hung Kai Properties, the $6-billion project envisages 50 restaurants, pubs, karaoke bars, Internet cafes and clubs centred around an eight-sq-metre television screen and balcony stage for live performances.
