Out and about
Backstreet Central offers much more than SoHo's somewhat over-hyped dining scene. The area's 'international' flavour dissipates beyond the Man Mo Temple, on Hollywood Road, into overwhelmingly Chinese Sheung Wan. Generations of tourists have felt slightly daring as they poke around dusty antiques shops and venture into the incense-darkened recesses of Man Mo.
Like most early Hong Kong roads, Hollywood, SoHo's main thoroughfare, was built by the British Army's Royal Engineers. Contrary to tourist mythology, the name has nothing to do with the Californian film capital or holly trees. Hollywood Road was named by Hong Kong's second governor, Sir John Davis, after his family home in England. Many attractive residences were on Hollywood Road at that time, along with several European-staffed brothels around Lyndhurst Terrace.
Man Mo - one of Hong Kong's best-known temples - is dedicated to the gods of literature and war. The first building was constructed in 1847, with later additions in the 1850s. The stone lions in the forecourt were presented by the Pork Butcher's Guild in 1851, silent testimony to the relative prosperity of early colonial life. Newly elected directors of the Tung Wah Hospital meet at the temple for an annual ritual that confirms their acceptance of responsibility for the community's welfare. A plaque inside commends the temple committee for its flood relief work in late 19th-century China. The temple has often been used as a film set, including in scenes from the 1960 movie The World of Suzie Wong.
Antiques shops have been popular here for decades. Merchandise on offer varies from museum-quality Ming and Qing furniture to reproductions of popular items. Most are made either from huang hua li, the honey-coloured wood much used in north China, or shuen tsi (blackwood), traditionally favoured by the southern Chinese. Mao-era posters and reproductions of 'old Hong Kong' photographs can be found in some shops; plenty of gullible tourists have been deceived by the studied atmosphere of Confucian integrity and scholarly quiet. However, numerous genuine cultural treasures have found their way into the hands of private collectors via Hollywood Road's shops; antiques provide a good cover for money laundering.
Along with antiques, coffin shops have been a somewhat macabre feature of the area for many years. Chinese-style coffins made from tree trunks are much more costly than western-style caskets; the most expensive come from Liuzhou, in southwest China.
The old Police Married Quarters on Hollywood Road were built on the site of a place of learning that stood there from 1889 to 1950. Recent archaeological digs at the site have unearthed remains of the Central School, which became the Queen's College in 1894.