Stanley Market
- April 11, 2006
- Rated 4 of 5 by
morninglemon from New York, New York
It must have been about 95ºF, with stifling humidity in the air, when I headed to Stanley Market. It's an outdoor market, so summer isn't necessarily the best time to go. There are fans and air-conditioners are trying in vain to cool the masses, but with tourist season peaking in the summer, the problem was getting through sticky hot masses of people.
There is one advantage to shopping Stanley's street market in the summer though -- no one's thinking about winter, and certainly not about scarves. Yet the merchants at Stanley have scarves -- wools, wool-silk blends, cashmere, pashminas, pashmina-silk blends, you get the idea -- all year round. Without a demand, shopkeepers are willing to go further down in price since the merchandise is just taking up space in the store anyway.
Stanley market vendors, for odd reasons, sell the sorts of wide scarves, shawls, and wraps, that are sold in department stores across the world. But whereas a similar quality/color scarf will cost you upwards of HK$400 at, say, Wing-On or Mitsokoshi (provided that it's not a designer brand), scarves go for around Hk$200 or less. And that's just the starting price. As with all street markets in the area, bartering is part of the deal. You can score a pashmina-wool blend shawl, big enough to cover two people and then some, for HK$110. These are the same kinds of shawls and scarves that come from India, the Himalayas, China, and Thailand, that places such as Lane Crawford will exploit for ten-fold.
And don't worry about having to choose from a limited selection of colors: Stanley scarf merchants have the whole rainbow. You just won't find embellishments or designer logos all over the merchandise (for once), which is just the thing for most Westerners who appreciate a certain kind of minimalism in dress.
From journal Pashminas at Stanley market
Editor Pick
Stanley Market and Beaches
Meanwhile, on the other side of the island...
There's a lot more to Hong Kong than banks, skyscrapers, and Buddhas. On the other side of the island from downtown Hong Kong are several very nice uncrowded, during the week, beaches. I wouldn't call then secluded because they aren't really hidden from view, being near the main road, but they are very nice little coves. It's really surprising to find such nice natural areas so close to the main city of Hong Kong.
Also on that opposite side of the island is Stanley Market. Stanley Market is a huge souvenir shopping market. There are dozens and dozens of little shops and stalls packed together, from which you can get any Hong Kong souvenir you can think of at reasonable, negotiable prices.
Our 9-year-old's favorite find there: a huge pack of about 50 Hamtaro Hamster play figures (with names in Chinese, which I had to get translated by a Chinese coworker after we got home.)
Yes, it is very touristy, but it is a lot of fun, and these markets are so much more fun (and cheaper)than the shops on Victoria Peak, for example.
There are places to eat, but not a lot of them. We had a relatively cheap lunch at a bakery-cafe at Stanley Market before getting on the bus to go back to the city.
With help from your hotel desk or tourist publications, it is pretty easy to figure out the bus system to take you from downtown Hong Kong to the other side of the island. They use double-decker buses. Sit in the front of the top for the best effect as the bus zips around the curves on the twisty mountain road.
From journal Hong Kong! One of the World's Top Cities