shoppers' world (updated 12/16)

    Hong Kong is known as the shopping mecca of the world for a long time until China's large cities started competing.  But, still, it's a great place for bargain shopper like me.
   Our apartment is right next to the Fanling Mall.  When we come down from our 26th floor, the guard (yes, the place has a doorman/woman on guard 24/7), there is the Seven-Eleven next door, a spa, a buffet restaurant, then the mall with hundreds of stores.  To go to the MTR subway station, about a 10-minute walk, if we go through the mall, we'd go pass at least 3 or 4 bakeries, several restaurants, shops for anything you can imagine, dim sum fast food, smoothie shops, 2 grocery stores...the list goes on.  It's hard to be on a diet here when temptations abound.

    We do a lot of our grocery shopping at the "park and shop" at Fanling Mall where one can find a lot of western food products.  To give you a little idea of the cost, a 6-oz Yoplait yogurt is US$1.50, a quart of milk is HK$20 or US$2.57, a bag of 24-oz oakmeal is US$4, a stick of butter is US$2.57, 4 slices of multi-grain bread US$1.30.  As you can see, western type of foods are available, but quite expensive, but fruits and vegetables are fresh and inexpensive.  One of the images below is that of a "dragon apple" with red skin outside with white and sesame seed like black spots inside.  It wasn't as sweet, so I didn't like it very much.  But star fruit is great and mangoes are plenty.  I saw several different kinds of fruits that I grew up with in Taiwan.  It was exciting. 

    There are shopping centers at each area/district.  Some are world famous, such as Stanley's Market, Tsim Sha Tsui, the Nathan Road shops, Mong Kok, Kowloon Tong, to name a few.  Elwin and I stopped at Ikea and picked up a few household items for the apartment.  The only thing is whatever you buy, you have to carry it home.  Consequently, we bought most of our stuff right by the apartment if they are available.  Carrying heavy bags can be hazardous to ones health as we experienced in China.  Not having a car to go places probably is one of the biggest adjustments for Americans here.  We are quite spoiled, aren't we?

 
    There are more pictures to upload.  So please come back to this page to check for updates.  Please leave a comment so I know who's been visiting our blog.