Badminton Shopping in Hong Kong

I went to Hong Kong SAR last month immediately after the conclusion of Malaysia Open.

I experience a culture shock after checking in into the notorious Chung King Mansion at Tsim Sha Sui area.

However, as my first visit to Hong Kong, I did the tourist thing and visited the usual area like the Peak, Lantau Island, Stanley and a day trip to Macau SAR.

However, Hong Kong is well known for shopping, being tax free.

Badminton shops are located all over the place like Mongkok, Jordan and Central. However, I visited the famous sneaker street or Poh Hai Gai in Cantonese.

The famous Rose Sports, well known from Badminton central. However, I found to my disappointment that Rose Sports is not a dedicated badminton shop but sells hiking shoes/bags and other sporting stuff. Badminton racquets are few.

Racquets at Rose Sports

Mizuno/Yonex Shoes at Rose Sports.

One of the shop with a much bigger selection than Rose Sports, ESL Racquets and Sports Megashop.

Malaysia Open April 4th 2017 in Kuching, Sarawak-Badminton Holiday

This is my second visit to Kuching Sarawak.  However this time with the added bonus of watching Malaysia Open.

The stadium where the event is held is called Stadium Perpaduan. Located in a sports complex area called Petra Jaya which is similar to Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur.

There is even a large aquatics centre for swimming competition.

The stadium is located pretty far from Kuching town, I did take an uber to get there costing around RM 16...and return I took a Grab car back to the hotel.

Funny thing, the players are staying in Kuching Town, and I was shocked to see Chen Long in a 7-11 shop buying ice packs as was the 7-11 cashier. Many Sarawakians are die hard badminton fans and badminton stars are easily recognized.

I managed to take selfie photos with some players while walking around the street of Kuching.

I saw Lee Chong Wei coming back from training to the Grand Margherita hotel whilst I was about to board a minivan to the Sarawak Cultural Center.

Many players were seen doing their laundry at a 24 hours laundromat, owing the pricey hotel laundry service...

Anyway back to the action.

The stadium is pretty big with many seats.

The interior of the stadium.

The center ceiling of the stadium.

Four courts during the 1st day.

Local team playing...

Freezing the jumpsmash using high shutter speed. However, I did not have a high aperture lens to let in more light. My telephoto lens is a constant F4.

Pro cameraman in action.

Another cameraman with Bazooka Telephoto lens. Lens can get pretty big and expensive once you shoot sports photography professionally.

The sponsor of Malaysia Open is Victor, hence a booth selling Victor stuff.

Bags...

Racquets...

The Victor booth. I did not buy anything there. Prices are pretty competitive with most badminton shops.

There is even an autograph signing session by Victor stars, like Kim Ha Na etc.

This Malaysia Open witness a dream final between Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei, with Lin Dan finally beating Lee Chong Wei in the final.