A Smile with Every Flower
Cindy Liu
Cindy Liu knows her flowers. Just ask, and she'll tell you what's best for different occasions, or which ones will last longer. And the Sai Kung community knows she'll have the flowers they want.
For certain festivals, like Ching Ming and Chung Yeung, customers depend on Cindy get into the shop early to have their flowers ready. "It's satisfying," she says with a smile. "Some of them go a long way to worship their ancestors on those days, so they really appreciate picking up the flowers early."
Occupying this corner shop for the past two years, Cindy has been in the flower shop business for 18 years. "It all started," she says, "when my father bought two pots of flowers to sell at his goldfish shop in the market." From there it grew, with Cindy helping out on weekends, speaking fearlessly to the foreigners that her father couldn't communicate with. "I enjoyed talking with them," she beams.
After 13 years in the market, Cindy moved her flower shop to a spot beside the Tin Hau temple before relocating to her present location. Though everyday is different and interesting, experience has taught Cindy to have plenty of flowers on hand on the Saturday following a Friday end-of-the-month payday. Fridays and Saturdays are usually busy but holidays, festivals and the weather all influence the business and customers' choices. The hot summer months, when some flowers wilt quickly and many residents take long holidays, are the quietest. That's when she gets more time with her husband (in the renovation business) and her two daughters.
"I like the way the Sai Kung community has changed in the past two decades," Cindy says. When she arrived here in her youth, it had a small village atmosphere with only a few shops selling vegetables and haam yu (salted fish) and empty streets after 8 p.m. Today, Sai Kung's shopkeepers have adapted to the influx of Westerners and weekend visitors.
Cindy's been through the "ups" in the early 1990s when the town was inundated with visitors almost daily, and the "downs" not so long ago, and accepts it all. Her motto remains: don't worry, just be happy!
Cindy Flowers
G/F 1A-3 Tak Lung Front St.Tel: 2792 9889
Hours: 8:30AM. - 8:00PM daily