Sai Kung flower market will be closed next year due to low traffic and poor business

_{Sai Kung Lunar New Year Flower Market as seen by local Sai Kung artist Gary Yeung}

The Lunar New Year market held at the Man Yee Playground in Sai Kung will be discontinued next year. The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department explained that in view of the continued low number of visitors to the flower market, the decision to discontinue it was made after consulting the community. At the same time, the Lunar New Year market in Wong Tai Sin will be suspended temporarily owing to the underground rainwater storage tank project.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department submitted a document to the Food and Environmental Hygiene Committee of the Sai Kung District Council, stating that from mid-April to mid-May this year, the district Home Affairs Department consulted district councillors, rural committees and local people on the closure of the Sai Kung Flower Market. The results showed that most respondents supported the closure.

FEHD responded to enquires by Chinese language media explaining that in the past, Lunar New Year fairs were held at 15 locations in 13 districts. After the end of each flower market, the actual operation situation were reviewed, including the number of Lunar New Year fairs in the district, the bidding rate of stalls, the number of visitors, community needs, regional opinions, the allocation of public resources and the feasibility of continuing to hold the market, and preparations will be made for the planning of the Lunar New Year fairs next year.

The department pointed out that the number of visitors to the Sai Kung Flower Market was not ideal. The total number of visitors in the past three years was about 31,000, which was the lowest among the Lunar New Year fairs in recent years. After evaluating a number of factors, it was considered that it was most appropriate to concentrate public resources to hold the Lunar New Year fair in Po Hong Park, Tseung Kwan O, which is in same district. According to the documents submitted by the department, in order to reduce the impact, the Lunar New Year fair in Po Hong Park, Tseung Kwan O will add four wet goods stalls, increasing from 54 this year to 58 next year.

Sai Kung District Councillor Christine Fong, in response to queries, said that the visitors to the Sai Kung Flower Market has been increasingly unsatisfactory in the past few years. The reason is probably related to the “change of tactics” of vendors and the change in citizens’ New Year habits. She said that the rents of shops in the district have been reduced in recent years, and some vendors have directly rented shops to sell New Year goods, especially New Year flowers, which is a disguised way of starting sales earlier”.

Translated from an original story in Ming Pao.