Antique & vintage shopping
Beyond Hollywood Road's more established antique galleries (already covered in our Sheung Wan guide), a slightly scrappier, more browsable market culture exists alongside it — worth knowing the difference before spending seriously.
Upper Lascar Row (Cat Street)
A short street of stalls just below Hollywood Road, historically associated with (and named for) the trade in stolen and secondhand goods — today a mix of genuine curios, mass-produced "antique-style" souvenirs, and everything in between, best approached as a browse rather than a serious hunt.
Hollywood Road's established dealers
The shopfront galleries along Hollywood Road itself deal in higher-value, more carefully authenticated pieces, generally at prices and a sales approach that reflects it — a different tier from Cat Street's market stalls.
How to shop wisely
- Assume authenticity claims at street-stall level are unverified unless you have real expertise to judge otherwise — buy what you like the look of, not what you're told is a certain age or origin.
- For anything represented as genuinely valuable, ask for documentation and consider an independent opinion before paying a serious price.
- Bargaining is expected and normal at market-stall level, less so in established shopfront galleries.