Veteran actress Carina Lau Ka-ling stole the spotlight despite the presence of other starlets at a recent fashion event in Hong Kong. The award-winning star looks even fitter than she did a few years ago and is possibly much wiser, too.
Last month she opened two shops and one nightclub in just one day at Yi Feng Galleria - a revamped heritage building across from The Peninsula hotel on the Bund and home of top luxury brands such as Bottega Veneta.
'The Bund for me is a place that fuels dreams. I feel very lucky to have my own shops in this landmark venue,' she says.
Growing up in Suzhou, Jiangsu, Lau always loved her weekend family trips to Shanghai - the metropolis just a two-hour drive from her scenic hometown.
'When I first went to Shanghai in the 1960s, people still travelled by tram,' recalls the softly spoken star. 'It was already a prosperous, vibrant and fashionable city, different from Suzhou. As a little girl, it had a great impact on me.'
Although Lau moved to Hong Kong as a teenager in the 1980s, her romance with Shanghai and the Bund lingered. For her 45th birthday in 2010, she threw a soiree at the then just-opened Waldorf Astoria and was one of the first to party in the renovated heritage building.