Lui Seng Chun

Another revitalized “tong lau” is located at the triangular junction between Lai Chi Kok Road and Tong Mi Road. When Taishan transport and trading businessman Lui Leung, who later on co-founded the Kowloon Motor Bus Company in 1933, arrived in Hong Kong, he purchased the land and appointed W H Bourne, a local architect who specialized in designing shophouses, to design Lui Seng Chun. The Lui family lived in the upper floor quarters whereas the ground floor was occupied by a Chinese bone-setting medicine shop. Lui passed away in 1944. When the shop closed down a few years later, it was rented out to tailor shops and the upper floors were used by their relatives and friends as a residence.

In 2000, the family proposed to donate the building to the government. It was designated as a Grade I historic building the same year. Much of the architectural features have been retained. The stone plaque marking the name of the shop at the building’s top, the Streamline Modern (Art Deco) lines with robust classical elements, including a square-shaped frame and a row of decorative balustrades in front, mark the pre-war Chinese tenement features. Currently, it is revitalized as a Chinese medicine healthcare center that has been operated by Hong Kong Baptist University’s School of Chinese Medicine since April 2012.