Souvenir T-shirts excel in XL sizes
Shopkeeper Hui Ho-chang is among the hundreds of traders cashing in on the handover. T-shirts with 1997 patterns - bauhinias - have replaced dresses as the main items on the racks at his shop.
Mr Hui, 65, whose main focus was as a retailer of Chinese silk cloth, believes the handover offers a good business opportunity to the retail sector.
Although he only started selling the 1997 T-shirts a few months ago, he believes he can reap good profits with the arrival of more tourists as the handover approaches.
He sells his T-shirts at $49 each, almost half the price of similar items sold by his competitors.
Mr Hui, of Central, with his wife Hui Lee Shai-har, owns the two-storey New Astors Company at the marketplace in Li Yuen Street East.
What's on your mind? We're preparing for the handover sale. We've recently bought in some 1997 T-shirts for sale. To be honest, we're a bit late.
We've been selling Chinese silk cloth and some Japanese fashion for more than 30 years. But many of the other stalls are selling handover-related souvenirs. We can't just sit back and do nothing.
Are the T-shirts popular with local people? They seem to appeal more to the foreigners and tourists. Those with the '1997 Hongkong' print are the most popular. Those with a dragon also do well. They're not very expensive and they're made in Hong Kong, so many tourists like to buy them as souvenirs.
Occasionally some local people buy the T-shirts. But mostly they're sending them to friends overseas. You don't often see local people wearing a 1997 T-shirt in the street.
Has business been good so far? Sometimes, we sell more than 100 pieces in a day; at other times we only sell a few. But we're expecting more business when the handover comes.
We've stocked a lot of XL and XXL sizes for fat gweilo customers.
It's still not the peak time. We still have about 90-plus days to go.
Have you thought of emigrating to other countries? No. I think Hong Kong will remain a good place after the handover. And perhaps my 1997 T-shirts will become collectors' items after the change of sovereignty.
