Pak Sha Road

Pak Sha Road (白沙道) is a quite short path in the Lee Gardens area in Causeway Bay.

The little path helps to connect different properties of Lee Gardens and houses several nice local cafes and grocery shops including perhaps the most famous one for Shanghainese foodstuff, the Old San Yang (老三陽). (Hint: now it is the hairy crab season!)

Hong Kong’s only official Leica coffee shop is also located on Pak Sha Road, named after a Chinese philosopher Chan Pak Sha who was born and remained active during the Ming dynasty. You won’t miss the Leica place when you walk around the area, given its high profile graffiti which already has the whole building covered.

There are some nice restaurants and cafes, including one selling Taiwan beef rice and the other well known for the mixture of international coffee and Chinese tea. You can certainly explore more inside the three shopping malls of Lee Gardens.

If the nearby SOGO is considered more for the ordinary, the Hysan is more for the middle-class, and then Lee Gardens certainly has more luxury brands for the rich to study.

Related reading: Basao Tea

Basao Tea

I always wanted to try this elegant cafe in Causeway Bay but it was always full of people plus a long queue of customers in waiting outside.

Fortunately we dropped by the shop and happened to grab a table easily today. The cafe is famous for its fusion-style combination of coffee and tea (including Chinese tea like Da Hong Pao (大紅袍). I don’t like sweet coffee, hence coffee with tea flavour tastes pretty good for me.

The cafe is located on Pak Sha Road (白沙道), a short path in CwB that is easily neglected by many. But the whole street is really a hidden gem for CwB. There are many other fun places in the same street also for you to explore. CwB is not just about all the shopping malls. Actually, Pak Sha Road feels more like a small town in Europe.

Shanghai Wonton in Causeway Bay

My friends often ask me where to eat good Shanghainese food. The answer is … the Shanghai Hongkong Noodle Restaurant in Causeway Bay. It’s been here for more than half a century and the first-generation founder/boss is a poor migrant to Hong Kong from Shanghai after the war time.

My favourite here is the Shanghai-style “little wonton”, and I will also order fried dumplings if I’m a bit more hungry. Soy milk is the popular drink here, brewed by the restaurant on its own everyday. Of course, the best takeaway is always the Shanghai-style “rice wrap” (秶飯), which has two flavors, sweet (pork) or salty (vegetables).

This restaurant is one of the unspoken secrets for the local and it’s open for 7/24/365. It was once featured in American newspaper USA Today, which described the hardworking entrepreneurial spirit as the “Spirit of Hong Kong”.

A Holiday Message

As we are about to say goodbye to 2020 soon, I feel blessed to have many friends, colleagues, and partners to go through all the ups and downs in this unprecedented year altogether. This year we understand the power of being closer together more than ever. Whatever happens, don’t lose your faith in the bright side of human nature and be true to your own conscience.

值此辭舊迎新之際，也許沒有比感恩兩字更能代表我對2020年一切發生的複雜心情，感謝我的親朋好友及諸多合作夥伴，經過這非比尋常的一年，相信你我都能明白這個世界為什麼需要更緊密的連繫。世事雖難料，但任何時候我們都不應放棄對人性本善的信念，任何時候都要對得起自己的良知。