Although I didn’t buy very much in Hong Kong, I did make a few interesting purchases…

Greeting card

I think the illustration of this greeting card shows the Hong Kong that I am familiar with: chaotic, colourful, cramped but full of character. Sadly, in recent years the city’s unique buildings and street scenes are being replaced by soulless glossy shopping malls and luxury apartment blocks. This card makes me feel nostalgic and reminds me of the ‘old’ Hong Kong, very much like the city depicted in Wong Kar-Wai’s films…

The traditional Chinese calendar

The traditional Chinese calendar is a fascinating item… Not only does it tell you the dates (Western & Chinese), it also indicate when you should and shouldn’t wash your hair, get married, move house, go fishing (for fishermen in the old days), clean the house etc. Astrology also plays an important part; depending on your Chinese zodiac signs, there will days marked as ‘bad’ days when things are mostly likely to go wrong. I am not a superstitious person, but I am always curious and fascinated by the ‘warnings’…

Children’s exercise books

These nostalgic children’s exercise books can usually be found in traditional stationery shops in Hong Kong, but since these shops are disappearing fast, it makes it harder to find items like these now. I found these in the stationery department inside a bookstore where they come in a pack of 5 and just under $10 (which is about 85p). A bargain!

DIY rubber stamp printing kit

Rubber stamp sets are not cheap in the U.K., so I was quite thrilled when I saw this DIY rubber stamp kit. It contains a black ink pad, different shaped type holders, tweezers and a 2 different sizes of rubber alphabet and numbers. I bought this for about £8, which is much cheaper than what I would have to pay in the U.K.

Cyber Clean

I saw this in the bookstore and was curious about its function… it claims to be able to get rid of the hard-to-reach germs and dirt on the computer keyboard, remote control and phone etc. I tried it recently and it seemed to work okay… but are all the devices free of germs now? I am not so sure.

DIY Art vase

I saw this DIY paper vase inside the Hong Kong Museum of Art shop, I found it  interesting because it is made to resemble a traditional Chinese ceramic vase. All you have to do is to fold according to the instructions and turn it into a vase that can be used to hold pens or other items.

Wrapping paper

This wrapping paper depicts scenes of old ‘China’ in the style of wood block printing. It’s quite unusual and I think it would look good as book covers.