10 of Hong Kong’s best attractions of old, from the Star Ferry Pier and Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park to Bottoms Up
- Demolished, discontinued or simply overtaken by the passage of time, these sights were once sought out by locals and visitors to the city alike
- On the list: the Poor Man’s Nightclub, Tiger Balm Garden, Disco Disco, Flying Machine, the Hong Kong Club Building, the Lok Ma Chau Lookout, rickshaws and more
The route from hero to zero is all too often a descent that is as swift as it is shocking, as a touristic must-see one year becomes a has-been the next. And so it has proved with many of Hong Kong’s former top attractions that have been demolished, discontinued or simply overtaken by the passage of time.
Here are 10 attractions once sought out by locals and visitors to the city but which no longer grace the pages of guidebooks.
1. Dai Tat Dei / Poor Man’s Nightclub
No marketing department came up with the idea for Poor Man’s Nightclub – it just grew up as an alfresco market beside the harbour, near the Macau ferry terminal.
Cheerful, cheap and charismatic, it was untainted by bureaucrats and was a magnet for anyone who wanted to shop for clothes or handicrafts, grab a plate of fried clams, consult one of the self-professed medical experts on site, or listen to snatches of Chinese opera.
Lit by kerosene lamps and – get this – rent-free, Dai Tat Dei (“big patch of land”) was attracting some 300 hawkers a night by the mid-1970s. It was too good to last, of course, and the market was deleted as part of the Shun Tak development in 1992.
2. Disco Disco
Founded in 1978 by the flamboyant, wealthy Gordon Huthart, and given a camp Egyptian shtick, the D’Aguilar Street discothèque was a huge hit with the (very-closeted) gay community and indeed anyone wearied by the stodgy scene that passed for nightlife in Hong Kong at the time.
