Strolling Along Macau's Rua de Cinco de Outubro, Lined with Old Shops; the Vegetable Prices at the Market Were Somewhat Unexpected

Friends who have explored Macau in depth should know that there is a street with a very special name, called Rua de Cinco de Outubro. It is a well-known old commercial street in Macau. Over a hundred years ago, it was originally part of the North Bay and Shallow Bay, with winding waterways. Later, after land reclamation, the channel was straightened, and passenger piers were built along the shore. These piers typically combined offices and ticket counters, and whenever cargo or passenger traffic was heavy, the area became very crowded. The Inner Harbour was once Macau's maritime gateway, where all passenger and cargo vessels to the mainland, Hong Kong, and outlying islands gathered, and it was also a mooring spot for fishing boats. This spurred the economic development of Rua de Cinco de Outubro, making it one of the bustling streets of Macau at the time.

Why is this street called Rua de Cinco de Outubro? Actually, it was originally not called that, but rather Rua de quatro de Março? No, the original name was Si Meng Street, named after the now-demolished Si Meng Pier. Its northern end connects to the intersection of Avenida do Dem. M. C. S. and Estrada Marginal da Areia Preta, and its southern end leads to Rua das Lorchas. Later, during Portuguese rule, to commemorate the revolution that took place in Portugal on October 5, 1910, the Macau-Portuguese government renamed it Rua de Cinco de Outubro.

Because there are many century-old shops on the street, local friends specifically recommended this old street to us. We spent half a day leisurely wandering through various old shops, such as tea shops, pastry shops, audio cassette shops, barbecue shops, and some famous restaurants. Amidst these old shops, I noticed the most popular store—a vegetable market directly across from the shop of the 'Macau Tea King,' Mr. Zeng.

The market is not large; in fact, it's more fitting to call it a vegetable store. It seems that residents from the entire street come here to buy vegetables, so there were many customers. At that time, we were tasting tea at the tea house of Mr. Zeng Zhihui, known as the Macau Tea King. Seeing the popularity of the vegetable store opposite, we went over to take a look and see what the vegetables were like at an ordinary Macau vegetable store and what the prices were.

Upon arriving at this vegetable store, the first thing we noticed was that the unit of measurement was different from that on the mainland. On the mainland, prices are per jin (500 grams), while in Macau's vegetable store, prices are per pound. The pound is a unit of mass used in the British and American systems. One pound equals 453.59237 grams; this definition was recognized by the United States and other Commonwealth countries in 1958. According to international measurement standards, 1 pound = 453.6 grams, while 1 jin = 500 grams, so 1 pound equals 0.972 jin, a little less than one jin, about nine liang (a traditional Chinese unit).

Considering that there is also a difference in the exchange rate between Macau Pataca (MOP) and Renminbi (RMB), let's set aside the difference between pound and jin and look at the price differences between vegetables in Macau's old street market and those on the mainland. The vegetables looked very fresh. I asked the owner, and she said these vegetables were shipped from the mainland, similar to those in Zhuhai's markets, sourced from all over the country. Green leafy vegetables were mostly 6 MOP per pound.

Sweet potatoes and purple sweet potatoes were also 6 MOP per pound.

Taro was 8 MOP per pound.

Fresh eggs were 28 MOP per box. I roughly counted about 30 eggs in a box, which works out to about 1 MOP each.

Shanghai bok choy was 8 MOP per pound, okra was 12 MOP per pound. I didn't recognize the green vegetable in the lower right corner; it was 10 MOP per pound.

Small winter melon was 6 MOP per pound.

Baby cabbage was 5 MOP per pack, with three in a pack, weighing about one jin.

Fresh corn was 10 MOP for 3 ears. In supermarkets in Guangdong, it's usually 10 RMB for 4 ears (or 5 RMB for 2 ears).

I noticed that although this vegetable store on Rua de Cinco de Outubro is not large, it has a wide variety. Each type of vegetable is displayed in a small basket, with dozens of different varieties. Except for the absence of meat, all other vegetables are available.

The owner said that the customers are all neighbors from the area, and people pick up some vegetables on their way home. To make it convenient, large items like winter melon and pumpkin can be cut into smaller portions upon request. For easy payment, the store also uses the same scan-to-pay method as mainland stores. Overall, apart from the different units and currency, there is no major difference from vegetable stores on the mainland. As for prices, they are slightly higher than on the mainland, but compared to Macau's per capita income, these prices are incredibly cheap, which was somewhat unexpected. What do you think?