For a city that shills for the tourist dollar like none other, Hong Kong really is missing the tourist boat by moving forward on the re-development of the Gage Street Market. The last remaining wet-market on Hong Kong Island, the multi-block area is a photographer's delight and a major draw to visitors of the City. It's one of the rare dark spots in HK where you can't find Jimmy Choo shoes for purchase, or Dolce & Gabbana fashions or the shamefully priced $100K Vertu diamond encrusted mobile phone (If buying one of these phones is not a first class ticket to Hell, I don't know what is). The Gage St Mkt is just raw veggies, fish, and chickens with their necks broken to order.
Like anything culturally charming and not UNESCO protected, its existence is under siege from the evil property crowd who are looking to develop it into high end lofts and high rises, with a promise to preserve the current market with a modernized version. Success in my mind would be something akin to the SF Ferry Building where elements of old and new co-exist, but HK's urban development tends to lend more to the advancement of the HK$ than the preservation of cultural heritage so the benefit of the doubt is not in their corner. The developers and city officials contend that if they don't step in the market will be taken over by the gentrifying effects of high-end restaurants and boutiques. Fair point, and that is something that is already creeping into the area. As in any case where all constituencies have good points, the ones with the most power and HK$$'s will prevail. I know, that attitude is one of a pipin' hot glass of water filled empty, but the hawkers pictured on this posting don't have the means to battle the developers in court and Eminent Domain is quite popular with the Chinese government, so its left to the community activists to step up -- http://www.savethestreetmarket.com/ Its an age old story I suppose.
So why is the market worth saving? Stall after stall of hawkers selling virtually anything that swims in the sea or roots in a pen, and any part of it for that matter. They haggle with their customers, many of which have been shopping the street for seemingly ever. Orders are taken on pad and paper, chalkboard, or on trust-based loans, not on touch screened plasmas. Some of these merchants have been doing business in the same closet-sized space well before big white dudes like me were using them as a nostaligic photo opportunity. The place reeks something unholy, I'm no health inspector but it screams unsanitary, and there is a mysterious H3O fluid (Melted ice? Cat piss? Fish guts? Combination thereof?) that flows counterintuitively from the meat market on higher ground to the veggie market below it....But in a city that strives to be modern in every every ways, it is one of the few time capsules - a place where you can go and feel like people are content to live without the burden of feeling like they must constantly scratch advance their standing. For me, it is one of the places where I feel a sense of 'cultural awe.' A 5-star hotel is mildly impressive, a conference room is just another conference room, a high-rise apartment is just that -- but watching a guy in a blood-stained wife beater swing a rusty cleaver at a flopping fish with laser precision just like he's done for the past 30 years is pretty dang cool....
I'm not an activist, I'm a believer in free markets or I'd not be here, but I'm also a newcomer to HK so its sad to read about how the rising HK property market is chasing out some really charming traditional enterprises. "Silly, innocent gweilo, didn't anyone warn you that money trumps culture in HK?" I guess not well enough. Two weeks ago I read in "The Paper" (South China Morning Post) that a 75-year old third generation paper craftsman in Soho was being chased out of his business by rising rents and it prompted me to go to his small shop and buy a bunch of stuff (Paper goldfish now adorn Ingrid's nursery). And just today in the SCMP there was a story of the Man Wah Hair Dressing Company, run by Lee Kwok-Shun, an 86-year old who'd been cutting hair since the age of 14 who had to fold up shop because of rent increases. Sad to me. I'm going to try and get him hooked up with a gig at Hair Party.
I suppose my point is that its a shame to see the "Out with the old, In with the new" mentality prevail when HK's 'old' is so cool its 'new' is so lame. Alright, enough, I'll get off my soap box without breaking an ankle, being arrested by Chinese Internet thought police, or surrendering my conservative sensibilities.
This store (above) made me laugh because there were all these chickens huddled in their little cages while one of there unfortunate brethren was hanging in the window in the storefront. There is a coffee shop nearby where I sat and gave playful thought to a screenplay for the next animated Pixar film where the chickens plot their escape from the Gage St. Market......So many potential voiceovers -- Gilbert Gottfried, John Ratzenberger, Rosie Perez, and Bruce Willis (of course). I think I've got something here..
Bathtime is always a favorite of Ingrid's, but a hometown soak in the backyard of Orangewood from Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Barr and Aunt Katherine is the best. "What's that green stuff on the ground?" she wonders...That's grass Ingrid, don't go falling in love with it, we'll be headed back to Hong Kong in another couple weeks....
I never thought I'd say it, but I love high rise living. Having never lived above the second story (20 feet) off ground level, I'm really trying to adjust to being 400+ feet in the air. Coming home from work with takeout Chinese food (or, 'Food" as they call it here in China) really makes me feel like an eagle or something bringing food back to Lizzie and Ingrid in the perch. 
For a city that shills for the tourist dollar like none other, Hong Kong really is missing the tourist boat by moving forward on the re-development of the Gage Street Market. The last remaining wet-market on Hong Kong Island, the multi-block area is a photographer's delight and a major draw to visitors of the City. It's one of the rare dark spots in HK where you can't find Jimmy Choo shoes for purchase, or Dolce & Gabbana fashions or the shamefully priced $100K Vertu diamond encrusted mobile phone (If buying one of these phones is not a first class ticket to Hell, I don't know what is). The Gage St Mkt is just raw veggies, fish, and chickens with their necks broken to order. 
This store (above) made me laugh because there were all these chickens huddled in their little cages while one of there unfortunate brethren was hanging in the window in the storefront. There is a coffee shop nearby where I sat and gave playful thought to a screenplay for the next animated Pixar film where the chickens plot their escape from the Gage St. Market......So many potential voiceovers -- Gilbert Gottfried, John Ratzenberger, Rosie Perez, and Bruce Willis (of course). I think I've got something here..
Is the glass half full or half empty? Well, that is a good question, but not really my point because it doesn't speak to the temperature of the glass. What I have noticed here in Hong Kong is that it's customary to serve a visitor a glass of hot water upon arrival to a business meeting. Picture my big body battling across town in the searing heat and humidity, slicing and dicing the sidewalk foot traffic to make my meeting on time, building a healthy sweat, only to be served a glass of hot water upon arrival. I always grab the glass hoping for cool refreshment, only to feel the thermal heat through the glass. Cruel. Uncool, in every sense.
Lizzie and Ingrid have left Hong Kong for a homecoming to their native Arizona where they'll be visiting family and friends over the next month. As they are the primary inspirations for this blog, it could slow down the postings a bit, but do bear with us. 
Ingrid gets acquainted with her little cousin Susanna.
In tandem with Typhoon Neoguri this weekend, Hong Kong experienced a Black Rain warning yesterday. Black Rain falls at a rate of over 70 millimeters per hour (nearly 3 inches). It did come down heavily, when the clouds parted and the rain stopped it offered the clearest view of the city skyline that I've ever seen -- no smog, haze or other pollutants. And it clean at the street level as well. Hong Kong is a very congested city, and with so many people traversing the same public terrain everyday it becomes very necessary for Mother Nature to swab the decks every so often. I'm not saying I'd eat off the sidewalks here in HK, but yesterday would have been the day to do it.
In another sign that the world's weather is out of whack,Hong Kong is currently being hit by a Typhoon, the earliest the city has ever been hit by such a storm since records have been kept (and in China, records have been kept for a looong time). The signpost in the lobby of our building claims Typhoon Neoguri to be a No. 3 Signal event 
which is basically a big rainstorm with accompanying strong winds. Its the Signal 8+ typhoons that close the schools and send everyone screaming home from work to batton down the hatches. We look forward to those come August. But the city is taking Neoguri in stride. I just dropped Lizzie and Ingrid off at the Airport Express for their flight home to the States. The flight is still scheduled to leave on time so I suppose its not a major meteorological event.
Hong Kong is readying itself for Olympic glory when the Olympic Torch makes its way through the city on May 2nd. Today it held a full scale dress rehearsal for the relay and we were there! We're unfortunately not going to be in town when the real torch passes through so we saw the next best thing. There were no protesters, no track-suited paramilitary Chinese goon squad (sorry in advance...) guarding the runners, and no international television coverage. And most evident, there was no torch! The stand in for the torch was some sort of oversized cardboard tube that looked to have come from a roll of holiday wrapping paper. I could see Ingrid salivating just looking at it.
Next Thursday is "Bring Your Child to Work Day." Ingrid will be traveling home to the States with Lizzie next week so she'll miss this 'holiday' and I don't think it is typically observed in Hong Kong anyway. So, Ingrid paid me a visit in our offices today. She got to meet my colleagues, type the keys on my laptop computer and chew on my Blackberry handset. Fun times.
....thought this last picture was funny because of the look of sheer terror on this person's face....
If you ever wondered where all the world's shark fins have gone, they are for sale in this store in the Sheung Wan neighborhood of Hong Kong. Lizzie, Ingrid and I spent today exploring this little borough a short distance to the west of our flat. 
It is refreshingly 'local' compared to the high-rise-ville in which we live. The area is known for its concentration of shops peddling traditional Chinese medicines. Anything you can think of that swims in the sea or scampers through the forest can be found dried up in a jar with a price per kg attached. Seahorses, shark fins, deer antlers, bear gall bladders, ox gallstones, really anything that might remedy your particular ailment....though I'm sure sales have been down since Viagra came to market. 
But this trail is a gem of a find because there are not many places in the immediate vicinity of our apartment tower to go jogging without having to slalom through crowds of people or dodge speeding taxis. Too bad though that in another month an outdoor jog or stroll will be an afterthought as I can already feel the temperatures spiking.....the beastly humidity is just around the corner and the outdoors must be avoided at all costs....
