A couple sit watching televisions in the window of a store in Hong Kong's Sham Shui Po.
Photographer: Billy H.C. Kwok/BloombergHow Covid Helped Gentrify One of Hong Kong’s Poorest Districts
The pandemic is transforming Hong Kong’s Sham Shui Po district — and triggering concerns about gentrification.
Around the world, neighborhoods are being reshaped as Covid-19 leaves businesses struggling for survival. But one Hong Kong district has flourished in the pandemic, with new shops popping up every few weeks and young people watching the world go by while sipping on hand-drip coffee.
A cluster of cafes, handicraft shops and art spaces have opened around Sham Shui Po’s Tai Nan Street since the start of the year, accelerating its transformation from one of the city’s poorest districts into a hipster area frequented by middle-class Hongkongers and expats. In October, Time Out named Sham Shui Po as one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world, ranking alongside downtown Los Angeles, New York’s Bedford-Stuyvesant and Barcelona’s Esquerra de l’Eixample.