{"id":23793,"date":"2024-04-02T13:43:30","date_gmt":"2024-04-02T05:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/?p=23793"},"modified":"2024-08-22T12:14:36","modified_gmt":"2024-08-22T04:14:36","slug":"what-to-buy-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/2024\/04\/what-to-buy-in-hong-kong\/","title":{"rendered":"What to Buy in Hong Kong?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tourists do not find old fashioned Hong Kong souvenirs in Temple Street appealing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Alexia<\/strong> Leung<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking advantage of his own textile business, Keith Mok is making Hong Kong souvenirs such as coin bags, backpacks and shopping bags patterned with minibus signs, MTR station names and neon sign boards which are displayed at his shop in Sham Shui Po Fabric Market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are still developing new products that highlight unique features of Hong Kong. We are going to produce crossbody bags and drawstring bags using fabrics with mahjong and minibus signs patterns to make it look more stylish,\u201d the 26-year-old shop owner says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBoth Hongkongers and tourists (buy these products)\u2026 Half of the tourists are from Europe, US and Australia. The other half are from Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coin bags are sold for HK $50 (US $6.39) each and the shopping bags are sold for HK $180 (US $23.02) each.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The Hong Kong patterned pouches that are sold for $50 each<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur products are a bit more expensive than others because the products are made in Hong Kong by Hong Kong tailors, the sewing process is complicated and the fabrics are imported from Japan,\u201d Mok says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an attempt to expand his business to reach out to more tourists, Mok is putting up pop-up stores in D2 Place and the Mills. \u201cWe will have a spot in the Central Market soon,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Mok is developing new Hong Kong souvenirs, vendors at Temple Street, a popular tourist spot, are still selling products designed decades ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Souvenirs such as stuffed pandas, dim sum magnets and Victoria Harbour keychains can be found in Temple Street. Most of them are imported from mainland China. The price ranges from HK $20 (US $2.56) to HK $90 (US $11.51).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Sch\u0101fer*, a German tourist who came to Hong Kong for the first time, finds the souvenirs in Temple Street are more of a Chinese style than a Hong Kong style. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe souvenirs here cannot really represent Hong Kong. I think it\u2019s like basic tourism stuff you get all over the world\u2026 Some are special compared to other countries like the chopsticks, but it is so basic. It is the typical Asian, Chinese style in the eyes of a Westerner,\u201d the 18-year-old tourist says.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another German visitor, Manuel Schmidt*, traveled to other Asian countries with his wife before coming to Hong Kong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe quality of the souvenirs here is the same as the other countries we were in before, like in Vietnam and Thailand. I think it\u2019s because everything is from China so it is the same quality,\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Thomas Parker, a tourist from England, came to Temple Street only for sightseeing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t want to spend a lot on souvenirs here. I\u2019m just looking around\u2026 exploring\u2026 I like the atmosphere here. Everything looks the same, so I can’t tell much about the quality,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mainland imported souvenirs that are sold at Temple Street<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Tourists are not the only ones struggling to find special souvenirs. Hongkonger Matthew Chung* is having a hard time finding souvenirs for his Taiwanese friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe souvenirs\u2026 the stuffed toys\u2026 you wouldn\u2019t know that it is from Hong Kong. There\u2019s not many Hong Kong features. You wouldn\u2019t buy souvenirs here for friends, especially for foreign friends, there is nothing special,\u201d the 60-year-old man says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chan Kam-wing, Chairman of the Yau Ma Tei Temple Street Association of Hawkers and Shop Operators, says they hope to collaborate with hawkers who sell dry goods to sell some packaged food such as fish maws, dry scallop, salted fish, walnut cookies and century egg puffs as Hong Kong souvenirs.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe dry goods at Temple Street can also be souvenirs. For example, \u2018I Love HK\u2019 T-shirts, Hong Kong landmark keychains, cartoon keychains and Hong Kong luggage tags. These are things that have Hong Kong features and can be sold as souvenirs,\u201d he adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chan aims to turn Temple Street into a souvenir street by first persuading the hawkers to introduce new souvenirs, and local brands such as Kee Wah Bakery and Bee Cheng Hiang can also set up stores at Temple Street. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to Varsity\u2019s enquiry, the Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB) says that they will continue to develop more special tourism products and introduce new experiences for tourists.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPromoting tourism through mega events and reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as the Events Capital of Asia\u2026Developing more special tourism products and experiences in collaboration with the travel trade focusing on potential markets and visitor segments, to attract visitors from different source markets to come to Hong Kong,\u201d the board says in an email. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Names changed at interviewees\u2019 request<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sub-edited by Liam Hordijk<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tourists do not find old fashioned Hong Kong souvenirs in Temple Street appealing. By Alexia Leung Taking advantage of his own textile business, Keith Mok is making Hong Kong souvenirs such as coin bags, backpacks and shopping bags patterned with minibus signs, MTR station names and neon sign boards which are displayed at his shop […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":23934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2203,7],"tags":[33,205,40,2167],"class_list":["post-23793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-april-2024","category-periscope","tag-culture","tag-hong-kong","tag-society","tag-souvenir"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23793"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23981,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23793\/revisions\/23981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/varsity.com.cuhk.edu.hk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}