GuideFong News

9 October 2026

[Press Release] Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong

Join GuideFong's third bazaar event to support Hong Kong's small businesses that enhance the city's sustainability. 1-7pm on Sunday, 8 November 2026, at 1/F Event Space, Central Market.

Support Community Businesses Advancing Sustainability in Hong Kong!

The Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) is extending an invitation to all Hongkongers who love Home Kong: Come to the “Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong” event on 8 November to get to know your gaai fong and support the GuideFong businesses that trade for the benefit of the community and sustainability of Hong Kong!

Hong Kong – literally “fragrant harbor” in Chinese – is historically an entrepôt, and it remains a free port today, allowing easy access to foreign imports. It is perhaps against this context that, as Hongkongers, we often forget that there are true treasures to be found in the local business landscape, especially the community businesses that produce good-quality products and services to cultivate community resilience, build social capital, promote cultural diversity and heritage, nurture well-being, and promote environmental conservation.

Third Know Your GuideFong Event: Advancing Sustainable Development for Hong Kong

This is why we at FSI are bringing back the third “Know Your GuideFong” event under our Project GuideFong 街坊商店. Through the event, we hope to celebrate the homegrown, ethnically diverse-owned community businesses whose contribution to the well-being of the local society and economy deserves city-wide appreciation.

Consider this an invitation to a bustling marketplace, slated to take place on 8 November 2026 at Central Market. On this Sunday, we invite you to engage with 26 GuideFong community businesses founded and owned by ethnically diverse entrepreneurs, who are advancing various UN Sustainable Development Goals, including 8. Decent Work and Economic Growth, 10. Reduced Inequalities, 11. Sustainable Cities and Communities, 12. Responsible Consumption and Production, 17. Partnerships for the Goals, and more.

As you discover the joy of eating for the planet with Upeeling’s upcycled healthy snacks, consider how you can practise urban farming at home with Sprout Heroes’ sprouting kits, upgrade your personal care routine with sustainably hand-crafted skincare and body care products by GrabNat and Nourish Vibes, and jazz up your home vibes with The Blomstre’s plant-based candles and clean fragrances, as well as Blooms Forever’s timeless preserved and dried floral pieces. Discover how you can do your laundry in a plastic-free and zero-waste manner with Beeclean, or sign up for Sacred Space Therapy and Wellness’s next forest bathing or music therapy session to give yourself a little TLC. Be sure to make a reservation for Gowld Art Centre’s art creation workshops using sustainable art materials, and a collective space’s workshops to learn to make bookmarks and keychains with scrap wood. Learn more about all the participating GuideFong community businesses below.

Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong is made possible by the Kishinchand Chellaram Foundation, whose generous support funds Project GuideFong and enables this event to take place. We are also indebted to our event partners who are bringing additional resources and expertise to the day. We are delighted to be partnering again with our exclusive media partner, The Beat Asia, following our successful partnership for our Know Your GuideFong: Tsim Sha Tsui event last year. To increase the exposure of the participating GuideFong community businesses, we have partnered with the event’s Featured Partner, SCANNOW, Digital Engagement Partner, KOLture, and Promotional Partner, KPay, to help us reach a broader local audience. We are also grateful to Johnson Stokes & Master (JSM) for their support in extending the event’s reach and impact. And we would like to shout out to PayMe for offering purchase discounts to the event’s visitors.

Additionally, we would like to thank Lalamove, the event’s Official Logistics Sponsor, which is supporting the event and its participants in two key ways: by offering special delivery discounts for attendees to deliver their items to and from Central Market, and through a year-long partnership with Project GuideFong to provide ongoing logistics support for the community businesses involved.

Said Hannah Taylor, Managing Editor at The Beat Asia, which is enhancing the visibility of not just the event but also the GuideFong-listed businesses beyond the event: “We’re delighted to support Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong for the second year running through our continued partnership with the Foundation for Shared Impact, with this year’s theme of sustainability highlighting Hong Kong’s ethnically diverse businesses building a stronger community and circular change. Come join us at Central Market!”

“We believe Hong Kong’s diversity and energy come from the everyday work of local merchants,” said Kelly Tang, General Manager of Hong Kong, KPay. “KPay is honored to stand with our partners — through events and programs that help more neighborhood businesses be seen and supported.”

Become a Good GuideFong

Taking inspiration from the Cantonese word for gaai fong 街坊, meaning “neighbor” or “friends in the community”, FSI’s Project GuideFong 街坊商店 serves as a bridge between the small community businesses and the local community, allowing the public to explore and engage with not just the entrepreneurs behind the scenes but also their service and product offerings grounded in sustainability.

We call them “GuideFong community businesses” for several reasons. In addition to cultivating resilience and building social capital through uplifting disadvantaged communities, these ethnically diverse-owned businesses also preserve the city’s vibrant diversity and heritage by connecting ethnically diverse individuals to their roots while fostering intercultural exchange. Through innovative approaches, these businesses nurture the well-being of Hongkongers through arts and reconnection with nature. By transforming waste into resources and integrating sustainability principles into procurement and manufacturing processes, these businesses help steer Hong Kong towards a circular economy with environmental conservation in mind.

This level of community connection is increasingly crucial to the flourishing of our society, at a time when the city grapples with the loneliness crisis and its lowest-ever position on the World Happiness Report.

Join the Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong Event!

Date: Sunday, 8 November 2026

Time: 1-7pm

Location: 1/F, Central Market, 93 Queen’s Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

RSVP to get perks: https://www.eventbrite.hk/e/2000967387320

About the Organizer

Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI)

Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) is a Section 88 tax-exempt charity that addresses society’s most challenging problems by connecting different sectors to facilitate broad collaboration and free sharing of resources, knowledge, and information to drive systems change, build resilient communities, and change the way we do business for good.

One way we do this is by championing community empowerment through entrepreneurship. Our flagship project, GuideFong 街坊商店 (named after the Cantonese word, “gaai fong 街坊”, for neighbor/neighborhood), promotes and supports Hong Kong’s micro and small businesses run by ethnically diverse entrepreneurs.

GuideFong is more than just Hong Kong’s first-ever online directory for ethnically diverse businesses. We aim to shine a spotlight on the stories of the diverse entrepreneurs who are the driving force behind Hong Kong’s vibrant economy. Through connecting communities, celebrating diversity, and empowering Hong Kong’s small businesses, we enhance visibility, promote social integration, and break down language and cultural barriers for Hong Kong’s small businesses.

Check out our inaugural GuideFong Bazaar, featured in the South China Morning Post here; our 2025 “Know Your GuideFong: TST” event here; and our Ramadan-themed GuideFong Tour, featured in the SCMP Young Post here.

Meet the GuideFong Community Businesses

Meet Our Funder, Sponsor, and Partners

Kishinchand Chellaram Foundation – Project Funder

As the principal funder of Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong, the Kishinchand Chellaram Foundation (KCF) provides the foundation and the event’s core operating expenses, enabling FSI to bring together vendors, partners, and the public in one space to celebrate and support Hong Kong’s community businesses.

Tracing its roots back to 1916, the Kishinchand Chellaram Foundation supports philanthropic initiatives through active engagement with the local Hong Kong community, in the areas of Education and Training, Healthcare and Human/Social services. The foundation is proud to support the Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong event as an important platform to showcase the ethnically diverse business owners and their products.

Johnson Stokes & Master (JSM) – Event Supporter

Johnson Stokes & Master (JSM) is a pre-eminent law firm in Hong Kong with representative offices in Beijing and Shanghai and a Beijing IP agency which handles trademark registration matters in the Chinese Mainland. JSM advises clients on the full spectrum of legal issues arising on the most complex deals and disputes in and from Hong Kong and the Chinese Mainland.

KOLture – Digital Engagement Partner

KOLture is a Hong Kong-based Key Opinion Leader (KOL) marketing agency dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Connecting brands with a network of over 100 creators across Hong Kong, from nano to macro influencers, KOLture delivers community-driven campaigns and authentic storytelling that help brands reach new audiences while amplifying voices that often go unheard. Like the communities it serves, KOLture believes visibility, connection, and access should never be limited by language, culture, or background. Its mission is to build a more inclusive digital landscape, one partnership at a time.

KPay – Promotional Partner

KPay Group (“KPay”) is one of the fastest-growing fintech companies in APAC, committed to empowering businesses of all sizes through simple, seamless, smart and secure technology solutions. Serving more than 95,000 merchants across Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore, KPay helps unlock growth potential by building a one-stop platform for financial management, business operations, and digital transformation.

Lalamove – Official Logistics Sponsor

Founded in Hong Kong in 2013, Lalamove is an on-demand delivery platform dedicated to empowering small businesses and local communities by making logistics fast, simple, and affordable. Powered by technology, Lalamove connects merchants with a wide fleet of delivery vehicles across 17 markets globally. Through its partnership with the Foundation for Shared Impact (FSI) and the GuideFong community, Lalamove is proud to support minority-owned SMEs and diverse entrepreneurs, providing them with the essential logistical infrastructure needed to thrive.

PayMe – Payment Partner

PayMe is Hong Kong’s wallet that makes payments simple and rewarding. You can pay at thousands of businesses in Hong Kong, big and small, and enjoy an array of offers, vouchers and discounts with PayMe. As the Payment Partner of Know Your GuideFong: Hong Kong, PayMe is offering visitors a HK$3 discount on a purchase of HK$80 or more and an HK$5 discount on a purchase of HK$180 or more at GuideFong businesses.

SCANNOW – Featured Partner

Founded in 2018, SCANNOW is a Hong Kong urban exploration platform and cultural brand dedicated to reconnecting people, brands, and culture through offline curation and our App’s ‘Explore to Earn’ model. We are pleased to support this initiative as a featured partner, helping highlight these exceptional brands committed to community sustainability.

The Beat Asia – Exclusive Media Partner

is a regional online publication delivering a unique perspective on Asia’s diverse cultures and ever-evolving lifestyle scene. Founded in Hong Kong and one of the region’s fastest-growing media platforms, it delivers compelling stories, insightful reportage, and curated coverage spanning industry leaders and changemakers, the latest events and happenings, top deals, business insights, and more, across Hong Kong, Manila, Macau, Singapore, Bangkok, and Kuala Lumpur. Its mission is to keep readers connected to the most engaging developments shaping how they experience life across the continent.