We had breakfast at Pacific Coffee, the local chain, then explored the area a bit before moving on to Plan B for the day.

The Western Market building, dating from 1906, is one of the oldest buildings in the Sheung Wan area of Hong Kong. It’s southern counterpart, built in 1858, was demolished to build a high-rise in the 1980s. An active market has existed in this location since the 1850s.

We popped in today to escape a rainstorm and it turns out the 2nd floor is nothing but textile merchants.  Gorgeous wool suiting, Chinese silks and brocades, French crepes and Japanese cottons. So many incredible fabrics, but the gentlemen working Yau Fat Textiles were happy to assist me in locating particular types and making a few selections.

I don’t have any specific plans for these babies yet but until I do, they will rest on a shelf in the studio as a reminder of this beautiful little oasis. The top two are Chinese silk; the bottom is a Japanese cotton.

 I shared a picture the other day of the bamboo scaffolding that’s used here. Well, here’s out it goes up – dude here is NOT tied to the structure. Wonder how long he goes like that? Anyway, a guy on the ground holds up the bamboo pole (maybe 10-12 feet long), it’s carried up hand-over-hand to whatever floor they’re setting, then put into place. Crazy to watch.

This is the material used – the bamboo is lashed together with what appears to be strips of a tarp-like material … a zip tie of sorts.

Lunch break at a Japanese restaurant.

Found ourselves in Kowloon again today looking for a record store on Tung Choi Street which is also home to the famous “Ladies Market”. It was pouring rain and the make-shift “roof” of tarps was leaking like crazy. Business was brisk though, despite the water.  Check out this electrical “grid”.  There were tons of these supporting the 4-blocks of stalls. Pretty sure this isn’t up to code anywhere.

After dinner we decided to take advantage of the relatively high cloud cover and go check out the night skyline.  After weaving our way to the waterfront on the convenient skybridge network, we availed ourselves of the best option to capture the sites – the Star Ferry to Kowloon.

Here’s the Hong Kong skyline tonight. 🙂

The Star Ferry leaving Wan Chai for Tsim Sha Tsui pier in Kowloon.

Keeping in mind that Victoria Harbor has north-south “commuter” traffic that runs on an 10 – 15 minute crossing time from several points on Hong Kong Island to Kowloon; it also has east-west commercial traffic.

That makes for some interesting crossings such as this one tonight.  Yup, that’s the backend of a container ship.