The Yen Chow Street Hawker Bazaar, also known as Pang Jai (), is a covered market located at the intersection of

Yen Chow Street Yen Chow Street () is a main street in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It runs from hill side towards the shore of Victoria Harbour, between Castle Peak Road and Sham Mong Road. Its extension Yen Chow Street West () spans further to the r ...

and

Lai Chi Kok Road Lai Chi Kok Road is a road in western Kowloon, Hong Kong. It links Lai Chi Kok to Mong Kok, via Tai Kok Tsui, Sham Shui Po and Cheung Sha Wan. It starts from a junction with Nathan Road near Pioneer Centre in the south and ends near Mei Foo ...

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. The market is known for selling fabrics, textiles, and other fashion-related paraphernalia. The market has been popular with craft enthusiasts, design students, and professionals in the fashion industry for decades.

History

The market was established in 1978, after construction on the

Tsuen Wan line The Tsuen Wan line is one of the eleven lines of the metro network in Hong Kong's MTR. It is indicated in red on the MTR map. There are 16 stations on the line. The southern terminus is Central station on Hong Kong Island and the no ...

for the MTR forced the market to move to its current location on Yen Chow Street. At one point, over 200 sellers were selling their merchandise in the market.

Closure

In 1981, the government decided to repurpose the site for residential use. The issue of the rezoning was discussed by the

Sham Shui Po District Council The Sham Shui Po District Council is the district council for the Sham Shui Po District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Sham Shui Po District Council currently consists of 25 members, of which the district is divided into 25 c ...

in 2005. In August 2016, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department issued a notice to the tenants of the market that the government intended to close the site to make way for a public housing development. The government proposed that the current licensed tenants be moved to the

Tung Chau Street Temporary Market Tung may refer to: People * Madison Tung, a U.S. Air Force Officer, wrestler, and Rhodes Scholar * Ho-Pin Tung, a dutch race car driver of Chinese descent. * Lola Tung, an actress known for her acting debut on drama series The Summer I Turned Pr ...

. Alternatively, the government would buy back the licence from the licence holders for , well below the usual market price of . On September 28, 2016, the cloth vendor received a letter from the FEHD notifying the arrangement and details of the relocation of the "shack", requesting the cloth vendor to reply in mid-October to accept (a letter of commitment), otherwise the stall will be withdrawn. At the same time, the letter does not recognize the identities of 17 of them as operators (there were 50 operators in the shed at that time), and all relocation and compensation arrangements do not apply to these 17 people. Part of the reason for not recognizing the identity of the operator is that there will only be one registrant for a "husband and wife file". However, among the 33 people who were recognized as operators, some couples were recognized at the same time. The hawker complained to the FEHD. The FEHD required the hawker to provide proof that he was the operator, but there was no public identification criteria. Some hawkers took out electricity bills, sales receipts and other documents, all of which were accused of being unable to prove their identity its identity. The Shed Tsai Concern Group issued a statement saying that the FEHD's identification process lacked objective criteria and was not transparent, and demanded that the FEHD collectively acknowledge it and firmly refused to differentiate.

References

{{commons category, Yen Chow Street Hawker Bazaar Bazaars Suit makers Retail markets in Hong Kong Sham Shui Po