Hong Kong - Jordan Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok Travel Guides | Hong Kong | Sub Regions | Hong Kong - Jordan Yau Ma Tei and Mongkok

The area between Jordan and Yau Ma Tei MTR stations has a series of parallel streets revealing Chinese culture in all its glory and laden with street markets: Reclamation Street sells its produce (snakes, frogs, chickens) live, Shanghai and Saigon Streets have shops reflecting traditional ways of life like mahjong parlours, pawnshops, shrines and incense and Temple Street is famous for its night market. Around the junction of Kansu and Battery streets is the Jade Market, where hawkers sell various shades and qualities of jade. Mongkok has the unenviable record of being one of the world's most densely populated urban areas and the best way to absorb its atmosphere is simply to walk the streets, especially around Ladies, Goldfish and Flower Markets. Rather than trawling down Nathan Road, which can get rather trying, take the parallel Sai Yeung Choi Street South. Although hardly glamorous or relaxing, Mongkok oozes with life and character, and hotels here are much cheaper than in Tsim Sha Tsui.

Sights

Temple St, between Jordan and Yau Ma Tei. MTR: Jordan 1600-2200.

A lot of action in a surprisingly small space, the night market of Temple Street is worth experiencing not just because of the cheap clothes, souvenirs, Chinese clothes and CDs, but for the fringe events to the main attractions. The action gets going in the afternoon but the atmosphere buzzes in the late evening, and given the density of crowds it can take a long time to shuffle between the stalls. Shops also line the street so look out along the pavement for anything you might have missed.

About half way down on the corner with Pak Hoi Street is the Temple Street Food Store, a lively food court with a cluster of restaurants on the street and, under cover, serving up Chinese and seafood dishes, a couple of which have English menus. The best ones include Wing Fat Seafood Restaurant and Tak Kee Seafood Restaurant, and Tong Tai Restaurant is on the corner with Ning Po Street. For the more adventurous, 230-236 Temple Street specializes in snake soup, with a sign declaring “good to health during cold weather and alleviates rheumatism. MSG free”. The bright, busy café is open till 0200, and for those who weren’t sure about the physical construction of a snake, it has a skeleton, complete with ribs, on display on the table. A quieter place to try is at 164 Shanghai Street, where braised snake soup costs $25.

Just to prove that there is a life away from shopping and eating, Temple Street also introduces you to amateur Cantonese Opera, or musical recitals on traditional instruments, performed most nights between 2000-2200 along the darkened alley south of the temple. Stop by and listen, and although the elderly musicians may not win awards for talent, it is undoubtedly a more authentic way of experiencing the music than in an auditorium. It is free to listen, but there is a charge of around $10 to take a photograph.

On the market street and around the northern end of Temple Street, indulge in another tradition: having your fortune read. This can be done by palm (around $150), face ($100) or the marginally less scientific method of tiny bird ($30), which hops out of the cage and picks an envelope containing a fable that is then interpreted. Pak Hoi and Kansu Streets is an area selling mainly Nepalese goodies.

Yuen Po St and Flower Market St. MTR: Mongkok.

Tiny singing birds are a big favourite with Chinese people who see them as lucky, and it is not unusual to see men taking their caged bird for walks in the park. The garden is a new, purpose-built venue for the gentle trade of buying and selling birds, (previously on Hong Kok Street), decorated in traditional style with courtyards and moon gates. Tiny, chirruping budgies and raucous, squawking parrots, plus all the trimmings like ornate cages, porcelain water dishes, live insects (for food) and decorations are all for sale; birds sell from around $100. Towards the park entrance is a semi-covered area with around 70 stalls with more selection. Around the corner to the garden’s entrance is Flower Market Street, devoted to wholesale and retail flower shops, and at its best just before Chinese New Year when most of Hong Kong descends to buy up armfuls of blooms.

Tung Choi St, Mongkok. MTR: Mongkok.

The busy street market has piles of clothes and household goods (although not only for ladies), and the produce, while hardly stylish, is certainly cheap. At the southern end of Tung Choi Street, south of Prince Edward Road West, and the area around Bute Street is the Goldfish Market. Like birds, fish are also a desirable addition to any home, and there are colourful fish of all shapes, sizes and breeds swimming around in tanks and plastic buckets, even tiny crabs in plastic bags, making them look like a prize in a fairground. And to help make the fish feel at home, there is also intricate underwater furniture and fluorescent plastic fish for sale in shops such as Success Aquarium, Chun Hing Carp Specialists and Fortune Fish Co.

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