RTHK 同里有親 Walkthrough Part 1

RTHK produces excellent TV serials about the neighbourhood areas of Hong Kong. For example, years ago, they produced this serial 有房出租 which I loved a lot (and of course, the babe Ella Koon was acting in this show). 有房出租 was about 嘉咸街舊唐樓 in 中環 (Central).

This year, they have a new serial 同里有親.

I must admit I am a SUPER BIG FAN of this serial. Something struck me in this serial. Of course, the lead actress, Bonnie 冼色麗 too :). This time this serial is based in Sheung Wan. Watching this serial for 15 weeks make me determined to see for myself the actual location ! Some internet research later, here we go !

As usual… 港劇迷朝聖地 !!

Let’s go for a walkthrough of some of the places (not all, I wished for more time !)

(1) We start from Man Mo Temple 文武廟 at Sheung Wan. At the side of the temple, there is a staircase up Ladder Street which leads us to the starting point of our filming locations

(2) At this point, after some tiring walk up the Ladder Street, you will reach Rozario Street. We will talk about this later. At this point, turn left…

(3) You will be at Wing Lee Street. Wait.. Wing Lee Street is not exactly a road.. it is a wonderful garden walkway with its very distinctive blue railings !

In the TV serial:

My Photos:

(4) Reaching the end of Wing Lee Street, you will reach the staircase where most of the serial’s filming took place. This is the Shing Wong Street where there is a staircase leading up to the two shops in the show. The barber shop and the laundry shop ! 🙂

At this photo, you can see the stairs behind the end of Wing Lee Street:

It was easy to find the barber shop !

In the show:

In real life now.. the filming has finished and the shop is now doing renovation 🙂

It was NOT easy to find the laundry shop as I was mistakenly thinking it was somewhere else.. this is because in the show, it seemed that it is separate area from the barber shop. It gives the impression it is up the hill (further up from the barber shop) and in fact, it even has a name of 山城洗衣. In the show, they always try to show the laundry shop as a shop somewhere up the staircase above the barber shop. Which I also thought so in real life…

The mystery is solved when you looked closely at this photo. There is a wall but in real life there is no wall !!

Visiting the Facebook Page of 同里有親 makes it clearer 🙂
The so called “up in the hill” shop is actually next door in real life ! 🙂
They built a wall and make it seemed like two separate places.. ha ha.. SO COOL

This is even clearer to understand from this photo 🙂

In real life, this is how it looks from the steps up:

These shops are in a place called Wa In Fong East (華賢坊東). This place was referred to a few times in the show 🙂

It is a rather old looking row of shophouses that, like the TV serial story, will be eventually turned into some sort of F&B or whatever hippie shops.. Can really feel the TV story of how “preserving one’s past and heritage” is so important. New is not necessary good 🙂

Okie. Let’s stop here and will continue in Part 2 which will cover the rest of the walkthrough and in it, even though this is a RTHK serial area, there is also a TVB (yes the TVB I loved !!!) location too !!

Watch out for next blog post and while waiting, why not visit this page to listen to one song from the serial 🙂