by Howard Norfolk
On my first day in Hong Kong I took the famous old Star
Ferry from Kowloon across the Harbour to Hong Kong Island and the Central City. After the
obligatory visit to Victoria Peak, with its great views of the City and Harbour, I took
the Peak Tram down, and walked to the Botanical and Zoological Gardens, and then to Hong
Kong Park.
Hong Kong Park
with its beautiful koi But it was my visits to the aquarium store district that really made my stay memorable… Hong Kong is hilly, and land is in short supply for its large population. So just about everyone lives in small, expensive, often cramped apartments in huge high-rise buildings.
What pets can they keep in these apartments? - Caged birds and aquarium fish of course, and they can indulge their gardening instincts on potted plants. All three of these interests are very well catered for in Hong Kong. Apparently, aquariums have the added advantage of "luck-bringing qualities when properly positioned in the home". Ornamental fish keeping is a Chinese tradition, the first goldfish being developed in China about the year AD 1000. (They were established in Japan by 1500, reached Europe in the 1600s, and were introduced to America a little later). Nowadays Hong Kong is of course a major centre for breeding and exporting aquarium fish. My tourist map told me that the "exotic Goldfish Market" was to be found in Kowloon on Tung Choi Street, next to the "colourful Flower Market" and the "charming Bird Garden". So on my second day in Hong Kong I naturally made a beeline for the Goldfish Market, and was truly amazed at what I found there! Hong Kong is one of those cities where trades of the same kind are all located together, and two or three blocks of Tung Choi Street are lined on both sides with well over one hundred aquarium stores. I didn't attempt to count them or even look at them all - for all I know there could be two hundred! Curiously, mixed in with the aquarium stores at one end of the street are quite a few bicycle shops, which reminded me of the old saying about needing something "like a fish needs a bicycle"! Further along Tung Choi Street is the "Ladies' Market", where bargain-priced clothing and household accessories are sold.
Tung Choi Street, lined on both sides with aquarium stores.
Aquarium store….aquarium store….aquarium store....aquarium store Most of the aquarium stores are small; a single room fifteen or twenty feet wide, and not much deeper. But what they lack in space they make up for in stock. The stores are crammed with fish tanks and the tanks are stuffed with huge numbers of exotic fish. Many stores have room inside for just a handful of browsers at a time, and business is so brisk that shoppers have to wait their turn or edge their way in to look at the tanks. But here comes the amazing part : you don't have to go inside a store to buy - the fish are all bagged up and ready to go, hanging in huge quantities on racks outside! You can take your pick of common or rare fish of any size and in any quantity, and of course at very competitive prices. If you don't see what you want, you can just stroll down the street and look at more and more racks of fish bags.
Typical displays of ready-to-go fish
As you can see, the shoppers in these photos are dressed in their heavy winter coats. It was December, the middle of winter, when temperatures average about 15ºC (60ºF), and lower with wind chill. Despite this, tropical fish of all kinds were hanging outside in their bags to shiver. It seems like a lot of work and handling, but I am told the fish are kept in holding tanks overnight and re-bagged every morning. All the bags had prices clearly marked on them, and I jotted down a
few typical prices Most of the stores have general stock, but some specialise in various aspects of fishkeeping, including of course salt water, goldfish, koi, African cichlids, angelfish, discus, aquatic plants, and dry goods. You don't just find one store of each type - for every interest there are numerous specialists. The specialist stores generally take a more sophisticated approach to their sales - you get to see their fish in tanks rather than plastic bags! - but they are also crowded and small, so I didn't get many photos of them. They have a huge number of varieties and species of fish, including quite a few that I had never seen before.
If you don't have a store, just sell koi on the curb!
A couple of days later I went back to the Goldfish
Market!
Sometimes I visit a city and think "I wouldn't mind living here". I didn't get that feeling in Hong Kong, because crowds and high-rise apartments are not for me. But I wouldn't mind living around the corner from Tung Choi Street! I have never before seen so many different fish together at one time as I did there. I even had the crazy idea that there were more fish there than the total I had ever seen in my life! Perhaps not....but just think.... to see all the fish in one hundred stores you would have to visit a different well-stocked store every week for two years! *** ADDENDUM: After reading the above, Eric Ho of Hong Kong kindly sent me the following information, which I'm sure will be of interest to those visiting Hong Kong: "I would like to tell you that there is an open air fish market in Kowloon. It is located in Boundary Street near the Mongkok Stadium. This fish market is organized by hawkers who sell ornamental fishes on the street, on a semi-wholesale basis. The market opens everyday at around 4 a.m. in the morning and closes before sunrise. 'The fish market started in the 1960's outside the Mongkok train station. Fish shop owners from all over Hong Kong went to the fish market to buy their stock. As time went by, some of the hawkers earned enough money and they began to open their own shops. 'During the early 1980's, the government began to build a new train station. The fish market moved to nearby Boundary Street. Some of the hawkers began to open their own shops in Tung Choi Street. After that, more and more fish shops opened in Tung Choi Street. 'Nowadays, the open air fish market still operates in Boundary Street. The size and popularity of the fish market is reducing since many shop owners buy their fish directly from fish farms. 'Next time you visit Hong Kong, I hope that you can visit the fish market. Please remember to bring an electric torch!" See also, after a later visit to Hong Kong and China - A Tour of China in Winter: Or, back to: |
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