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Western District, the down-to-earth old Chinese section of Hong Kong, begins from Possession Street and sprawls west to Kennedy Town. Western was the very first district to be settled by the British. Today, there is virtually nothing British about this area, it is now a traditional Chinese urban society at its purest, not especially pretty but undeniably colourful. In Western, one will find the Chinese herbalists and chop-makers who carve name stamps along Man Wa Lane. This is a great Chinese art. It is also home to jade-carvers, opera costumers, fan-makers, porttery-shapers, and eggrolls-bakers. Some good places to visit are :
- Chinese Merchandise
Emporium, where four floors of goods from
China are sold here. These stores which import
their merchandise from the mainland, are
owned by Beijing’s Hong Kong
representative.
- Western Market,
opened in 1906 was used for more than 80
years as a food market. Recognised as a
historical landmark, its elegant
architectural features were preserved and
restored and in 1991, converted into
a cultural and shopping complex.
- Kennedy
Town,
the colony’s oldest Chinese settlement.
Still very crowded, it has a Portuguese-style
praia, a road which curves along original
footpaths bordering Belcher Bay.
- Thieves Market,
where its filled with bric-a-brac, real and fake
antiques, and more stalls than one can ever
browse through.Bargaining is the rule here.
- Man
Mo Temple,
built around 1842 on a little dirt
track leading
up from Central. Tourists regularly throng
through Man Mo, but this doesn’t
inhibit the temple’s regular worshippers who
animatedly create thick and redolent clouds
with their burning joss offering. Mo is the
God of Martial Arts and War, and is more
popularly known by his workshippers as
Kuan Ti and Kuan Kung. Guarding the temple are
the legendary Eight Immortals. Inside are
two solid brass deer and a colourful wooden
carving.