Geography of Sham Shui Po

Hi this is Philip and I am going to show you how interesting the Geography of Sham Shui Po is.

Sham Shui Po, which lies on the (relatively) flat land in Kowloon, is one the most run-down area and the poorest area in Hong Kong in terms of income of residents. But the whole Sham Shui Po is too large for knowing more in-depth. So, my area of investigation was somewhere near the exits of Sham Shui Po MTR Station. To be more precise, it is the area encompassed by Apliu Street, Yen Chow Street, Fuk Wing Street and Nam Cheong Street – with Cheung Sha Wan Road being the artery, intersects the area. Being a highly accessible area with ready service of public transport, such as buses and MTR, Sham Shui Po should be an area with unlimited potentials.

This area is mainly covered by low-rise residential/commercial buildings of mixed land use, i.e. buildings with the lower storeys being in commercial use, with upper storeys residential flats. Although Sham Shui Po is relatively the poorest, it is also one of the busiest areas in Hong Kong in terms of small business (i.e. not run by large corporations). 

In these photos you can see there are stalls on the sides of Apliu Street, with the products sold are mainly electrical ones (especially the low-end ones), such as wires, bulbs and small appliances. You can never find brand-named electrical appliances and gadgets, for instance mobile phones and computers.

When we switch the focus to Fuk Wing and Fuk Wa Streets, you may feel that there are not much difference, but if you look better in it, I can say you are wrong. In Fuk Wa Street, the buildings are slightly taller – with the stalls on the sides of the road selling more domestic products such as clothes and kitchen utensils. Completely different, man! 

And in Fuk Wing Street, you can see buildings that are even taller – but no more stalls. Instead, a more complex commercial area is spotted. You can see the Golden Computer Centre (高登; “Golden” in Cantonese transliteration) and Golden Computer Arcade (黃金; English translation for “Golden”).

With more varieties of business being seen, Sham Shui Po is an area with more possibilities in the future that may one day become the wealthiest district in Hong Kong.