Cape Town - Green Market, Company Gardens, St. George's Mall

I've been in Cape Town (CPT) for 5 days now and I still haven't seen all that I want to see in the city center.  Instead of having one big post to talk about all of CPT, I decided to have separate posts to talk about each individual area of interest.  The first I am going to talk about is the Green Market, The Company's Garden, and St. George's Mall.
Most tourists think of Long Street as the middle of the tourist universe in CPT.  This is the street where many popular backpacker hostels are located.  As you can imagine, catering to a low-end clientele attracts low-end businesses.  I guarantee you won't find a Coach store here.  Most of the backpackers pay less than US$20 for a dorm bed.  The businesses here are pretty run-down.
Long Street runs in a north-easterly to south-westerly direction, from the harbor to Table Mountain.  A few blocks from Long Street are some very interesting attractions:  Green Market, St. George's Cathedral (where Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu used to preach), Company's Gardens (a beautiful park), House of Parliament, Museums (Slave Lodge, SA Museum, Jewish Museum, District Six Museum), Flower Market, Castle of Good Hope, etc.

Map of Cape Town

The Green Market used to be a place where farmers came to sell their greens.  Today it's a place where you buy African souvenirs, many of them made in China, I heard.  Some are made in the poorer African countries like Mozambique, Zimbabwe, etc.  Since I do not have any interest in buying any souvenirs, I did not approach any of the sellers.  I did not want to get into any haggling and get trapped into buying something.  The way I travel, it's not practical for me to buy souvenirs.
Regardless, some of the souvenirs are beautiful and I'd love to display some in my living room.  I guess I'll just have to be contented with just pictures instead of the actual souvenirs.

Green Market Square

Lots of souvenir sellers

I was surprised to find a park near Green Market Square called The Company's Garden.  The reason why it's called Company's Garden is because back in the 1600s' The Dutch East India Company grew vegetables here to supply ships that stop in Cape Town.  Today it's a beautiful park that is like a sanctuary for residents and tourists to get away from the traffic and the city.

Entrance to Company Gardens. Parliament House is on the left

A beautiful fountain and many trees here

The statue below is of Cecil Rhodes.  You may not have heard of him but he is one of the most influential persons in the history of South Africa.  He was the founding chairman of De Beers, the diamond company.  The country, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was named after him.  Later on in life, he established the Rhodes Scholarship, which is awarded to bright young students from the former British Commonwealth territories, the US and Germany, to study at Oxford University, his alma mater.

Statue of Cecil Rhodes

A View of Table Mountain from the Garden

One block north-east of Company Gardens is St. George's Mall.  This pedestrian mall starts from St. George's Cathedral and continue to almost the waterfront.  Vendors sell all kinds of stuff here plus there are many coffee shops and restaurants lining the mall.  It's a nice place to walk without worrying about the dangerous traffic.

St. George's Mall