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Lisa Cam

Long before the Avenue of Stars and the West Kowloon Cultural District where Hong Kong residents land tourists congregate during the festive season, there was Tsim Sha Tsui East.
The new business area emerged in the early 1980s after the strip of Victoria Harbour between Hung Hom and Tsim Sha Tsui was reclaimed.
With common commercial interests the Tsim Sha Tsui East Property Developers Association was formed. In 1983, it launched the TSTE Festive Illuminations, with all the property owners agreeing to invest in decorating their buildings with colourful lights.
It was a sight to behold. “It was on every building, not just the square around the park,” recalls Regina Mok, an executive who grew up in the Kowloon area. “The decorated buildings went all along Salisbury Road and into Nathan Road too.”
“Around the holidays, a lot of people go out with their families to see the lights,” said Diego Bozzolan, director of Sabatini restaurant inside the Royal Garden hotel, who has worked there since 1992.


The commercial area also attracted a different demographic to today. “There were a lot more Europeans and Japanese businessmen, who would bring their families to see the lights. There were carolers on the street corners and just people having fun,” he says.
Competition between the developers to have the most attractive lights was intense. “The different buildings would compete to have the most eye-catching or innovative design. Because people would crowd around the ones with flashing lights, or something like that, and that would mean foot traffic for the building,” says Mok.
Tsim Sha Tsui East was once a hub of dining and entertainment. The current Tsim Sha Tsui MTR stop – about 2km away – opened in 1979, but the network was still limited and the bus was still the preferred means of transport to reach Tsim Sha Tsui.
“We would catch the bus to shop at Shui Hing Department Store, then walk to TST East for dinner and then come out to see the lights afterwards,” says Mok.
According to Bozzolan, things started to change around the turn of the millennium. “It all happened very slowly. That year (2003) during [the Sars epidemic], people didn’t want to be in crowds,” he says.

The exodus of merrymakers from Tsim Sha Tsui East was a slow and gradual one. As the MTR network expanded, the immediate area around the MTR stop on Nathan Road attracted more foot traffic.
New shopping centres opened, creating more competition for restaurants and shopping.
In 2003 Two International Financial opened in Central, which attracted some of the top investment banks to set up shop. This led to clients being entertained at big-budget client dinners and lunches on Hong Kong Island.
It also fed the nightlife crowd in Central’s bar and nightclub district, Lan Kwai Fong, which attracted expats from the adjacent business district.

A series of geopolitical events chipped away at the companies that occupied the Tsim Sha Tsui East area; the cumulative impact of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000, Sars in 2003 and the global financial crisis in 2008, meant that the funds to decorate the exteriors of buildings became scarcer and scarcer and one after another, the developers opted out of decorating their buildings.
Mok, who started a family in the 90s, favoured spending Christmas at home with her family and exchanging gifts.
“We did take the kids out once or twice, but it was also easy to celebrate at home when they were young. By the time the kids were around 10, there were a lot fewer buildings with Christmas lights and even though it was easier to take them out, it wasn’t as exciting to go any more.”
There is also a “loneliness epidemic” around the world. In 2023, the surgeon general of the United States issued a warning about social isolation, and statistics show that people between the ages of 15 and 24 are socialising 70 per cent less than people of the same age group 20 years ago.
That is almost 1,000 hours less a year spent with friends and family.

“Younger people are more interested in the virtual world than the real one,” Bozzolan says. “I think it’s important for them to realise that around this time of year, it’s better to spend it with friends and family in person.”


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Opened in the 1980s, Tsim Sha Tsui East was a booming area and its holiday lights were a popular attraction – until the millennium


Opened in the 1980s, Tsim Sha Tsui East was a booming area and its holiday lights were a popular attraction – until the millennium.


Hong Kong

Rise and fall of Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui East reflected in Christmas and New Year lights

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Opened in the 1980s, Tsim Sha Tsui East was a booming area and its holiday lights were a popular attraction – until the millennium

Opened in the 1980s, Tsim Sha Tsui East was a booming area and its holiday lights were a popular attraction – until the millennium