Dear Mr Know-It-All,
What’s up with Apliu Street in Sham Shui Po? Why is there just so much… stuff… everywhere?
–Electronics Overload
There’s always been a market on Apliu Street. The area is one of Hong Kong’s oldest: the street itself it was originally a village, well known for raising ducks—“ap liu” means “duck coop.” As Sham Shui Po expanded (it once lay on the waterline, believe it or not), Ap Liu Village became Apliu Street.
As Sham Shui Po developed, in the 1930s the market transformed from a village street into a market for second-hand goods: the “Cat Street of Kowloon.” Vinyl record stalls were a popular addition: Paul Au of Vinyl Hero (Flat D, 5/F, Wai Hong Building, 239 Cheung Sha Wan Rd., Sham Shui Po, 9841-7136) spent years flogging old records on Apliu Street before moving his collection just around the corner. And that flea market feel has never left.
But when the 1960s hit Hong Kong, Ap Liu Street was at the forefront of the Made in Hong Kong revolution: the whole area retooled itself as an electronics parts hub, with everything from resistors to transistors to vacuum tubes and circuit-breakers. For a while, the government even tried to brand Apliu Street as the Hong Kong version of Tokyo’s Akihabara. Worth a go, right?
These days Ap Liu street is an fantastic mélange of its past as a flea market, and its more recent past as an electronics center. You’ll find ancient dusty remote controls, bright new LEDs, esoteric batteries and extraordinary lightbulbs. You’ll see flocks of antique cameras, threads of fairy lights, coils of power drills and nests of cabling. Want an old satellite box? An ancient LCD screen? An original Gameboy? An almost certainly broken rangefinder camera? Apliu Street greets you with open arms. Welcome to paradise, boys. Bargain well.
Mr. Know-It-All answers your questions and quells your urban concerns. Send queries, troubles or problems to [email protected].