Hong Kong’s Bird Market
Songbirds are popular pets in China and are also considered lucky charms; in Hong Kong, the Mong Kok district even has its own bird market in one of the streets, offering a huge selection.
Tag Archive for: China
By Tram Through Hong Kong
After experiencing many sights in Hong Kong, such as the Man Mo or Po Lin temples, the view from The Peak, the exotic shops in Ka Shing Street, and the Bird Market, I decided to take a tram ride from west to east towards Causeway Bay. This allowed me to discover entirely new perspectives of the city. The old, double-decker trams trundle through the traffic, offering excellent views of the bustling street life from the front seats on the upper deck, thanks to the elevated vantage point. The further I travelled from the central districts, the more English signs disappeared; the streets narrowed, and small shops and market stalls on the pavements dominated the scene.
Chinese Seafood
Next to the shops selling spices or exotic animals in Ko Shing Street, you’ll find more shops in Des Voeux Road West in Hongkong selling edible goods from the sea – dried fish, seaweed and algae, and much more. It was a new and unusual sight for me. Tastes are just different, and without expert help or due to a lack of language skills, I decided against buying anything and trying it myself.
Exotic shopping in Ko Shing Street
What fascinated me about Hong Kong was that it brings together restaurants of all styles – Asian, European, African etc. – in one city, and it seems that absolutely everything edible is actually available to buy or, since the people here are so enterprising, can be sourced. In Ko Shing Street, Sheung Wan, for example, you’ll find many shops with a wide range of food items that were previously unknown to me. Alongside spices, they also offer dried lizards stretched out on small wooden sticks and other creatures. Other shops specialise in fish and seafood.
Older Houses in Cochrane Street
In contrast to the gleaming and modern Hong Kong skyline with its many office towers in the business districts and residential high-rises of the Mid-Levels, many people still live in more modest conditions. All these contrasts – rich or poor, new or old – lie close together, leaving behind a multifaceted picture of this society.
High-rises in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels
In Hong Kong, high-rises aren’t just built on flat ground, but also up the slopes – as here in the Mid-Levels of Sheung Wan, which I reached via the effortless ascent on the escalator in Cochrane and Shelley Street. This arrangement creates a unique skyline, as the buildings cover the slopes like trees in a forest. Unlike the older buildings in Cochrane Street, they promise better amenities and more light and air to breathe.
Hong Kong skyline at night
From a viewing terrace at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, you get this fascinating view of the Hong Kong skyline at night. I’m particularly impressed by how the skyscrapers even stretch up the mountainsides. To create more building land, new areas are being reclaimed from the sea through land reclamation in many places.
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