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exploring taste – Spring/Summer 2016 places – Hong Kong is dancing

hong kong with rundown car repair shops and the traditional dai pai dong, street food
THE FIRE DRAGON DANCE stalls serving noodles, congee and other traditional dishes, which have
represented a meeting point for the local community since the end of World
War Two (when these little stalls, often run by struggling families of war
Words daVide piacenza survivors, were nicknamed ‘poor man’s nightclubs’).
Today, Hong Kong is changing, which in has turn changed the face of Tai
Hang, historically at the heart of the city’s traditional soul. In November
Tai Hang, literally ‘The Big Water Channel’ is an area southeast of the 2015 the website of British newspaper The Guardian reported that the area
glittering skyscrapers of Causeway Bay, Hong Kong’s shopping district. is now “also home to a new wave of independent cafes, bars and restaurants;
This is a prime location from which to observe the on-going process of a quick online search for the area now throws up words like ‘foodie’ and
gentrification taking place in this Asian city-State. Until the 1990s, Tai Hang ‘heaven’.” While it is perhaps a little far-fetched to call Tai Hang a ‘paradise’,
was considered a slum, buried at the bottom of a valley and interspersed this Chinese Williamsburg is getting a lot of attention, with many former

photography Mark Kolbe/Getty
HONG KONG

IS DANCING

The shopping district, the traditional architecture of Buddhist Temples, the folklore of the fire dragon photography Jessica Hromas/Stringer

dance, the hyper-gentrified Tai Hang area, and Vinexpo 2016, the wine and spirits show: Hong Kong is
one of Asia’s top destinations, and among the most interesting ones.

Summary
The Fire Dragon Dance
The Fire Dragon Dance, a ritual part of the
Vinexpo Hong Kong Mid-Autumn Festival, is one of Tai Hang’s most
People & Places representative traditions

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