Western Market

In front of you stands the oldest market building still standing in Hong Kong. Look at its red brick with white bands at the corners: a style the British called «Queen Anne Revival», which here, among glass towers, looks almost like a toy.

1A market since 1844

Western Market opened in 1844, barely three years after the British arrived. At one point it had two buildings: the South Block, on Queen's Road, was demolished in 1981, and the one you see is the North Block, completed in 1906 on the site of the old Harbour Office. It worked as a food market until 1988.

Works on the MTR damaged it, and it nearly disappeared to make way for a wider Morrison Street. In 1990 it was declared a monument, and it reopened the following year with fabric and curio shops.

2The merchants' quarter

From the very start, Sheung Wan was the district of the Chinese traders. All around you, on streets like Bonham Strand West, shops still sell dried seafood, ginseng and bird's nests, a legacy of the trading houses that dealt between northern and southern China and Southeast Asia. The trams rattling past have been running on the island since 1904.

An Edwardian market that outlived the MTR, road widening and the demolition fever.

3What to look for

• The corner towers, with the «bandaged» brickwork in stripes that gives the building its striped look.
• The great granite arch at the entrance and the name sign.
• The double-decker trams, nicknamed «ding ding» by locals after the sound of their bell.