Fragrant Harbour

The Wet Market

The Lee family stall, at the corner of Graham Street and Wellington.

This quintessential feature of the SAR is a microcosm of smells. In larger markets the produce, seafood and fresh meat are all separated into sections: so on your grocery run, you’ll be hit by the springy, watery scent of greens and the juicy sweetness of fruits. Then in the seafood section, it’s the sharp tang of wet shells, salt and heaving fish that attack the nose. But none are quite as offensive as what you encounter in the butchers’ aisles: an almost fetid, gamey odor of aging pork being unhooked, chopped and hung back up again; damp and limp, with the salty, ferrous smell of drying blood.

“The prevailing tradition of Hong Kong has always been the gai see wet market,” says Mr. Lee, who mans a fruit stall with his aging parents at Graham Street Market. The market’s livelihood is dwindling as the Urban Renewal Authority moves stalls out, although at press time several shops still remain in business. “That fishy market odor is gone, because all the seafood stalls have closed down. All that’s left now are vegetables and fruits, so it smells a whole lot fresher. But without meat and fish, fewer people come here,” he adds.

“It’s not really considered ‘forcing us out’,” says Mrs. Chan, who has been working at her family-owned vegetable stall in the market for decades. “They’re still leasing space to us until the surrounding environment absolutely needs to be renewed, but until then they’re giving advance notice and compensation. Societal problems shouldn’t only be seen from one side: that’s not healthy,” she says. Her family stall has seen changes throughout the years, from beginnings as a small stall, to a brick-and-mortar store, then to a streetside green tin stall again in the recent neighborhood redevelopment. “We’re also an old couple with no one to carry on the business,” she says. “Taking advantage of that, we’ve decided to quit.”