History

Everyone have an impression that Lan Kwai Fong is a place that represents nightlife, fun and enjoyment. Many people hang out here after work with friends. Yet, what it looks now is actually very different from the past.

The street was opened up since 1840. ‘Lan Kwai Fong’, named by a merchant who started to develop the street, has the meaning of having prosperous descendant(蘭桂騰芳). For some time, the street was also called ‘Mui Yan Hong’(媒人巷) since there are many mui yan (marriage intermediaries) clustered together in this street. Before and during the war period, the place became famous for prostitution. The name, ‘爛鬼坊’ (meaning that there are many foreigners who were obscene always hang out here) was also called due to this reason. The place was back to peace and developed into residential area with some shops afterwards.

The area started to shape when a gay bar “DiscoDisco” was opened in 1978 due to the trend of disco culture.

Dramatic change happened since Allan Zeman, also known as ‘Father of Lan Kwai Fong’, opened his restaurant named ‘California’ in 1983. He introduced a new catering concept to the place and it was a great hit at that time.

Followed by the tremendous success, Allan Zeman expanded his business there. He brought many nearby properties and started more variety of businesses to flourish the area. Then more and more bars and restaurants see the achievement as role model and start moving into the area.

Even though it is a place full of joy, tragedy happened in 1 January 1993, that there was stampede causing death of 21 people and 48 injuries.

I think it is the many of the past events that contribute to nowadays prosperous and famous Lan Kwai Fong.

Photos sources:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hongkongphotographic/5508430708/
http://travel.cnn.com/hong-kong/drink/lan-kwai-fong-used-to-be-more-fun-262656