The World of Suzie Wong: Hong Kong Locations, Then & Now
In 1960, Hollywood came to Hong Kong and made the film that defined the city's image for a generation: The World of Suzie Wong. Directed by Richard Quine, adapted by John Patrick from Paul Osborn's Broadway play of Richard Mason's 1957 novel, it starred William Holden as Robert Lomax, an American architect who comes to Hong Kong to paint, and Nancy Kwan — in a debut that made her a star overnight — as Suzie, the Wan Chai bar girl he cannot forget.
The production had its own drama: France Nuyen was originally cast as Suzie and filmed for weeks before being replaced — producer Ray Stark brought in the unknown Kwan, and cinema history pivoted. Holden's quiet decency and Kwan's electric charm did the rest; the film was a worldwide hit, and its theme song charted for years.
Then and now: the locations
The Star Ferry and Edinburgh Place Pier
The film opens with Lomax crossing the harbour on the Star Ferry, then meeting Suzie at the old Edinburgh Place pier in Central. That pier — with its clock tower — was demolished in 2006 despite massive protests; today's Pier 7 sits further out on reclaimed land. But the crossing itself is identical: same boats, same green benches, same few cents. Stand on the lower deck and you're in the film.
The Nam Kok Hotel — and the real Luk Kwok
Suzie's world was the fictional Nam Kok Hotel, built as a set — but inspired by, and partly filmed around, the real Luk Kwok Hotel on Gloucester Road, Wan Chai, where Mason actually stayed and wrote. The Luk Kwok still stands on the same site (rebuilt in modern form, still a hotel), and the bar strip along Lockhart Road and Jaffe Road below is the direct descendant of the film's sailor-bar world.
Wan Chai's bar district
The film's Wan Chai was a neon maze of bars, tailors and tattoo shops serving the fleet on R&R. The sailors are gone; the neon isn't. Walk Lockhart Road at dusk today and the signs, the clubs and the anything-goes energy are instantly recognisable — the single most "Suzie Wong" street still standing.
Pottinger Street and the ladder streets
Watch for the granite-stepped lanes in the street scenes — that's Pottinger Street (Stone Slab Street) in Central, and it looks almost exactly the same today, costume stalls and all. Nearby Ladder Street, all 19th-century stone steps, is protected and unchanged. These are the easiest "then and now" photos in the city.
The harbour itself
In 1960 the harbour was thick with junks and little walla-walla boats ferrying sailors ashore. Today it's barges and ferries — but the light, the hills, and the impossible clash of mountain and metropolis are precisely what the camera saw. Some views don't need a location. They are the location.
Why it still matters
The film is a period piece — its politics are of 1960, and Hong Kong has long outgrown the bar-girl stereotype. But as a document of the city's look, light and energy at a pivotal moment, it's priceless. And Suzie herself, proud and unsentimental, remains one of the great Hong Kong characters ever put on screen.
· Watch the film before you come — the locations land twice as hard.
· Best then-and-now photo: Pottinger Street steps, mid-morning light.
· The Luk Kwok Hotel on Gloucester Road still welcomes visitors — its lobby and the streets around it are the pilgrimage spot.
· I can't show movie stills here for copyright reasons — but on tour I carry a then-and-now folder on my tablet for every stop.
