King Wah Centre
| King Wah Centre | |
|---|---|
| 瓊華中心 | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Location |
Mong Kok Hong Kong |
| Address | 628 Nathan Road, Mongkok, Kowloon |
| Opening | 1955 |
| Closed | 2013 |
The King Wah Centre (Chinese: 瓊華中心), situated around Shantung Street and Nathan Road, is one of the most popular places in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong, China. The 16-storey building features seven restaurant floors, three karaoke floors, along with 136 stores selling a variety of fashionable products.
History
Former usage
The King Wah Restaurant (瓊華大酒樓) formerly occupied the site of the King Wah Centre.[1] In 1955, ‘The king of dim sum restaurants’ Tan Jie Nan from Foshan opened the classical Chinese style King Wah Restaurant in Shantung Street. The floor area of the five storey building was approximately 40,000 square feet (3,700 m2) and used for banquets hosting more than 150 diners.[2] It was landmark in Mong Kok, especially their large advertisement for moon cake displayed during the Mid-Autumn Festival as a symbol of the restaurant's reputation .[3] It was closed in 1989 after which two hundred million was spent constructing the shopping malls and offices over 16 floors .
Current role
King Wah Centre is the hub of popular clothing and fashion accessory in Mong Kok. Its target customers are mainly teenagers in Hong Kong.[4] Shops in the Centre are privately owned and relatively small in size.
Refurbishment
In June 2013, all of the 130 original tenants moved out of the King Wah Centre, which was taken over by the Sincere Department Store, one of the oldest local department stores in Hong Kong. Sincere had successfully defeated the U.S. clothing brand Forever 21 in bidding for the King Wah Centre. The rent will be in a monthly rate of HKD $600,000 and $200 per square feet with a rental period of 10 years. The Sincere shop in Grand Century Place (新世紀廣場) is currently undergoing refurbishment and is expected to be much smaller in size after the renovation, therefore, Sincere found that the current location of King Wah Centre would a perfect location for Sincere to expand their business further in the same district.[5]
Culture
Kingwah Chinese Restaurant (1960s–1990s)
It was the landmark of Mong Kok at that time that it cohered the local community by catering for different occasions. One example of unwritten tradition was that on horse racing days, gamblers would eat homemade Sachima at 20 [6] to 30% [7] discount there. The commonly known name of Sachima (Chinese: 馬仔 ) is the pun of “horse” in Cantonese, thus gamblers believed that after they have eaten it, they would win at horse racing (“食完馬仔，贏馬仔” ).[8] Another examples of celebrating festivals were each year’s Mid-Autumn Festival [9] and Duanwu Festival [7]
It also cohered the local community by meeting the needs of different social classes in just a 5-storey restaurant.[8] The quality of customer service went ascending with the social class:
- 1/F was bakery with spittoon in the store that served grassroots
- 2/F was a Western restaurant
- 3/F was a Chinese tea housewith carpets (Chinese: 粵式茶樓 );
- 4/F was a Chinese wine house (Chinese: 酒樓 )with waiters serving customers with towels, and asked customers for tips;
- 5/F was a nightclub that served the upper class.
Wing On department store in the 1990s
Kingwah Centre became a 17-storey retail and office building, which was the Wing On department store. The merchandise were practical and economical [10] to serve the general public at the era of mass consumption.
Fashion trend in Kingwah Centre nowadays
It is a popular shopping place for youngsters which provides a lot of trendy and inexpensive clothing, accessories and restaurants [11] for fashionable teenagers to search for their favorite products. Most of the shops are small business enterprises established by people especially young adults who first attempt to start a business. However, the owner have informed those tenants to move out because they decided to lease the centre out to flagship store in order to attract tourists coming to Hong Kong. Local citizens criticize that this action would vanish the special Hong Kong culture.[12]
Directory of Kingwah Centre [13]
- B/F are the basement of the centre which provide photo sticker machines for people to take photos.
- G/F are the ground floor of the centre which is leased out to Chow Sang Sang Holdings International Limited( Chinese:周生生集團國際有限公司).[14]
- UG - 3/F are mainly stores selling trendy clothing, accessories and cosmetic products.
- 5 - 11/F are restaurants which involve Japanese, Korean and Western food.
- 12/F, 15-16/F are leased out to Neway Karaoke.[15]
References
- ↑ "前身瓊華酒樓 重建只租不賣". Retrieved 4 February 2013. (Chinese)
- ↑ "瓊華大酒樓 versus 瓊天酒樓". Retrieved 20 May 2010. (Chinese)
- ↑ "旺角瓊華酒樓舊照". Retrieved 14 December 2008. (Chinese)
- ↑ 陳裕匡, “我與瓊華中心一起成長” (Chinese), The House News, February 7, 2013
- ↑ Apple Daily, “先施600萬搶租瓊華中心”, ‘ ‘ Apple Daily ‘ ‘, February 27, 2013
- ↑ "瓊華酒樓的薩琪瑪". RTHK. 13 April 2005.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "前身瓊華酒樓 重建只租不賣". Apple Daily. 4 February 2013.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "前身瓊華酒樓 重建只租不賣". Apple Daily. 4 February 2013.
- ↑ "果欄：旺角終變MK仔". Ming Pao. 12 February 2013.
- ↑ "About Us". Wing On.
- ↑ "我與瓊華中心一起成長". the House News. 7 February 2013.
- ↑ "瓊華淪陷 趕絕小商戶". Sharp Daily. 4 February 2013.
- ↑ "商戶指南". Kingwah Centre.
- ↑ "Chow Sang Sang". Chow Sang Sang.
- ↑ "Neway". Neway.
 |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to King Wah Centre. |
Coordinates: 22°19′04″N 114°10′12″E / 22.317880°N 114.169903°E