As I approached the outer confines of Hongkew market, the crowd of purchasers grew to an enormous size, and progress was impeded by several "caravans" of wheelbarrows and other conveyances pulled by belated coolies, laden with market produce, on their way te the stalls. Strolling through the narrow aisles of the market itself, I thought that the sobriquet of "Tower of Babel" was well applied, since bargaining was being conducted in apparently all known dialects and languages not excepting the Kamchatkanese.
In the centre of the market, at a clean little office, I met Mr. Kilner, Chief Inspector of the Health Office, who despite the fact that he was exceptionally busy, courteously offered to show me over the market and to explain the manner in which it is conducted.
"There is unusual activity today," Mr. Kilner informed me, "since this afternoon the new market will be open and the proprietors are all preparing to move to their new quarters. The stands are all chosen by lot, the numbers being placed in a bag, which are withdrawn by each stand owner when he pays his tax. After all the old proprietors have been satisfied, the new comers will be taken care of."
Mr. Kilner took me over the new market which is adjacent to the old and is a splendidly constructed building, built of reinforced concrete in three tiers, and will commodate about one thousand stalls, thus greatly relieving the present congestion. It has taken nearly a year to build and is the final word in modern sanitary construction. The street floor will be devoted exclusively fo meats and the heavier produce, while the two upper floors, reached by numerous -broad staircases will contain the various vegetable and flower stalls.
According to Mr. Kilner, the Hongkew market is the largest in the Orient, whose 1,700 different stalls serve considerably more than 50,000 customers daily. The Hongkew market is only one of 10 municipal markets, which supply the wants of Shanghai's fast growing population, Meat for foreign consumption sold at the market stalls is all inspected and passed at the municipal abattoir before it is Permitted to be brought into the market.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.