Temple Street, Hong Kong

Hi Everyone,

So it's been a few days since I've posted, we have been super busy, and I also started writing our travels into days but it turns out there is too much to put into one blog post. I've decided to do indivdual blog posts on one activity which makes it easier and much nicer to read.

We visited Temple Street, it's a market area (known for it's night market, but we visited during the day) located in the areas of Jordan and Yau Ma Tei in Kowloon, Hong Kong. This area has changed a lot since I was last here, even my parents didn't recognise the start of the street with all the food stalls. There was a lot of different street food on offer, we didn't try any because we had already had a big meal.

The road that the market sits on was built during the Qing dynasty and was named after the Tin Hau temple which was built on the site. The reasoning behind this is because the Temple became a major social meeting point for street vendors which provided food and small items for the people who were gathered outside the temple. In the 1920's this became a regular market but as the area around the temple became built up, it meant street vendors were pushed further away from the temple.

In 1968 there were plans to build a community centre on the land used by the market, and after some years of negotiation it was agreed that the nearby part of Temple Street should be dedicated as a night market. There are over 600 marked plots which are allocated to street / stall vendors who are allowed to set up their businesses in the evening. This system was agreed in 1975 but later on in 1998 adjustments had been made which allowed the vendors to set up earlier in the day which meant they could open at 2pm, when the road becomes a pedestrian only passage.

During the late afternoon, there still aren't many stalls open, we found that there were people arriving and setting up their businesses. It's definitely a different atmosphere in the evening and it's definitely worth a visit if you are looking for cheap goods, don't forget to haggle either to get a better price. For context, @sterlingux purchased the red jacket with the dragons shirt you can see in the image (right at the back of the stall) for $150 which for us works out to be just over £15 which is fairly cheap for one of these shirts.

This circular building which is The Woosung Street Temporary Cooked Food Hawker Bazaar is situated within Temple Street. It's an eatery which was once a strech of Dai Pai Dongs selling all kinds of meals and snacks. In Chinese Dai Pai Dongs are what we call a type of open air food stall but the official government name for these establishments is "cooked-food stalls". Even though this Bazaar has the word temporary in it's name, it has been running for over 35 years.

The following picture might not look like much but there are more stalls further along which weren't open and they are not situated on the main Temple Street as the vendors who are situated further on tend to sell rude stuff. It's stuff that you probably wouldn't be showing your kids shall we say so we didn't walk down there even though we wanted to show @sterlingux the whole market.

This is one of several markets located in Hong Kong but this is probably one of the more popular ones out of them all.

Until next time, stay tuned.