Stockton Street is where Chinatown does its actual shopping. One block west of touristy Grant Avenue, it is a dense, jostling corridor of produce stalls, fishmongers with tanks of live crab and fish, herbalists, butchers hung with roast duck, and bakeries selling egg tarts and pork buns. The pavements are crowded with shoppers — mostly local, mostly Cantonese-speaking — and the pace can be brisk, so go with the flow.
This is the best place in the neighbourhood to see Chinatown as a living community rather than a destination. Come in the morning when the markets are fully stocked and busiest. Bring cash, watch your elbows, and look up: above the shopfronts the buildings carry family-association balconies and signage that have been here for generations.