markets and temples

On Reclamation Street (there's a mesh of english and chinese street names here, understandably), a food market stretches for three blocks, with stalls selling all types of fruit and veg, dried fish, tubs of pick'n'mix, incense, electronic goods and metal bits and bobs. I see men cleaving up whole ducks and chickens at make-shift open-fronted butchers shops, the wood frames hung with different cuts of meat, whole birds and dried-out pig-head skins (yum). At a fishmonger-type place, live fish are kept in tubs which spread out onto the pavement, a filter-system rigged up to them from a hosepipe, spilling water over the pavement and into the gutter. Down a small alleyway a man beats metalwork on a wood block, and at the market stalls the women stall-holders knit, yell across the road to each other and even, at a couple of stalls, doze off in chairs until a customer wakes them up to be served. It's busy and colourful, noisy and at times pretty smelly - the stink of fish, meat, cooking and rice filling the air and mixing with traffic fumes near the main roads.

I stumble across the Jade Market first, and immeadialy upon stepping inside am verbally mugged by stallholders eager to sell me bracelets, necklaces, rings and other trinkets made with jade varying in authenticity. Apparently jade has been used for thousands of yars to ward off evil spirits and calm emotions. Feeling a little too calm (sleepy) already, I leave and head on towards the Tin Hau temple.

The temple is set in a courtyard park, off a busy road, but although there are only low metal railings between the road and the park, it feels quite tranquil once you step inside. Huge Chinese banyan trees trail over the ground, tourists and locals take a few minutes rest on the two-seater, polished-marble-style benches, and groups of old men crowd round tables watching others play what looks like checkers - a sight which becomes familiar as I visit other parks in Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island.

The temple itself is traditional Chinese style; a green roof, gold-painted characters above the door, and red embrodiered panels hanging on either side of the entrance. The building actually houses four temples, but the largest is for Tin Hau, goddess of sailors and fisherman (the temple used to be by the sea, but was moved), but who was also named Queen of Heaven by the mongol emperor Kublai Khan after she survived a great tempest. Inside the temple it is smoky and the air is perfumed from the incense stick bundles burned and wafted by worshippers, and from the large incense coils which hang from the ceiling in the centre of temple, with small trays beneath to catch the falling ash. A translated Cantonese sign says that these coils can be bought to bring good fortune to friends and family; they will burn for ten days once lit.
The atmosphere of the temple is so unlike that of cold&staid Christian churches; there is a sort of reception desk with a telephone, worshippers talk and guide each other through ritual and prayers, in one temple later on one woman even answers her mobile phone in the middle of a prayer! It's a bit chaotic inside, the backwall is cluttered with statues of other gods and goddesses apart from Tin Hau, though her statue has pride of place. The walls are hung with red material embroidered in gold, and ancient oblong finebrush paintings hang in glass frames. Bundles of incense are lit and wafted towards the statue of Tin Hau as part of a prayer ritual; these are then placed in a bucket of sand on the steps outside the door. Some worshippers also beat the large gold gong which stands to the right hand side of the door a couple of times before they leave. It's hard to know what these actions stand for without being able to speak Cantonese, but they were fascinating to watch.
The Tin Hau temple is flanked on it's raised platform by the temples for the city deity, Shing Wong, who ensure justice on earth and in the undeworld (a god of judges and soldiers), the Fok Tak Temple which hosts a number of deities, and the Shea Tan Temple, which is for the local gods of Kowloon.

After the temples I walk down Nathan Road and then along Prince Edward Road West to the flower market and Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. The lush perfumes of the flower market are a welcome relief after the backstreet smells around Temple Street, and the flowers themselves are a splash of colour in a area crammed - like much of Kowloon - with cramped, grimy apartment blocks dotted with dusty air-conditioner units and hung with washing, jammed up incongruously against modern, shiny glass office blocks and hotels.

You hear the Yuen Po Street bird garden and market before you see it. Or, more accurately, you hear the clamour of the hundreds of birds there. As I walk up the slope to the raised area where the garden and market are, a slightly mangy parrot peers down at me from a parapet, squawking at me - it takes a while of me trying to work out what it's saying before I realise it is talking in Cantonese!
The noise of the birds is unbelievable; there are hundreds here, most caged, some chained or wandering about with clipped wings, from tiny sparrow-types to cockatoos. Songbirds have always been popular pets with the Chinese, and some men have brought their birds along today to hang their cages from the trees which run along the walkway next to the market to show them off and let them sing. Their cages are intricate - even their food and water bowls are decorated, painted in blue on white china like a restaurant teapot, but their cages are small, and it's kind of sad to see birds contained in that way and unable to fly even a small distance.

On the way back to the hotel I go through a fun but quite complex process of trying to buy a few oranges from an old man's stall. There's lots of sign-language, great use of the ubiquitous calculator, a bit of confusion, and then finally smiles and relief as I get my oranges and he gets the correct money. Being white and blonde, it's impossible not stick out here, particularly on the backstreets; trying to pretend not to be a tourist as you might in Italy or America would be both hilarious and useless. Hong Kong seems intensely and excitingly foreign in parts, particularly on the backstreets, and yet amazingly familiar (the buses, Macdonalds - noooo!, H&M etc.). It makes for both a confusing and pretty fascinating experience.

written by  LizIsHere on January 26, 2010 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: New Zealand & Australia 2010
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