Sunset Survivors: A Walking Tour of Yau Ma Tei's Last Artisans
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About the Tour
About the Tour
Yau Ma Tei is one of Hong Kong's most unfiltered neighbourhoods, where third-generation pawnbrokers, elderly craftswomen, and triad-connected fruit markets exist side by side. On this walking tour, you'll meet the people keeping Hong Kong's sunset industries
alive – trades so old and niche they've earned their own term for crafts on the verge of disappearing forever.
The tour starts at Yau Ma Tei MTR exit A1 on Pitt Street, once the shoreline of a fishing village with floating restaurants and illegal gambling dens. You'll walk through the neighbourhood's layered streets, stopping at a 70-year-old Chinese herbal clinic stocked with dried caterpillar fungus and deer penis, a kitchenware-lined Shanghai Street where century-old stalls hide between real estate offices, and the 1913 wholesale fruit market – a notorious hotspot for triad activity where a heroin syndicate was uncovered in the 1970s.
The tour ends at the Yau Ma Tei Tin Hau Temple, built in 1865 by local fishermen and still visited today despite sitting nearly three kilometres from the current shoreline. Each evening, the temple walls are flanked by stalls selling sex toys – an only-in-Hong-Kong contrast that perfectly captures the neighbourhood's spirit. Nearby fortune tellers offer palm readings, tarot, and bird divination for locals seeking advice on everything from business deals to wedding dates.
On this 60-minute tour, you'll have a chance to:
- Visit the Tai Yik Pawnshop, run by a third-generation owner who can spot a fake Rolex in seconds
- Meet Mrs. Ho at Lee Woo Weights and Scales, still hand-crafting traditional Chinese scales at over 80 years old
- Browse the Jade Market and learn three quick tests to tell real jade from convincing fakes
- Look out for Hong Kong's last two letter writers, waiting quietly with dusty typewriters in tiny green metal booths
- Explore the 1930 Yau Ma Tei Theatre, the only surviving pre-WWII cinema on Kowloon side
- See the 1895 Grade I listed red brick pumping station, one of Hong Kong's oldest surviving colonial structures
This tour introduces you to a Hong Kong that's rapidly fading – and to the remarkable individuals determined to hold on to it.
Tour Producer
Tour Producer
Lindsay Varty
Lindsay Varty is a public speaker and author of local best-seller Sunset Survivors, a coffee-table book exploring Hong Kong's last traditional artisans and their vanishing trades. Her background in journalism and her deep love for the city she grew up in, inspired three years documenting the lives of bamboo bird cage makers, villain hitters, knife sharpeners and more. Her work capturing these living memories has been highly acclaimed and featured across global platforms such as CNN, BBC, The Guardian, South China Morning Post, China Daily and was even adapted into a documentary film.
Lindsay has given two TEDx talks on the themes of disappearing culture and life as a Third Culture Kid and continues to speak regularly at local schools and societies such as the Royal Geographical Society and Asia Society Hong Kong as well as at internationally recognised literary festivals such as the HKILF and Hong Kong Book Week.
In addition to Sunset Survivors, her published works include Hong Kong Slang, a humorous guide to Cantonese colloquialisms, and Welly the Wild Boar, a local children's book which introduces readers to the city’s favourite street food.
Beyond writing, Lindsay spent eight years playing professional rugby for Hong Kong at international tournaments where she was fortunate enough to have time to explore different countries and cultures, feeding her passion for local identity and cultural preservation.
Through her immersive tours and storytelling, she aims to help people discover and fall in love with the city’s hidden history so they’ll feel motivated to protect it. She anchors her work in Baba Dioum’s guiding line: “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand and we will understand only what we are taught.”
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Preview Location
Preview Location
Location 12
Lee Woo Weights and Scales
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If you're lucky, you will see the little stall is being run by an elderly lady with a tight perm, usually listening to Chinese opera music on an old radio. You've found the wonde...
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Major Landmarks
Major Landmarks
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yau ma tei mtr exit a1
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Tung Nam Lou Hotel
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Fu Wah Cafe
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7-Eleven
Getting There
Getting There
Route Overview
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Start location60 Portland St, Mong Kok, Hong Kong
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Total distance919m
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Final location261號 Shanghai St, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong
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Distance back to start location486.34m
Directions to Starting Point
The tour begins just outside Exit A1 of Yau Ma Tei MTR Station, on Pitt Street. There are lots of exits and multiple options for Pitt Street so just ensure you are at A1 and you can't go wrong. There should be a line of parked motorbikes just outside the MTR exit.
Show Directions
Tips
Tips
Places to stop along the way
A great dining spot to finish at after the tour is the Mido Cafe at 63 Temple Street (just to the left of the Tin Hau Temple if looking at the entrance). The cafe is known as a living time capsule that preserves the authentic 1950s cha chaan teng
(tea restaurant) aesthetic of old Hong Kong. The original mosaic tiles, neon signs, and wooden booths have made it a popular feature in classic films such as The World of Suzie Wong and Moonlight Express.
Whilst slightly more pricy than your average HK cafe, it still serves classic comfort items like Hong Kong-style French toast, milk tea, and pineapple buns.
The cafe runs from 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM and is closed on Wednesdays.
Best time of day
In order the see the most shops open and people at their stalls, the best time to do the tour is between 11am and 5pm any day of the week. Note the fortune tellers at the end of the tour only emerge after around 5pm so if you really want to see everything, start the tour at 4pm!
Precautions
Hong Kong is a very safe place and crime is very low but still take care of your valuables and pay attention to the roads as there are many vehicles in this area. Always ask before taking photos of people.
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