No more ice-cream hawkers

The last three ice cream hawkers on motorscooters in Kowloon yesterday were mobbed by students posing for pictures with the elderly vendors whose decades-old businesses may close down today.

A candle-light vigil to mark the passing of the mobile traders will be held today near the clock tower at the waterfront in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The oldest of the hawkers, Lai Hoi-choi, 82, who has been selling ice cream and cold drinks for 56 years, said many students took pictures with their mobile phones.

"They said they will have to bear the cost of expensive ice creams and fizzy drinks sold by their school canteens," Mr Lai said. "They are priced two or three dollars higher."

Chan Po-cheung, 73, said he wished to keep his job a few more years to support his youngest son, who is in Form Five. "What should I do to pay his school fees?"

He was asked by students to stay until after local schools' Christmas parties today. Mr Chan and Mr Lai, together with a 72-year-old hawker in Kowloon, may stay open today and tomorrow.

"We always work as long as the school is open," Mr Chan said. "And we have to clear our stocks anyway."

Their close partner, Shek Kit-wah, who has distributed ice cream and soda to hawkers in Kowloon since 1997, said he would miss the time he spent with the hawkers who have become his friends. "I have lots of fond memories here," he said.

Mr Shek and Cheung Chee-hung, chairman of the dairy workers' union, will meet with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today to discuss the issue.

If no change is made by next Thursday, the vendors will surrender their licences to the government on December 28, three days before the deadline. Each vendor will be paid HK$30,000 in compensation if the licences are surrendered before the deadline. The department discussed the issue this month with legislator Wong Kwok-hing and hawkers' representatives.

The government stopped issuing licences to hawkers selling ice cream in 1993. There are now about 30 such hawkers, including 10 on motorscooters, with the rest using trolleys.