Avenue of Stars

The Avenue of Stars is a free 440-metre waterfront promenade in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, that honours Hong Kong cinema with film stars' handprints, a bronze Bruce Lee statue and views across Victoria Harbour to Hong Kong Island. It is open at all hours and suits film fans, photographers and anyone watching the 8 pm A Symphony of Lights show.

New World's HK$40 million tribute to local film

The promenade runs along the harbour shore of Tsim Sha Tsui East, beside the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The New World Group, which had built the original waterfront walk in 1982, put HK$40 million into turning it into the Avenue of Stars, modelled loosely on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It opened on 28 April 2004, when Hong Kong kung fu films and crime thrillers were known worldwide, and was handed to the government as public property.

The first 73 honourees were chosen by the Hong Kong Film Awards Association and readers of the film magazine City Entertainment. The list has since grown past 110 names. Plaques for living stars carry handprints and autographs set in cement, and many honourees who have died are marked by name only.

Three years of works and a 2019 reopening

New World managed the avenue for 11 years. The walk then closed for about three years while the Leisure and Cultural Services Department redeveloped it together with neighbouring Salisbury Garden, and during the works the handprints moved to a temporary garden nearby. James Corner Field Operations, the landscape firm behind New York's High Line, led the redesign. The avenue reopened on 31 January 2019 with shaded seating, planting and a wider walkway, and it became the first outdoor space in Hong Kong to earn SITES Gold certification for sustainable landscape design.

Bruce Lee, Anita Mui and McDull in bronze

The 2.5-metre bronze of Bruce Lee in a fighting pose went up in 2005 and draws the longest photo queues. A statue of the singer and actress Anita Mui followed in 2014, and McDull, the pink piglet from local animation, has a figure of his own. A 4.5-metre replica of the Hong Kong Film Awards statuette greets visitors at the Salisbury Garden entrance, and a replica of the 2008 Olympic torch is on permanent display.