Fancy a walk on Hong Kong’s dark side? Take this alternative city tour
From notorious housing problems to income divides and political tensions, two local guides offer a peek at the underside of a glamorous city
Wooden planks, discarded signs and plastic sheets line one side of a bridge along Sham Shui Po’s Tung Chau Street Temporary Market. The blanket of relentless humidity is as heavy as the sombre silence of a tour group led by guide Alla Lau Sui. They are there to see the makeshift dwellings of the homeless – a feature the area is notorious for.
“Hong Kong is a really deceiving society,” Lau says. “It makes sense that tourists only go to the touristy places. From this perspective, Hong Kong seems like a perfect city: it’s crowded, it’s busy, but it’s also glamorous. However, this is not the full story. I think it’s important that we, the local people, are honest about our home.”
‘Like a university lecture’: tourists learn inconvenient truths about Hong Kong
Hong Kong Free Tours began operating in August 2016. It was founded by Michael Tsang Chi-fai, who worked in the finance industries of America and the Netherlands before quitting his job to set up his tour company, comprising just Lau and himself.
“When we started these tours, one of the first things we were certain of was that we didn’t want to do a generic touristy thing,” Tsang says. “The two main messages we want people to take away from this are what has been always in the hearts of Hongkongers.