Hong Kong souvenir sellers at Stanley Market, Temple Street Night Market, report ‘zero sales’ as tourism dies

‘Some days not one person will walk through my door,’ says a woman who’s sold souvenirs at Stanley Market for 30 years. She’s not alone. Many shops have closed

At Temple Street Night Market, ‘zero sales today’ is a common refrain. Yet landlords still want their rent, despite the hit from street protests and coronavirus

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The lights of Kowloon’s famous Temple Street Night Market shine brightly in 2012. Shop and stall owners there and at Stanley Market, tourist magnets for five decades, fear they will have to close because visitor numbers have plummeted. because of the coronavirus pandemic and anti-government protests in the city. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 12:15pm, 27 May 2020Updated: 2:57pm, 27 May 2020

Tears well up in Fong Siu-ying’s eyes as she talks about her strong connection to Stanley Market, the tourist spot on the south side of Hong Kong Island that has been selling souvenirs, from paintings and postcards to T-shirts and teapots, since the 1970s.

“I was born in Stanley and I live in Stanley. This is my home,” she says.

Fong has worked at the market for more than 30 years. For the past eight years she has run T. Wong Art Gallery, which opened more than 40 years ago and is the market’s oldest established shop. Its wooden and brass Buddha statues, singing bowls, calligraphy brushes and carvings – some original, some reproductions – are a visual feast. But even with heavily reduced prices, the items are stuck on the shelves.

Business has never been so bad, she says, as anti-government protests and fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought incoming flights to a virtual standstill, keep tourists away.

Fong Siu-ying runs T. Wong Art Gallery at Stanley Market. She fears she will have to close unless business picks up. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“So many shops have closed and some days not one person will walk through my door,” says Fong, on a sunny Friday afternoon. In normal times, such weather would have attracted hundreds of tourists. Today, just a couple of people wander the lanes.

“Business was bad during Sars [the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic] in 2003, but it lasted from March to June, and then it was back to normal. This has no end in sight,” says Fong, her voice cracking. “I have an 85-year-old mother to support as well as people who work in my shop … I have no idea what will happen if I have to close. I really want to keep this shop.”