Photo gallery: Cheung Chau's secret night market

Visiting Cheung Chau island is one of our favorite ways to escape the city. In fact, it's such a great place that we stayed on the beach till nearly midnight and missed the last ferry at 11:30pm. The next ferry wouldn't be for another three hours.

Just as we were starting to get bored, we spotted clouds of steam billowing out from a hawker stall just down the street from the ferry pier. Approaching, we saw that two women were preparing fresh cheung fan and congee. Suddenly, about a dozen other hawkers appeared out of nowhere with their mobile carts of food and stoves.

Who knew that the Cheung Chau pier could be transformed into a rowdy -- albeit mini-sized -- night market within minutes? Crowds of restless locals and visitors queued up for deepfried meats on sticks, dessert soups, maki rolls, and those perfect cheung fun made to order right in front of the crowd.

See First Ferry's schedule for Cheung Chau-Central ferry service. The market starts as early as 10:30pm and lasts all night.

See article about other markets around Asia, such as How to shop like a pro at Bangkok's Jatujak market.