Des Voeux Road is Hong Kong Island's principal street after Queen's Road. 

Built on reclaimed land in the 1880s, it takes its name from Sir William Des Voeux, governor of the former British colony between 1887 and 1891. For much of the 19th century it formed the heart of the business district - the island's first City Hall was opened here by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1869. A short time later the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank built their headquarters here, quickly followed by the Bank of Canton and other leading businesses. 

The street still contains many company headquarters, as well as numerous prestigious shops and offices. Walk west on the street - or take the tram which runs the whole of its length - and you pass, among others, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Building, the Old Bank of China and the Landmark shopping complex. Further west you encounter more traditional shops specializing in preserved foods, as well as the Central and Western markets. Several side streets between the markets have long been known for different speciality shops, though creeping redevelopment is wiping out many of the old stores. 

WingKut Street still specializes in wholesale costume jewellery- with fantastic quantities of beads and bangles - and shops selling socks, scarves and other accessories. One street down, Wing Wo Street once specialized in feather dusters; Wing Sing Street was the haunt of egg sellers; and Wing Lok Street was the heart of the city's rice trade. 

One street where tradition has survived the developers is the southern half of Man Wa Lane, where several stalls make and sell engraved seals or 'chops'. Such seals have been used for some 3,000 years as marks of ownership or in place of a signature on paintings and documents. Traders are used to visitors asking for seals to take home, and most are able to translate your name or message of your choice into Chinese characters, as well as adding a dragon, lion or other motif as an extra flourish. You can also choose the material in which the chop is made: porcelain, wood or soap stone are the most common, but ivory, bronze, marble and plastic are other possibilities. You can also decide between high or low relief: some people claim women should go for low relief (yin wen), men for high (yang wen).