To truly experience authentic local Chinese lifestyles, look no further than Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok. Walking through this unique section of Hong Kong is a colourful and memorable experience at any time of the day or night.

By rights, the markets here should be extinct, gone the way of rickshaws and shophouses thanks to gentrification, air-conditioned malls and the internet. Instead, they thrive.

Today, despite supermarkets eclipsing many of the food stalls, hordes of Hongkongers and visitors still descend on this Kowloon district in search of a bargain.

According to www.theguardian.com, the modern Mong Kok marketplace is above ground, forced upwards into the area's tenement buildings by increased rents. ome stalls are sublet, divided into smaller perspex cubes, where amateur collectors display and sell on their fantasy trove to the likeminded. Anonymous doorways can lead to a variety of curiosity shops as well.

Mong Kok is also home for places like The Bruce Lee Club, The Mongkok Computer Centre (8 Nelson Street) for the technowizardly old and new. Older styles which are heavily discounted at (50% is common) on outlets like SMS Crew ("Super Mad Sneakers") and Dahood. The Ladies Market, which caters to almost anything a woman may want to buy. Goldfish Market and Bird Market, for different pet shops. Shanghai Street, for different kitchen equipment. Flower Market Road, for cheap but gorgeous flowers. and the Fa Yuen Street Market, which caters a variety of merchandise and food for every shopper.

Discoverhongkong.com also says that you can get a glimpse of some of Mong Kok's history by checking out the local street signs, whose names are a colourful reminder of the bygone days of when this area was merely a rustic village. It also provides us with ways on how to get to these streets.

Mong Kok is indeed a haven for the traveler & shopper in you, with the variety of things to shop, the shopper in you would truly rejoice!