It’s easy to think of Kowloon as having always been a neon forest of concrete, but there was a time when Yau Ma Tei was dotted with vegetable plots, duck farms, rice paddies and fishing villages. People bought fresh produce from fields that occupied the same ground where apartment towers and car parking buildings now cast their shadows.

Daily Photo – The Atmosphere of the Temple Street Night Markets

If we were to stand in one spot outside the Yaumatei Tin Hau Temple in Hong Kong and somehow transport ourselves back to the 1920s, we would find ourselves in a very different place. The most obvious and dramatic change would be the fact that our toes would be standing on the shoreline rather than it being three kilometres further west. Gone would be the stalls offering four digital watches for $10 and silk pyjamas that dissolve into a puddle of static electricity at the very mention of a washing machine. But most of all, gone would be the restless, intoxicating neon energy of the night markets. What we would find is a dusty chaotic waterfront square crowded with fishermen stepping straight off their boats selling the morning catch while hawkers sold food and traditional herbal remedies from under makeshift stalls.

At its core, in most respects, and allowing for a little technological advancement, the market remains exactly how it was over a hundred years ago; a vibrant, bustling gathering space where people come to eat and socialise under open-air stalls.