Shia Wong Hip

Shia Wong Hip Limited (Chinese: 蛇王協有限公司) is a restaurant specialising in snake dishes located on Apliu Street in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Founded in 1965 by Chau Xiang, the restaurant specialises in snake soup and serves Cantonese cuisine made from exotic animals such as wattle-necked softshell turtles, crocodiles, geckos, silkworms, and seahorses. Dishes served include "fried snake balls", "barbecued snake", "glistening snake skin casserole", "dark golden-brown fried snake meat", "stir-fried crocodile meat", and "snake gall bladder wine". Shia Wong Hip stores hundreds and sometimes thousands of live snakes in wooden drawers. It has a cobra in a cage visible from the storefront. The restaurant purchases its snakes from mainland China, Indonesia, and Malaysia and supplements its income by selling snakes to restaurants and snakeskin to factories that make wallets, shoes, handbags, and belts. Originally located on Nam Cheong Street, Shia Wong Hip was moved to Apliu Street in the 1970s. Chau Xiang's daughter, Chau Ka Ling, in 1971 started working at the restaurant from age 13 and took over the business in 1991 after her father died. She runs it with her two younger brothers. The Hong Kong government has recognised Chau Ka Ling as the only woman snake-catcher in the region, which earned her the name "Snake Queen".