Stanley Street slices through Central, stretching from D'Aguilar Street and the heart of the business district to Graham Street on the fringe of Sheung Wan. Narrower than the thoroughfares of Queen's Road Central and Wellington Street, which lie on either side, the pavements of Stanley Street don't leave a lot of space for dawdling.
Drivers carefully manoeuvre delivery vans into cramped parking spaces, creating a chorus of beeps as they reverse. After unloading their goods, they somehow squeeze past the luxury cars waiting for bigwigs to finish their dim sum or return from some surreptitious- possibly mistress-related- shopping.
Executives scurry past in dark suits, chatting into mobile phones. A beauty-shop clinician in white scrubs takes a break from her makeover duties to pick up a takeaway snack in a plastic bag. Western tourists take it all in, newly purchased digital SLRs hanging from their necks.
Stanley Street is best known for its camera stores, which attract as many local hobbyists and professional photographers as they do overseas visitors. The sales strategy is more low-key than that seen at the pressure-cooker joints of Tsim Sha Tsui, and there's even after-sales service if you're lucky (and persistent).
Kinefoto (60 Stanley Street, tel: 2523 2087) has an aged brown sign with original 1960s lettering so grubby and retro it outdoes the imitation-antique Hasselblad camera cases in the window. Next door the new Tin Cheung Camera (tel: 2722 1838) has a selection of Leica cameras, such as the S2 digital SLR, priced at HK$210,000.
The street also has a couple of traditional Chinese medicine stores, including a branch of the Hoi Tin Tong chain, which specialises in turtle soup and snake-gall mandarin peel powder. A cup of cold tea infused with snake gall will set you back HK$27.
