The North Point Market

Yesterday, after our library visit, Andy and I caught the tram back home. We ended up catching the wrong one, however, as it didn't go all the way to Quarry Bay. We discovered that this one terminated at the North Point Market. Not that it was a bad thing. We welcomed the chance to wander around and experience window shopping the traditional way.

The tram takes a turn off King's Road onto Chun Yeung Street. The tram lane is shared with cars, trucks, carts, and pedestrians.

The street is a few blocks long, with one side crammed with stalls selling edibles of all kinds.

A walk down this side of the street is total sensory overload, even for a city as busy as Hong Kong. It's crowded with vendors shouting sales pitches against the din of the tram bells, diesel engines, and car horns. Butchers chop away at a pieces of meat behind a curtain of animal parts hung on hooks. Styrofoam containers and plastic crates pile up in the street. You can always smell the fish stands, displaying fish cut open and laid out on beds of bloody ice. The vegetables and fruit are stacked in colorful pyramids. Even things like beansprouts are shown off in neat little haystacks.

The other side of the street has clothing, shoes, and accessories:

The side of the street is a little quieter, but as you can see in the picture, the vendors don't believe in white space to give the eye a break.

I'm not familiar with most of the vegetables and fruit, so I haven't been doing much shopping in markets like this. As for the fish, I know it's much better to buy a live one (the fishmonger will kill and clean it for you when you buy it), but I'm afraid I have no idea what any of the fish are, especially when they are whole. I'm too used to buying fish and meat American style -- that is, cut up and prepackaged on a tray, with a label telling me what it is.