Kowloon

The HK Museum of Art

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Today we spent more time in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong.  We went to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, on the waterfront in the Tsim Sha Tsui area.  We got to see many old and beautiful pieces of art here - jade and gold jewelry, and more ceramics than you could shake a stick at.  My favorite thing to see were the white porcelain plaques painted with enamels - the little details were amazing!  You can move through this museum fairly quickly if you are interested in mainly looking at the art rather than reading the year and dynasty of every piece (which we wouldn't have had time for!), but I think there are usually more exhibits open than what we saw today - a couple of the sections were closed so they could prepare for upcoming exhibits. 

We checked out two markets today, the Jade Market and the Ladies' Market.  I thought the Jade Market was really fun.  Even if you don't plan on buying anything it is nice to just walk up and down the aisles and see the sheer amount of jewelry being sold.  Everything was so colorful and beautiful!  We did succumb to the temptation of consumerism, and each bought one piece.  You may bargain at this market and we both tried our bargaining skills for the first time.  We have been other places where you can bargain but we usually don't bother because we dislike it and are not good at it; today I gave it a try and saved myself about $7 US on a necklace!  Of course, I'm sure if I compared notes with other tourists, they would have saved even more than I managed.  Still, it ended up being more fun and gratifying than I had imagined. 

The Ladies' Market

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The Ladies' Market has booths upon booths of clothing, fake designer purses, jewelry, and more of the usual trinkets and souvenir items.  It was also a lot of fun to browse this market.  There are tourists and locals alike walking around and it had a good atmosphere; the vendors are friendly without being too pushy or in-your-face.  It is easy to walk up Nathan Road and veer off to the Ladies' Market and the Jade Market, as we did today - there are also numerous MTR stations to hop on the subway at, if you are too tired to walk back the way you came!