We’ve been hearing a lot about the old market culture of Hong Kong and how successive governments since the 1970s would like to see the market culture removed from the street vendor model to an indoor shop-based market to reflect the modernisation of Hong Kong. What this really means is that a lot of the traditional street markets that have traded in the same way for the last 150 years are disappearing. We decided to search out some of these more traditional markets.
This morning, we started with the Yuen Po bird markets. Pet birds have long been a part of the Chinese way of life and although increasing affluence has resulted in the keeping of cats and dogs, these markets still have a significant role to play in modern life. There were many types of birds including finches, sparrows, bowerbirds, asian mynas and budgerigars.
Next to the bird market is the flower market. Flowers are big business across Asia and China is no exception. Of course, there is nowhere to grow flowers on Hong Kong so much of the stock is sources from Australia and New Zealand … as well as Japan. Surprisingly, the flowers here are about a fifth of the price we would pay in Australia, even though they probably come from Australia. If I were a cynic I would suggest that once again the Australian public is perhaps being taken for a ride. Anyway … it doesn’t matter that much because I only buy flowers when I do something wrong and I can’t remember the last time that happened.
Our last stop on the traditional market tour for the morning was the Goldfish Markets. Similarly to the birds, keeping pet fish an turtles is a great Chinese tradition. There were all sizes and type of fish and turtles.
We were meeting another tour for the afternoon called the Old and New of Hong Kong. We met our guide, who was the same guide as our food tour on Sunday, but this time it was a just us and him. We started near the centre of modern downtown Hong Kong, but were quickly in the district where they sell all the dried seafood. There were a lot of shops that sell dried scallops, fish abalone, fish maw (flotation bladder inside a fish) and dried sea cucumber. None of these enthuse me a lot … but even less when I saw them sorting the various items on the roadside. It didn’t seem all that hygienic to me.
From there we went to a community garden that was established in honour of Shennong, the father of Chinese medicine. In the 5th century, Shennong spent his relatively short life experimenting with eating various herbs, roots and berries. He was frequently ill and eventually died of poisoning. This garden provides a lot of information on the best usage of known Chinese remedies. There is a monument to Shennong in the garden and it is clear he did not discover a cure for baldness!
We then found ourselves back at Hollywood Road, so named because it used to be lined with Holly trees. There are now lots of antique shops along here and there are still a couple of coffin makers trading, but this area is rapidly being modernised with lots of funky wine and food bars moving in and the smaller apartment blocks being replaced by high-rise apartments. The cost of living space in Hong Kong is close to the most expensive in the world, with many people paying millions for their 40 Square metres of living space.
Our tour then wound it’s way back to the downtown where we talked about Hong Kong’s unique network of walk ways. You can actually get around large parts of the CBD without setting foot on ground level.
Following the end of this tour, we headed back to the hotel for a change of clothes prior to heading out for dinner. We had a booking at a Cantonese Restaurant on Level 102 of the ICC (International Commerce Centre) which was at one stage the tallest building in the world, but now does not even rank in the top 10. They have a Michelin Rated set menu at only $2,000HKD … without wine… which looked nice, but was outside financial threshold. We chose a few things from the menu and some nice wine and enjoyed the view. I’ll spare the details except to say great meal and great wines… but here’s some pictures.
Until tomorrow!
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