Woolly Mammoths Invade Hong Kong
Yao Ming at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust elephant orphanage in Kenya.
Photographer: Kristian Schmidt
In the Sheung Wan district of Hong Kong, just across the street from a popular department store, Ming Hing Arts has a newly opened shop selling chopsticks, bracelets, Buddha statues, and other carvings made from ivory. Ming Hing offers something for every pocketbook: A carving of the Monkey King from the classic novel Journey to the West will set you back HK$2.88 million ($371,000), but you can buy a toothpick for HK$38.
Some of the ivory comes from elephants. You say you’re worried about the dwindling population of the African herds? Not a problem: Ming Hing also offers items carved from the ivory of extinct woolly mammoths recovered from the Arctic tundra. In the shop window is a 3-foot-long mammoth tusk, yours for just HK$1.88 million.