Lan Kwai Fong

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Lan Kwai Fong's bars spread to D'Aguilar Street

Lan Kwai Fong (Traditional Chinese: 蘭桂坊; pinyin: Lánguìfāng) is a small square of streets in Central, Central and Western district, Hong Kong. The area was dedicated to hawkers before the Second World War, but underwent a renaissance in the mid 1980s. It is now a most popular expatriate haunt in Hong Kong for drinking and dining. The street Lan Kwai Fong is a L-shape with two ends joining with D'Aguilar Street.

1 History
2 Location
3 Features
4 Special occasions
5 Notable restaurants and bars
6 Accessibility
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

Before the Second World War, Lan Kwai Fong was previously dedicated to hawkers.

In early days, the square housed many mui yan (媒人, lit. medium person), or marriage arrangers, a role exclusively held by females. Mui yan was a marriage medium between two families in the old days. It was thus known as Mui Yan Hong (媒人巷, lit. medium person lane) or Hong Leung Hong (紅娘巷).

In 1980s, German-Canadian businessman Allan Zeman, also known as the father of Lan Kwai Fong, invested 32 million Hong Kong dollars to buy a whole building and renovate it as Western restaurants. The place soon became a meeting place for foreigners in Hong Kong. The square, together with a homosexual disco Disco Disco founded earlier in 1978 in D'Aguilar Street, made Lan Kwai Fong and its surroundings a famous spot for night life.

[edit] Location

Lan Kwai Fong at night.

Lan Kwai Fong as an area is defined by D'Aguilar Street and the smaller lane, Lan Kwai Fong, an L-shaped, cobble-stoned lane. Both streets turn 90 degrees to form a rectangle. From the west side of the rectangle, Wo On Lane and Wing Wah Lane extend to host several more spots for drinks and food. The area arguably extends to Wellington Street and Wyndham Street, through to the Hong Kong Fringe Club. It is also home to a small number of art galleries.

[edit] Features

Lan Kwai Fong is perhaps Hong Kong's most popular and well known area for a night out. Boasting numerous bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants, it is a popular choice for the well off locals, expatriates and tourists. The high costs associated with the area makes this a relatively high class location, although the quality and reputation of this area is obvious virtually every night. Visiting on a Friday or Saturday night you may be overwhelmed by the enormous crowds that fill the streets (which are closed for several hours to vehicular traffic), with all bars having only standing room. It is interesting to see that, as mentioned, a majority of the crowds are in fact expatriates or international students. It is one of the few places where English is the overwhelmingly predominant language, although many of the Chinese who are there are most likely to be bilingual.

[edit] Special occasions

The crowds during special occasions such as Halloween or New Year's Eve put the place at a literal standstill with the large numbers. Police control is guaranteed, to manage the crowds. On 1 January 1993, 21 people were killed in the crush of huge crowds of people celebrating the New Year's Day in Lan Kwai Fong. The location's narrow streets and a sloped gradient, poor police planning and bad weather all contributed to this disaster.