Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market

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Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market, Reclamation Street

The Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market (Chinese 油 麻 地 果 欄), also known as the Kowloon Wholesale (Fruit) Market or the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market , is located in the district Yau Ma Tei , Kowloon , Hong Kong .

Another historic property, the Yau Ma Tei Theater , is just a few meters down Reclamation Street.

history

The fruit market in Yau Ma Tei was built and opened in 1913. The original name was Government Vegetables Market (政府 蔬菜 市場). While only fruit and vegetables were sold in the market at first, fishmongers also settled in the market in the 1930s, poultry, rice and other fresh foods were also offered. After the vegetable and fishmongers moved to the newly opened Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale Vegetable Market (長沙灣 蔬菜 批發 市場) and Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale Fish Market (長沙灣 魚類 批發 市 場) in the neighboring Cheung Sha Wan district in the mid-1960s , the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market specialized exclusively in fruit.

description

The market area has been listed by the state-controlled Antiquities and Monuments Office in the list of historical buildings since December 2009 as a Category II property.

The area of ​​the market is bordered by the streets Ferry Street, Waterloo Road and Reclamation Street (to the south by an unnamed street), and Shek Lung Street crosses the market. The Yau Ma Tei Market plays an important role in supplying Kowloon and beyond. Between 2014 and 2015, 317,000 tons of fruit were sold here, which is around 47 percent of the total amount of fruit sold in Hong Kong during this time. On the market with a total area of ​​14,000 square meters, there are an average of around 250 dealers.

The market stalls on the rectangular area have one to two floors. The upper rooms are no longer used as living rooms, but as storage rooms and sanitary facilities. The stalls are made of brick and stone. Most of the corridors are also covered or lined with arcades. Architecturally attractive is the use of gables that date from the Dutch colonial era, most of them with carvings.

Relocation problem

Yau Ma Tei fruit market, interior view

Because the fruit market also functions as a wholesaler and also has to be supplied (which leads to the noise in problematic opening times), the authorities have received numerous complaints over time about the noise, traffic problems, sanitary problems or nocturnal disturbances. In 1969, the Hong Kong Executive Council first proposed that the government move the market to a logistically better location. At certain intervals this is also dealt with in the government (increasingly after around 2007), some alternatives have been found and talks have been held between the government and the dealers, but there is also resistance. On the one hand on the part of the dealers who do not want to accept financial expenses, on the other hand it is feared that the traditional community around the market would come to an end. At the moment there are only various improvements in the area of ​​road routing or traffic calming and, above all, the surcharge activities of the traders that have been implemented.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hugh Farmer: Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market - built 1913 , in: The Industrial History of Hong Kong Group, June 12, 2016, online at: industrialhistoryhk.org / ...
  2. ↑ a b c d Ripe for change? Vibrant Hong Kong fruit market faces growing challenges after 103 years , in: South China Morning Post, October 1, 2016, online at: scmp.com / ...
  3. ↑ List of the 1,444 Historic Buildings with Assessment Results (as at 22 March 2018) , a publication by the Antiquities Advisory Board, online at: www.aab.gov.hk / ... , there item 271
  4. ↑ FRESH FOOD WHOLESALE MARKETS , online at: aud.gov.hk / ...
  5. ↑ Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market , server of Docomomo International / Docomomo Hong Kong, online at: docomomo.hk / ...
  6. ↑ LCQ6: Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market , Press Release, news.gov.hk, June 24, 2009, online at: info.gov.hk / ...
  7. ↑ APPENDIX 3. Relocation of the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market , online at: legco.gov.hk / ...

Web links

Commons : Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market  - Collection of Pictures, Videos and Audio Files

Coordinates: 22 ° 18 ′ 43.9 ″  N , 114 ° 10 ′ 5.5 ″  E