Mong Kok

Mong Kok means "busy corner", and it is aptly named indeed. The most striking impression when you come here is the people. The streets are constantly full of myriads of Chinese, always on the move.

In fact, Guiness World Records has recorded it as the world's most densely populated area, with 130,000 inhabitants per square km (340,000 per square mile).

This is where the city starts to get a bit less glamorous, less touristy, and a whole lot more Chinese. Of course, this is not without its drawbacks. The atmosphere is busy, noisy and crowded. And the heavy traffic down Nathan Road doesn't help the air quality. Mong Kok may not be the prettiest part of town - rather a concrete jungle with virtually wall-to-wall neon signs over head. But it's full of energy and life, and you really haven't seen Hong Kong until you've been here.

Shopping

Adding to the teeming masses are people flowing in from all parts of the city because Mong Kok is a paradise of cheap shopping. There are several streets that have been pedestrianised, and they are definitely needed. Walking around you will soon realise that stores with the same sorts of goods tend to cluster together next to one another in distinct areas.

So you might see only shops selling shoes and sportswear for a block on "Sneaker Street", or notice how Sai Yeung Choi Street is filled with stores offering cell phones and the like. The Bird Garden, Goldfish Market and Flower Market all attract a lot of visitors with their colourful displays of tropical plants and animals.

This is also the principal domain of open air street markets, including the popular Ladies Market, which sells a lot of clothing, accessories and cosmetics, but also many, many other items, and not just for women!

The vendor stands offer some very low prices, with many products that are replicas of famous brands or simple knick-knacks. Ladies Market is located on Tung Choi Street, between Argyle Street and Dundas Street. A similar although perhaps slightly more Chinese experience can be had at the nearby Temple Street night market which is open from 4 pm until midnight.

There are also many stores devoted to customer electronics, including the well-known bargain bin Mong Kok Computer Centre with multiple floors of stores specialising in those products. These small independent shops will probably offer you really good prices, but keep in mind that it's hard to claim warranties when you're no longer in the country. Some have charged that stores like these try to scam tourists, and it might be safer to go to a chain store.

Malls

There quite a few normal major shopping malls around here, including Langham Place and Grand Century Place, but there are also a bunch of "mini malls". I call them that not so much because they aren't that big as because of the fact that the stores that rent space in them are ridiculously tiny. These shops measure only a few square metres (tens of square feet) so that sometimes you can barely step inside of them.

With each store being so small, the mini malls actually manage to pack a huge number of them, and put together they offer a pretty big selection of items as they do tend to have different goods in each one. They generally focus on shoes and clothes.

Location

Mong Kok is located in the middle of Kowloon and centres around the great Nathan Road thoroughfare that stretches north from Tsim Sha Tsui. You can easily travel here through the subway or by the numerous bus lines that pass through headed in every direction.

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