In today's throw-away society, it often costs more to repair something than to replace it.
Take umbrellas. A run-of-the-mill version costs between $10 and $200 - so if it's 'borrowed' by your workmates or fellow pub patrons, or you leave it on a bus, or it gets blown inside out, it won't cause you much pain.
But it's a different story if you've forked out a substantial sum for your umbrella.
This is where Ho Hung-hee - possibly Hong Kong's last umbrella repairer - enters
the picture.
The 80-year-old operates out of a small stall in Peel Street, Central, and has been an umbrella repairman for 50 years - first making them, but now mostly mending them. From Monday to Saturday, he travels from his Shamshuipo home to his stall, arriving at 11am and working until 4pm, fixing about 20 umbrellas a day.