Walking the markets | Hong Kong

I’m at the moment staying at a hotel just near the Happy Valley horse racecourse in the region named Wan Chai at Hong Kong Island. Today, we decided to first take a tram to a little market here at Hong Kong island and later the subway over to Kowloon to spend our day walking around the long street markets of Temple Street.

Originally Hong Kong was a small fishing village. Today, it is one of the world’s most cosmopolitan cities where the East truly meets the west. It consists of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula, The New Territories and other 262 small islands.

The markets sell all kinds of Chinese things like dragons, candles, Buddha statues, necklaces and bracelets, paintings, lamps, vases, sticks, stickers, teacups, and much more.

Keep in mind, that’s just one kind of a market. There’s tons of different ones as for example the famous ladies market, the goldfish market and Stanley market. The one we visited today is named Temple Street Market and is famous because of its many colorful signs which light up roads. Most of the things they sell there are phone cases, watches, toys, and a lot of copies of Gucci bags, converse shoes, Nike, Adidas, and colorful Kånken Fjällräven bags. And they’re not that bad done at all, sometimes you can’t even notice anything different from a real one.

If you’re planing to buy a copy at a market, please don’t forget to check the spelling of the brand. For example I saw a pair of shoes that were supposed to be adidas but were misspelled and it stood “abidas”.

I love markets, always had and always will. My grandma used to take me to a bunch of markets in Thailand when I was younger and it sort of became our thing. I love the atmosphere, the people, the culture behind everything they’re selling or made by themselves and of course the negotiations and interesting conversations with the locals. Not to mention the unique souvenirs to take with you home. Also, souvenir markets combined with street food are my type of markets!

Thank you so much for reading! Until next time!