These typical shophouses are composed of shops on the ground floor which open up to a public arcade or "five-foot way", and low-rented residential accommodations upstairs.

[3] In recent years, residents and individuals have refurbished some shophouses and converted them into restaurants, shops or artists' interaction center like Shanghai Street Artspace project managed by the Department of Creative Arts of the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) aiming to explore, develop and learn from the artistic culture of Yau Ma Tei.

[3][9] Chinese tenement buildings in Shanghai Street are good examples of typical shophouses of pre-World War II times.

Only moulded capitals to the columns and lozenge shaped grille blocks forming balustrades to the verandahs exists in some of the shophouses.

[7] Internally, mezzanine floors and cocklofts are constructed to form extra bed spaces compounding the overcrowding problem.

The architectural characteristics of shophouses can reflect the live of the middle class, which is the majority of the society at that time during the post-war period.

Verandah type shophouses are now rare in Hong Kong due to the prohibition of arcades under the building ordinances in the 1960s.

[7] In September 2008, the Urban Renewal Authority (URA) announced two heritage conservation plans, which proposed to preserve the ten blocks of pre-war shophouses on Shanghai Street in Mong Kok and ten other blocks on Prince Edward Road East.

[10] The projects, which costs HK$1.33 billion, is the largest single conservation initiative ever undertaken in Hong Kong.

[3] Most of the cost, about $1.23 billion, would be spent on property acquisition and tenants' rehousing of the 73 households with 220 residents in the two sites' 24 buildings.

[11] In addition, the authority plans to reserve the shops upstairs for the arts community, such as bookstores and dance studios.

[12][13] But some people see problems with the URA's plans: not so much capital a conservation strategy as an acquisition or buy-out of properties; elimination of Shanghai Street true character by removing the stores and residents.