Carpenter Street and Main Bazaar

Carpenter Street and the adjacent Main Bazaar are the commercial heart of Kuching's Chinese quarter, a row of two and three-storey shophouses selling handicrafts, Sarawakian textiles, antiques, and provisions. The architecture — carved wooden shutters, painted facades, covered five-foot walkways — is well-preserved and gives the street a colonial-era character that the more modern parts of Kuching lack. The Hong San Si Temple, one of Kuching's oldest Chinese temples, sits on Carpenter Street.

The best time to visit is in the morning when the antique and handicraft dealers are open. Many shops sell pua kumbu (traditional Iban woven cloth), Penan rattan baskets, hornbill carvings, and Sarawak pepper. The Main Bazaar runs parallel to the waterfront and connects to the Chinese History Museum at the waterfront end.

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A story
The shophouses along Carpenter Street were built by Hokkien and Teochew Chinese merchants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and many are still run by descendants of the original families. Some of the businesses here have operated in the same building for four generations. The continuity of ownership — in a region where much else has changed dramatically — is part of what gives the street its particular atmosphere.