Hong Kong hawkers stifled by government red tape demand change

Tin Sau Bazaar was a well-intentioned venture. The government opened the hawkers' market early last year to accommodate unlicensed vendors in the area and give poor residents in Tin Shui Wai an avenue to make some extra income.

But it has been more of a calamity for people such as Lai Tai-ho, one of 70 hawkers relocated to the bazaar after officials shut down an informal dawn (tin kwong) market that had been operating nearby.

Lai, a Tin Shui Wai resident, had been selling dried seafood at the dawn market for six years and made about HK$13,000 each month, just enough to support her family. With little shade around, the new bazaar is a sizzling place in the summer, and customers who come by are always drenched in sweat, she says.

"Business has been so poor in the summer I took in just HK$2,000 a month."

About a third of stalls remained vacant for much of the time, so the bazaar offered limited choice, Lai adds.

"There used to be vegetable sellers. But because meat isn't sold here, people don't come to buy food, so even they are gone now."

Many vendors, mostly mothers with children or individuals with other side gigs, found it difficult to meet the requirement that stalls be opened at least eight hours a day, 20 days a month.