Ladies Market, Mongkok, Hong Kong

Continuing my walking tour from my previous post, walking around wanchai and kowloon, I had two options – either to head towards the Temple Street Night Market or the Ladies Night Market. SInce I had already been once to the Temple Street Night Market (in one of my previous HK visits) I decided to head towards the Ladies Night Market in Mongkok. I took a quick metro and reached Mongkok in about 5 minutes. Now Mongkok is quite a mixture of residential and commercial establishments, where all buildings have shops at the bottom and residences above it. All along the way, you come across typical Hong Kong narrow lanes, crowds, food shops and signages, which I feel are uniquely Hong Kong.

The lanes of Mongkok, Hong Kong

I also saw numerous Chinese dispensaries that sell just about anything (and I literally mean anything). I have even seen a lizard here –

A Chinese dispensary, Mongkok, Hong Kong

More signages along the way –

more signages

A short walk from the metro station and I was in the long lane that is the Ladies Night Market. This place also has a story. In the olden days people would not get jobs easily and they would end up selling local stuff as illegal hawkers. With time these illegal hawkers started causing various problems, and to counter the same the HK government decided to set up specific hawker zones. Initially the hawkers would sell all kinds of ladies stuff and hence this market got its name as the Ladies Night Market. Today it sells all kinds of stuff and a visit here is a must for all shopoholics like me who love small local stuff and a bargain.

This market sells all kinds of things – clothes, T-shirts, toys, jeans, designer bags (copies of course), umbrellas, shoes, jewelry, chinese souvenirs, jade stuff, kids clothes, cosmetics, cushion covers, runners, watches, phone covers, hair clips, etc etc. But buyers beware – you need to bargain a lot. I love bargaining and hence had a fabulous time shopping here and picking up some small stuff.

The Lane, Ladies Market, Mongkok

Lovely 3D cards of all the major attractions in the world

Cute watches… Check out the dials of each. There is one wearing specs too

Clothes, stylish USBs, watches etc

Umbrellas, electronics, toys etc

I had a very good time selecting stuff and bargaining for things. My personal favorite that I picked up were this world map wallet and this iphone cover. I literally started bargaining and bought these for 30% of the price that was originally quoted.

the world map wallet and the iphone cover

Even after a trip to this market, if you are still in need of more local retail therapy (of unusual stuff) then be sure to check out the following lanes. I couldn’t check these out as they had all closed for the day but you can walk back to Nathan Road and walk upto –

• Bird Market – This is a local place to watch birds and buy their accessories. It sounded quite an interesting concept to me and its also a local favorite.
• Goldfish Market – Check all kinds of fish out here.
• Flower Market – There is a flower market at Sai Yee Street which opens from 7a.m. to 7p.m. where they sell all kinds of cut flowers, potted plants and gardening accessories.
• Street Market: There is another street market at Fa Yuen Street which is more local and less tourist-friendly.