Turtle Markets in China March 2001
From GZ I traveled to Hong Kong. Both trips I took the bus from the China Hotel. The border crossings (two crossings one on the mainland side and one on the Hong Kong side) are a pain. You have to get of the bus with ALL your bags, go through customs (X-ray machine) and get on the bus again. You do this on the mainland side. Then on the Hong Kong side you just take you bags and go through a passport control, but you can be stopped. The entire trip takes 4-4,5 hours and is boring and a pain. I have been told that the plane trip is short and simple, but it costs 200 USD. If your short on time and have an extra buck go for it. Anyway, in Hong Kong I have visited one market and one store. The market is on Nelson Street and there is two vendors selling turtles. They are at the end of the street and opposite each other. Both in March and August they have sold large refrigerators FULL of Cuora galbinifrons ssp. and Cuora ambionensis. The store I visited in August was on the corner of Jordan Road and --------, it is some kind of chain store. In the basement they sold live Cuora flavomarginata and Cuora trifasciata (very large males and one large female). Also in Hong Kong there are other markets but due to limited time I didn't visit them. I did however visit the pet market at Mong Kok. There are a few reptile stores with the usual display animals plus a few uncommon species of reptiles. They where offering a few Asian turtle species but you could find the same species in the aquarium shops up and down the street.
After Hong Kong I traveled home by plane.
The following links are of the markets visited and are where pictures of the species seen can be viewed.