Mong Kok - Streets and Markets

Streets and Markets

Mong Kok preserves its traditional characteristics with an array of markets, small shops, and food stalls that have already disappeared from other areas in Hong Kong over the past several decades of economic developments. As such, a few of these streets in Mong Kok have acquired interesting nicknames reflecting their own characteristics. Some interesting sites are:

• Ladies' Street (女人街, Ladies' market on Tung Choi Street) - This market specializes in women's clothing, accessories, cosmetics, and the like. It is open daily from noon to 00.00 a.m. at Tung Choi Street on the east of Nathan Road. Typically, where there is a market, there are also food stalls selling noodles, seafood, and congee for mid-afternoon or late-night snacks. A grocery market is also located in the vicinity, convenient for consumers searching from a diverse range of items; ranging from vegetables to clothing.

• Sai Yeung Choi Street South, (西洋菜南街) - A street full of shops selling consumer electronic products, comestics, and discount books, the last of which are usually located on the lower floors above ground floor of buildings.

• Temple Street (廟街, sometimes referred to as Men's Street), extending into Jordan, is also in the area, however, the area famous for the Hong Kong specific goods are only in the section between Yau Ma Tei and Jordan.

• Yuen Po Street Bird Garden (園圃街雀鳥花園) - Hundreds of songbirds in exquisitely crafted cages can be seen at this market, which is on the other side of Nathan Road on Yuen Po Street. The garden is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It is close to Mong Kok East MTR Station and Mong Kok Stadium. Packed with booths selling birds, Hong Lok Street (Bird Street, 雀仔街) was closed as part of an urban renewal project in June 1998. The Garden was constructed by the government to accommodate some of the booths. It was completed in March 1997. The market was closed on 5 July 2012, following a postivie swab sample of H5N1 avian influenza virus, from a bird cage of Oriental magpie robins. It was closed for 21 days and re-opened on 26 July. Each of the 69 affected shops were compensated with HK$12,000 and their rents waived for a month by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

• Fa Yuen Street (花園街, sometimes referred to as 波鞋街, which means Sneakers Street) - This is a small neighbourhood with many small retailers which sell sports equipment and clothing. It has a wide diversity of sports shoes, including many shoes of rare or special editions from different places.

• Flower Market Road (花墟道) - This is a street market near the Mong Kok East MTR Station with lots of flower shops and street hawkers showing colourful displays, the sweet scents and the exotic blossoms of many houseplants.

• Goldfish Street (金魚街) or Goldfish Market - Centered around the section of Tung Choi Street, north of Bute Street. There are a dozens of shops and hawkers selling various tropical freshwater or marine fish. Different types of aquarium equipment can also be found there. This market opens very early in the morning.

• Tile Street - This is a section of Portland Street near Argyle Street and Bute Street with more than 50 retailers selling materials for construction or renovation, such as tiles, wall paper, window frames and bath tubs.

• Photocopy Street (影印街) - A neighbourhood near Ho Man Tin is noted for having remarkable number of photocopying shops due to the number of schools in the vicinity. The students from those schools have creates a great demand for photocopying, mostly for copyrighted textbooks and class handout, in mass quantity.

• Portland Street (砵蘭街) - A famous de facto red-light district in Hong Kong.

• Kwong Wa Street (廣華街), between Dundas Street and Yim Po Fong Street, is famous for shops selling airsoft, RC racing, modelling and other hobbying equipment.

• Dundas Street (登打士街) marks the southern boundary of the shopping area in eastern Mong Kok. Ho King Shopping Centre, Ka Lok Shopping Arcade and Trendy Zone are major shopping centres on the street. Various kinds of food shops concentrate on this street. Dundas street joins with the shopping area of Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Tung Choi Street and Fa Yuen Street; Kwong Wah Hospital is also situated on the street. Across Nathan Road, the section in the western Mong Kok is relative quiet and there are many cafés above street level in several buildings.

Some popular shopping plazas are located in this dense area, including:

• Sino Centre (信和中心) – In this plaza, there are many products about Japanese cartoons, such as Video CDs, DVDs, and comics. Beside that, there are shops selling music CD albums, including ones by Hong Kong, Japanese, and western pop singers. The centre also hosts several Japanese style karaoke booths which can be booked by the hour.

• Ho King Shopping Centre (好景商場)- In this plaza, you can find many products having to do with computer and video games. They are sold for relatively low prices compared with other shops. The fourth floor of the plaza is infamous for being formerly the biggest base of pornographic CDs and DVDs. These have recently been diminished in a large operation by the police and customs, although this action has driven some shops to the office section of the building, with the products and customers causing distress to female workers there.

• Grand Century Place (新世紀廣場) - This is a new plaza next to the Mong Kok East MTR station. Most of the famous-brand and popular shops can be found here.

• Mong Kok Computer Centre (旺角電腦中心 )- This three-story computer mall has around 50 to 70 computer shops. They sell various kinds of products including laptops, software, hardware and computer accessories.

• Langham Place (朗豪坊) - This shopping mall/hotel/office complex opened in 2004 in central Mong Kok. Built according to the Hong Kong Government urban redevelopment scheme, and at 59 stories high, it is the tallest landmark in Mong Kok.

• Argyle Centre (旺角中心) - This usually crowded centre, located next to the Mong Kok MTR station, has three floors of shops selling low-priced clothes and shoes, plastic toys and heavy metal CD's.

Other streets in the area include:

• Bute Street (弼街), named after John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1762 and 1763. It may also have been named after the Scottish peerage of the same name, following the naming pattern of several other streets in the area.