Mong Kok

Mong Kok (旺角, pinyin: W�ngjiǎo) is an area in Yau Tsim Mong district, on the Kowloon peninsula, in Hong Kong, with one of the highest population densities in the world. The name in Chinese means "rich/flourishing corner".

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.

''A busy street in Mong Kok. It is full of vehicles and people. ''

Table of contents

1 Streets
2 Markets
3 Food

Streets

A few of the streets in Mong Kok are very famous (e.g. Ladies St. 女人街, Shoe St. 波鞋街, and Photocopy Street). Each street has its own characteristics.

Markets

Mong Kok preserves its traditional characteristics with an array of markets, small shops, and food stalls that have already disappeared from other areas. The following are some interesting sites:

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, 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.
Ladies' Market (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 late-night snacks.
Sport Shoes Street - It is full of shops which sell sports equipment and clothing. It is famous for its amazing diversity of sports shoes. Many shoes of rare or special editions from different places are available here.
Flower Market - It is a street market in which lots of flower shops showing colourful displays, the sweet scents and the exotic blossoms of many fortune-bringing houseplants.
Goldfish Market - There are hundreds of shops selling various tropical freshwater or marine fish. Different types of aquarium equipments also can be found there.
Tile Street - There are more than 50 retails selling materials for construction or renovation, such as tiles, toilet utensils and wall paper. It is located on Portland Street.

Some famous shopping plazas are located in this dense area.

'Sino Plaza' - In this plaza, there are many products about Japanese cartoon, 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' Plaza - 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.
'New Century Plaza' - This is a new plaza close 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.
'Mong Kok Computer Center'- The MK Computer Center has around 50 to 70 computer shops. They sell various kinds of products including laptops, software, and computer hardware and accessories.

Food

The Mong Kok area contains numerous food stalls. Most of them sell snacks such as fish balls (the most popular), bean curd and siu mai. These easy-to-grab snacks are very popular in Hong Kong, especially for folks on the run.

In addition to the street food, there are many different kinds of cuisines, including Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and Thai food.