In search of the perfect Hong Kong picture, Instagram tourists test locals’ patience
- Snap-happy travellers are turning some of Hong Kong’s best known neighbourhoods into hot spots of obstructive activity
- They often ignore signs warning against shooting photos and disturbing residents, and sometimes pose a danger to themselves
For smartphone-wielding hordes of tourists, Hong Kong boasts a host of must-have Instagram locations. But crowds of snap-happy travellers are testing the patience of locals and transforming once quaint pockets of the bustling metropolis.
Tony Hui recalls how elderly residents always used to play cards in a courtyard in the middle of the densely packed housing block where he owns a dry cleaning store.
The building, in the city’s Quarry Bay neighbourhood, is one of the city’s best known residential complexes, famed for tightly knit flats towering above three sides of a thin courtyard. But in recent years, daily throngs of tourists have relegated the card players to a dark corner of the courtyard.
“You might say the elderly have made way for the photo takers’ convenience, to not get in their way,” Hui concedes.
The building has long been a draw for street photographers and architecture enthusiasts, but social media has helped turn it into a mass tourist attraction, fuelled by its appearance in a recent Transformers blockbuster film and the remake of the Japanese manga classic Ghost in the Shell.