Warning: includes pictures taken in a fresh fish and gold fish market that some may find disturbing.
With our bodies unclear on what time zone we were in, we met for breakfast at 8:00am before navigating our way to Prince Edward Station on the Red Line, where our meanderings through various markets would begin. We also managed to avoid the morning peak hour crush on the train system by leaving at around 9:00am.
The journey inland and away from all the stainless steel and glass that surrounds the harbour brings another Hong Kong into focus. This is where the “locals” live, work and shop. The fashion brands that dominate the malls are replaced by the practicalities of market food, cookware, cheap clothing and footwear. The “markets” are arranged into popular consumer themes – flowers, birds, ladies apparel, fresh fish, meat, poultry and dried goods.
We started our market experience at the flower market, where stalls tended to specialise – for example some dealt only in orchids, others in succulents. Cut flowers of all shapes and sizes wrapped in tissue paper were common, as well as individually-wrapped rosebuds.
The flower market led us through to the bird market, past signs warning visitors to avoid contact with the birds. Birds of all colours, shapes and sizes were being kept and displayed in shoebox-sized cages and songbirds seemed to be favoured. Some stalls specialised in selling cages, while others sold bird feed in the form of seeds and grains, live crickets, maggots and grasshoppers, cuttlefish and other items of unknown origin.
We moved from the bird market across to the Ladies Market that was in the process of setting up for the day. Steel-framed structures were being erected as scaffolding; this was then encased in plastic tarpaulins to keep the sun and potential showers out. Boxes of goods were being retrieved from storage and sorted through in preparation for display in the quickly-erected stalls. The focus for these markets was women’s apparel, with the ubiquitous fresh fruit stalls at the end of each aisle. We stumbled across a fresh fish market with much of the stock for sale in aerated tubs, buckets and tanks. Not all the items swimming in these displays were appropriately oriented – some preferring to swim upside down. Maybe these were the ones selected for the ground fish meat being sold for fish cakes or patties.
We went in search of the goldfish market and found ourselves within the precinct well before we realised we were surrounded by shops selling fish for aquarium. What we weren’t expecting to find were fish of various shapes, sizes and colours hanging in small plastic bags partially filled with water. Hopefully turnover was high, otherwise having to untie the bags to replenish water and feed the fish would be a real chore.
Our exploration of the markets continued as a stroll through the back streets – through areas that specialised in selling safety clothing, white goods, plumbing supplies and kitchenware to name a few. One area specialising in street food was heavily patronised by builders wearing high-viz T-shirts, trousers and safety boots on their lunch break.
We lunched in a bustling restaurant that specialised in dim sum and ordered a mix of dumplings, stir-fried veggies and rice. It was also an opportunity to recover from the humidity and increasing heat as the day grew older.
We have showered, changed and checked out of our hotel. Fortunately we have access to the Executive Lounge until it is time to make a move towards the airport and our 12:15am flight back to Melbourne. The 10-hour flight will provide plenty of time for reflection on our time away and where we might be headed next.
