Open Air Markets

Yesterday we went shopping in earnest, first at the produce markets, then the Jade Market, then the Temple Street Market. It was quite overwhelming, but proved to be very successful (at least for the global economy, if not for our personal bank account).

The produce market consists of stalls filled with every kind of fruit and vegetable imaginable, from sugar-sweet miniature bananas (thinking of you, Anna!) to giant red dragonfruit, plus a slew of things we've never seen before (2-foot-long eggplants, maybe? Flowering asparagus? Bumpy grapefruit? 12 kinds of mushrooms?). There are also the "wet markets," where the kind vendors will butcher your side of beef, press your duck or fillet your fish to order. Wild.

The Jade Market is a huge, low, covered building with hundreds of stalls selling (of course) jade of every color, size, shape and quality, plus pearls, ivory and other jewelry. Some real, some fake. The vendors are very solicitous but very aggressive. I had one woman holding my arm until I had to physically shake her off. I did very well here.

The Temple Street Market consists of tiny outdoor stalls lining the streets for blocks leading away from the jade market, offering everything from t-shirts to i-Pods to mah jongg sets, all at great prices. We had a blast just looking at everything.

For more details and some photos, check out this link:

Open Air Markets

(if the above link doesn't work, try http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/touring/popular/ta_popu_open.jhtml)