The Chinese practice of feng shui (meaning wind and water in Cantonese) have been around for thousands of years, aims to bring about harmony and good luck — through the placement of objects in relation to their natural surroundings. Historically, feng shui was widely used to orient buildings—often spiritually significant structures such as tombs, but also homes and other structures in auspicious manner. The practice is not only still alive in Hong Kong today but is very much thriving, with feng shui consultations being quite the norm among locals.

The feng shui money frog—also known as the three-legged toad or money toad—has deep symbolic roots. It is a mythological creature with three legs that is said to attract wealth and abundance. If you wish someone lots of wealth, gift them this treasure for a lifetime.

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Where to buy: Star Arts Co. (Shop KP 29-30, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, inside upper deck entrance)

Tel: +852 2366 0559

Hours: Daily from 09:00am to 5.30pm

XO sauce is a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong with an umami flavor. It is commonly used in southern Chinese regions such as Guangdong.
Developed in the 1980s in Hong Kong for Cantonese cuisine, XO sauce is made of roughly chopped dried seafood, including dried scallops (conpoy), fish, and shrimp, which are cooked with chili peppers, onions, and garlic. This dried seafood-based sauce resembles the Fujianese Shacha sauce. Spring Moon, the Chinese restaurant of the Peninsula Hong Kong hotel, is often credited with the invention of XO sauce, although some claim it came from other nearby restaurants in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Kowloon. Source: Wikipedia

Photo credit: The Peninsula Boutique

Where to buy: The Peninsula Boutique (Salisbury Rd, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon)

Tel: +852 2920 2888

Website: peninsulaboutique.com

Hours: Wong Tai Sin (Daily from 7.30am to 4.30pm), Man Mo (Daily from 8:00am to 06:00pm)

Hong Kong without a doubt has got many ancient and fascinating temples spread across the country, a visit to Hong Kong will not be complete without visiting one. Apart from praying and giving offerings at these temples, the locals visit the temples to ask for blessings and prosperity, as well as to be warded off from bad luck and misfortune whether that is in business, personal lives and health. Temple charm is one of the forms which locals believe will protect them from any harm and bring them luck.
These charms have also become very popular with tourists. Charms come in an assortment of designs and prosperous wishes. Most temples offer charms with varying designs, costs and effectiveness, some can be acquired after a short session of fortune-telling, involving giving information on what year (Chinese Zodiac) of a person who wishes to get the charms. A believer or not, these charms are cute, affordable and make a perfect souvenir to take home as well as a perfect gift for family and friends.

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Where to buy: Wong Tai Sin Temple (Lung Cheung Road, Wong Tai Sin, Wong Tai Sin District, New Kowloon)

Man Mo Temple (Hollywood Rd, Sheung Wan) or any other big temples in Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2796 1125, 2796 1127

Website: Wong Tai Sin and Man Mo

Hours: Wong Tai Sin (Daily from 7.30am to 4.30pm), Man Mo (Daily from 8:00am to 06:00pm)

Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.

At Yuet Tung Chinese Porcelain producer, the porcelain wares are painted with many varieties of patterns and designs that are popular throughout the greater China area. They also have pieces with a famous rooster motif which is a symbol of family prosperity. Yuet Tung China Works has been known to make special order pieces for royal families and government officials of foreign countries, as well as for the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. Its treasured porcelain wares remain pride of Hong Kong today. Source: Wikipedia and Herenow City

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Where to buy: Yuet Tung China Works (Unit 1-3, 3/F., Kowloon Bay Industrial Centre, 15 Wang Hoi Road, Kowloon Bay, Kowloon)

Tel: +852 2796 1125, 2796 1127

Website: porcelainware.com.hk

Hours: Monday - Sunday: 09:am - 05:00pm

Mahjong is a tile-based game that was developed in China during the Qing dynasty and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-player variations found in Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia). The game and its regional variants are widely played throughout Eastern and South Eastern Asia and have also become popular in Western countries. The game has also been adapted into a widespread online entertainment. Similar to the Western card game rummy, Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and calculation, and it involves a degree of chance. Source: Wikipedia

Photo credit: Etsy HK

Where to buy: Wing Wah Mahjong (13 Aberdeen St, Central)

Tel: +852 9035 5848

For more than a hundred years, with its well-known Medicated Oil and Healing Balm, Po Sum On has been an integral part of Hong Kong people’s life and has become a must-have in every household’s medicine cabinet.

Mr. Kwok Chu Nam, founder of Po Sum On and an expert in Chinese herbal medicine, developed a topical oil with a fine blend of medicinal herbs to treat a variety of ailments, naming it the “Po Sum On Medicated Oil”, an oil to assure the well-being of the whole family. The product’s therapeutic effectiveness was proven, and in 1907, the “Po Sum On Medicine Factory” was officially registered as a Hong Kong manufacturer, with its first shop opening at Li Yuen Street West, Central. In 1910, the company adopted the image of a bouncing, happy-looking, heart-warming Chinese boy (Tóngzǐ) as its registered trademark, a symbol of lasting prosperity and joy in traditional Chinese culture. Source: Po Sum On

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Where to buy: Any pharmacy in Hong Kong

Tel: +852 2545 1403

Website: Po Sum On Hong Kong

Processed with silver shrimp, shrimp paste is a condiment commonly used in Cantonese and Thai cuisines. Due to the sea-facing location of Tai O, the abundance of silver shrimp gives rise to the local specialty.

In the heyday of the shrimp past trade, there were about 10 manufactories in Tai O. Silver shrimps sourced from local fishermen were salted, crushed and fermented before they were grounded for sundrying in bamboo sieves. The semi-products were mixed well and dried under the sun a few times to become shrimp paste. The trade has now slipped into decline and the traditional flavour is gradually vanishing.

Sing Lee Shrimp Sauce and Paste Manufactory has been operating in Tai O for more than 80 years.  It has upheld the handmade tradition and insisted on using local ingredients in their products, both of which are essential to the unique and memorable taste and aroma of shrimp paste, a must-buy when you visit Tai O village! Source: np360.com.hk

Photo credit: tabilover.jcb.jp

Where to buy: Sing Lee Shrimp Sauce & Paste Manufacturer (10 Shek Tsai Po, Tai O)

Tel: +852 2985 7330

Website: Sing Lee Shrimp Sauce & Paste Manufacturer

Hours: Monday to Sunday: 10:00am - 07:00pm

A seal, in an East and Southeast Asian context, is a general name for printing stamps and impressions thereof which are used in lieu of signatures in personal documents, office paperwork, contracts, art, or any item requiring acknowledgment or authorship. The process started in China and soon spread across East Asia. China, Japan, and Korea currently use a mixture of seals and hand signatures, and, increasingly, electronic signatures.

Chinese seals are typically made of stone, sometimes of metals, wood, bamboo, plastic, or ivory, and are typically used with red ink or cinnabar paste. The colloquial name chop, when referring to these kinds of seals, was adapted from the Hindi word chapa and from the Malay word cap, meaning stamp or rubber stamps. In Japan, seals (hanko) have historically been used to identify individuals involved in government and trading from ancient times. The Japanese emperors, shōguns, and samurai each had their own personal seal pressed onto edicts and other public documents to show authenticity and authority. Even today Japanese citizens' companies regularly use name seals for the signing of a contract and other important paperwork. Source: wikipedia

Photo credit: tabilover.jcb.jp

Where to buy: Tangs Store in Peninsula Hotel (Mezzanine Shop No. MW4, The Peninsula Hong Kong, 22 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui)

Tel: +852 2721 1382

Website: Tangs Hong Kong

Hours: Monday to Sunday: Open 24 hours

A sweetheart cake or wife cake or marriage pie is a traditional Cantonese pastry with a thin crust of flaky pastry, and made with a filling of winter melon, almond paste, and sesame, and spiced with five spice powder. “Wife cake" is the translation of lou po beng from Cantonese, and although the meaning is "wife", the literal translation is "old lady cake", paralleling the colloquial usage of "old lady" for "wife" in American English.

The traditional variant is from the Guangdong-Hong Kong region, where the filling consists of candied wintermelon.The candied wintermelon mash is then combined with white sesame seeds and glutinous rice flour. Coconut in the form of mash or desiccated shreds and almond paste, as well as vanilla, are also added sometimes. The authentic flavour and flaky texture of the pastry is produced by using pork lard shortening then by glazing with egg wash. Due to its rising popularity in Western countries brought about by immigration, butter is sometimes substituted in place of lard, though this will alter the taste. The level of sweetness is mild, compared to Western sweet pastries. Source: wikipedia

Photo credit: Hang Heung

Where to buy: Hang Heung Cake Shop (579 Nathan Road, Shop 1, Mong Kok, Kowloon), Hang Heung has 3 other branches, please click the link to their website for more info.

Tel: +852 2476 3080

Website: hangheung.com.hk

Hours: Monday to Sunday 08:00am - 08:00pm

The abacus (plural abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use in the ancient Near East, Europe, China, and Russia, centuries before the adoption of the written Arabic numeral system. The exact origin of the abacus is still unknown. Today, abacuses are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves of sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal.

Although today many use calculators and computers instead of abacuses to calculate, abacuses still remain in common use in some countries. Merchants, traders and clerks in some parts of Eastern Europe, Russia, China and Africa use abacuses, and they are still used to teach arithmetic to children. Some people who are unable to use a calculator because of visual impairment may use an abacus. Source: wikipedia

Photo credit: Yue Hwa

Where to buy: Yue Hwa Chinese Products Emporium (301-309 Nathan Road, Kowloon)

Tel: +852 3511 2222

Website: yuehwa.com

Hours: Monday to Sunday 10:00am - 10:00pm