Wet Market in Hong Kong

Do you know that the wet markets in Hong Kong are called 街市 (“street market”) because in the past, most of them were set up along the streets?

Allow me to explain what a “wet market” is, my good sir, if you come from a highly modernized / urbanized region and never been to place like this before. It is a marketplace which sells variety of fresh meats and products, like fish, chicken, pork, vegetables, fruits, dried goods etc. Unlike supermarkets, wet markets provide fresh and unprocessed goods that usually come directly from the farms.

That is correct. Fresh. So fresh that lots of them are still alive. You can still hear the chicken squawking and see the fish swimming. You even get to see how the butchers kill them and cut the...

What? That’s disgusting?

I concur. And it’s very unhygienic. It’s “wet” mostly because of the water the shopkeepers used to store fish, or to flush away the trash, or to clean the blood stain…It’s obviously not an ideal place go, especially during the moist summer…

However! It’s welcomed by the older generation and the grassroots mainly because the stocks they have there are cheaper. And you know how the elders enjoy checking the status of their food first hand? It would be easier to tell if the meat is tender, or if the poultry have been fed with chemical products. Moreover, people love visiting the wet market because they can bargain for a better price and, more importantly, they get to develop a bond with the shopkeepers. It sure is comforting to have the acquainted owners to greet you like a friend and provide what you want every time you arrive. Sometimes they may even give you some goodies for free! Not a scene you can find in those chained supermarket, right?

While those big corporations claim how bad the environment is in the wet market and how wet markets should give in, not everyone think the same. In recent years, more tourists and nostalgics tend to visit wet market deliberately because they feel that “this is what the REAL Hong Kong should look like”.

What is Hong Kong?

A modern and international city of finance? Maybe.

But let’s not forget the unique local element: messy, noisy and crowded wet market where even the poorest can afford, and the loneliest can find warmth.