Travel information with destination guide in Mong Kok by GuideRooms.com   

Mong Kok or Mongkok is an area in the Yau Tsim Mong District on Kowloon Peninsula, Hong Kong, China. Before a 1994 merge, Mong Kok was part of the Mong Kok District.

The name in Chinese means "flourishing/busy corner". Recent road works revealed some potteries as old as Jin Dynasty (265-420), indicating that there might be settlements that early.

The district is characterised by a mixture of old and new multi-story buildings, with shops and restaurants at street level and commercial or residential units above. Major industries in Mong Kok are retail, restaurants (including fast food) and entertainment.

The area of Mong Kok was quite different from the present-day context. The heart of the present-day Mong Kok was Ho Man Tin whilst the proper Mong Kok was north of it, near present-day Mong Kok Station of KCR. With cultivated lands, it was bounded south by Argyle Street, west by Coronation Road (present-day Nathan Road), and east by the hills. To its south is Ho Man Tin and west Mong Kok Tsui. Stream from the hills east offered water for cultivation.

Mong Kok attractions

• Ladies' Street (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 10:30 p.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, quite convenient for housewives to buy fresh vegetables and pantyhose on the same trip.
  
  
• Sai Yeung Choi Street South, - A street full of shops selling consumer electronic products, comestics, and discount books, the last of which usually located on the lower floors above ground floor of buildings.
  
  
• Temple Street (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 Yaumatei and Jordan.
  
  
• Bird Garden - 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 KCR station and Mong Kok stadium. Packed with booths selling birds, Hong Lok Street (Bird Street,) 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.
  
  
• Fa Yuen Street (sometimes referred to as, which means Sport Shoes Street) - This is a small neighbourhood with many small retailers which sell sports equipment and clothing. It has a wide diversity of sports shoes. Many shoes of rare or special editions from different places are available here.
  
  
• Flower Market - This is a street market near the KCR train station with lots of flower shops and street hawkers showing colourful displays, the sweet scents and the exotic blossoms of many houseplants.
  
  
• Goldfish Market - There are a dozens shops and hawkers selling various tropical freshwater or marine fish near the KCR train station. Different types of aquarium equipments 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 Butt Street with more than 50 retailers selling materials for construction or renovation, such as tiles, wall paper, window frames and bath tubs.
  
  
• Photocopy Street - This small neighbourhood near Ho Man Tin is noted in the area because there are quite a few schools in the vicinity, and the students in these schools have a strong demand for photocopying -- remarkably the shops there are famous for photocopying copyrighted books in mass quantities.
  
  
• Portland Street - The best-known red-light district in Hong Kong.

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

• Sino Centre Arcade – In this plaza, there are many products about Japanese cartoons, such as Video CDs, DVDs, and comics. Beside that, there are shops for selling pop singers' CD albums. They carry many music albums, including ones by Hong Kong, Japanese, and western pop singers.
  
  
• Ho King Shopping Centre - In this plaza, you can find many products having to do 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 - This is a new plaza next to the Mong Kok KCR station. Most of the famous-brand and popular shops can be found here. The plaza is especially crowded on public holidays and Sunday in Hong Kong. Due to the fact that it is the Mongkok station for KCR, hordes of China travelers going to Hongkong often sit around here making it seem very disgusting. They block the paths and put their shopping luggage everywhere as if it's their home.
  
  
• Mong Kok Computer Centre - This three-storey computer mall has around 50 to 70 computer shops. They sell various kinds of products including laptops, software, hardware and computer accessories.
  
  
• Langham Place - 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.
  
  
• Mong Kok Centre - This is a centre next to the Mong Kok MTR station. Most of the clothes and shoes sell at low prices. This centre is crowded everyday.