Old and Modern Pawn Shops

In the big photo was a large old pawn shop called (和昌大押) in Wanchai. It stands there for many years, serving the poor people of Hong Kong. When people are in need of money, they will go to one of this kind of pawn shops (當舖) to surrender (典當) their valuables such as gold ornaments, jewellery, valuable watches,…. These customers will get money from the pawn shop and at the same time they will be written a ticket (當票) from the shop with the deadline of a date, after which if the customer does not take money back to get their valuables, the shop will sell them to the public.

Modern pawn shops are small in scale with colourful lightings (see the small photo) to attract people’s attention. Usually there is a large board near the counter where the people working in the shop sit high up in the counter. The board hides the customers from outside.

The symbol of a pawn shop looks like a school badge having its name in the centre. How funny is that!

Banks are invisible pawn shops. One of their businesses is Mortgage(按揭). If people do not have enough money to buy a flat or a house, they may borrow money from banks for a period of time. Their banks will keep the deed of the house or flat (屋契) until their customers have repaid all the money (with interest, of course) by monthly installments(每月供款).