Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Granville Road: Lung Shing Dispensary

A few years ago, one of my Peace Corps friends came to Hong Kong with a colleague from Guangzhou.  I remember her telling me of a pharmacy that was famous for stocking things that normal pharmacies didn't stock.  Years later, I totally forgot about this...until now.

This is my last post on Granville Road, so I thought I would walk off to another point of interest after this interesting find.  At first, this place looks like a shop with its clear glass windows covered with newspapers.  It actually looks like it's closed down, but it's really bustling with business inside.  It is one of the many hidden treasures on Granville Road:  Lung Shing Dispensary.  

Coming from the States, when I hear dispensary or pharmacy, I purely think of those places in drug stores that sell prescription medication.  But, moving here and also traveling around, I've learned that they carry a lot of other things beyond medicines.

There are always tourists crowded around, inside and outside of this place.  And poking around inside, I found such things as:

1.  OTC/Herbal Medicines
2.  A huge stock of BABY FORMULA 
3.  Cosmetics/Skincare (High End and Drug Store)
4.  Shampoos/Conditioners/Hair Care
5.  Body Lotions/Washes/Sunscreens

and...

6.  Deodorant (sticks, sprays, and roll-ons)  -->finding stick deodorant is sometimes hard...difficult to do here, but I found OLD SPICE of all things in the Lung Shing Dispensary!

and

7.  Body Shop/Skin Foods/and the like products
8.  and other dispensary/pharmacy things.








Even though there is that NO PHOTOGRAPH (No Photo Taking) sign at the top, they let me take my photos.  The people down at the dispensary are really nice and helpful for everyone, it seems.  They were really nice to me whilst I was checking out.  Also, they definitely speak Mandarin, English, and the usual (Cantonese).

You can find a lot of international products here for such descent prices, which, at first, made me question the quality of the products I wanted to purchase.  I just bought some skincare, of which, I checked the expiration date and it was fine.  And, after opening up my package of goodies, the products I bought were also in good condition (sealed), just cheaper than buying them at Watsons or at the supermarket.

This dispensary shop is one of the places I HAVE to visit when I am down in Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) and need to stock up on skincare!