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Tsim Sha Tsui | Yau Ma Tei | Mong Kok | Northern Kowloon
Just across the harbor from Central, this piece of Chinese mainland takes its name from the string of mountains that bound it in the north: gau lung, “nine dragons” (there are actually eight mountains, the ninth represents the emperor who named them). Kowloon is less sophisticated than its island-side counterpart, but its dense, gritty, urban fabric can feel more authentically Chinese. It’s also the backdrop for Hong Kong’s best museums and most interesting spiritual sights, as well as street upon street of hard-core consumerism in every imaginable guise. There are several neighborhoods here that are easy to get to and well worth exploring.
The Territory
From the Star Ferry Pier, the Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) waterfront extends a few miles to TST East. Shops and hotels line Nathan Road, which runs north from the waterfront through the market districts of Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, and Mong Kok. Wong Tai Sin Temple and Chi Lin Nunnery are just to the east of Mong Kok.
Getting Around
The most romantic way from Hong Kong Island to southern Tsim Sha Tsui (TST) is by Star Ferry. There are crossings from Central every 6–12 minutes and a little less often from Wan Chai.
TST is also accessible by MTR. Underground walkways connect the station with the Tsim Sha Tsui East station on the East Rail Line, where trains depart every 10–15 minutes for the eastern New Territories. The Kowloon Airport Express station is amid a construction wasteland west of TST, connecting with Austin station on the West Rail; for now hotel shuttles link it to the rest of Kowloon.
The MTR is your best bet for Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, and other sights in far-flung Kowloon, including Wong Tai Sin Temple, and Chi Lin Nunnery.
Quick Bites
Kubrick Bookshop Café.
Arty tomes surround the tables at the Kubrick Bookshop Café. It’s attached to the city’s best art-house cinema. Tuck into sandwiches, pasta dishes, and cakes. The coffee’s great, too. | Broadway Cinemathèque, 3 Public Square St., Yau Ma Tei | 2384–8929 | www.kubrick.com.hk.
Jade Garden.
Jade Garden is a popular dim sum chain. Come early on weekends. | 5th fl., Star House, opposite Star Ferry Concourse, Tsim Sha Tsui | 2730–6888.
Taking It In
Walk the Talk.
Walk the Talk tours use your mobile phone or its iPhone App as an audio guide. The tours are packed with serious history and kooky anecdotes. | www.walkthetalk.hk.
Hong Kong Tourism Board (HKTB).
Kowloon looks great from the harbor, and the Hong Kong Tourism Board runs a junk ride ($100) on theDuk Ling on Thursdays and Saturdays. A passport is required for registration. | TST Star Ferry Concourse | 2508–1234 | www.discoverhongkong.com.
Tsim Sha Tsui
You’ll probably come to this district hugging the waterfront at the southern tip of Kowloon (in Chinese the name means “pointed sandy mouth”) to see one or more of Hong Kong’s top museums. These collections are within easy reach of one another amid high-rises, hotels, shops, and Kowloon Park, a coveted parcel of green space. One of the best things to see in Tsim Sha Tsui (often referred to simply as TST) is Central: there are fabulous cross-harbor views from the Star Ferry Pier as well as from the ferries themselves. The sweeping pink-tile Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Former KCR (Kowloon–Canton Railway) Clock Tower are the first landmarks along the breezy pedestrian TST East Promenade, which starts at the Avenue of Stars and stretches a couple of miles east. TIP Try to visit the promenade once in the daytime and once at 8 pm for the Symphony of Lights, a nightly show in which 44 skyscrapers light up on cue as a commentator introduces them in time to a musical accompaniment.
Top Attractions
Duk Ling.
The Duk Ling is a fully restored authentic fishing junk, originally built in Macau in the 1950s, whose large red sails are a sight to behold. For HK$50, the HKTB offers visitors aged 3 to 75 one-hour sails from Kowloon Pier (Thursday at 2 pm and 4 pm, Saturday at 10 am and noon) and from Central’s Pier 9 (Thursday at 3 pm and 5 pm, Saturday at 11 am and 1 pm). Register first at the Hong Kong Tourist Board (HKTB) Visitor Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui, and bring your passport to prove you’re from out of town. | Tsim Sha Tsui | 2573–5282 | www.dukling.com.hk.
Fodor’s Choice | Hong Kong Museum of Art.
An extensive collection of Chinese art is packed inside this boxy tiled building on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront in Kowloon. The collections contain a heady mix of Qing ceramics, 2,000-year-old calligraphic scrolls, and contemporary canvases. It’s all well organized into thematic galleries with clear, if uninspired, explanations. Hong Kong’s biggest visiting exhibitions are usually held here too. The museum is a few minutes’ walk from the Star Ferry and Tsim Sha Tsui MTR stop.
Hong Kong Museum of Art Highlights
The Chinese Antiquities Gallery is the place to head if ceramics are your thing. A series of low-lit rooms on the third floor houses ceramics from Neolithic times through the Qing dynasty. Unusually, they’re displayed by motif rather than by period: dragons, phoenixes, lotus flowers, and bats are some of the auspicious designs. Bronzes, jade, lacquerware, textiles, enamel, and glassware complete this collection of decorative art.
In the Chinese Fine Art Gallery you get a great introduction to Chinese brush painting, often difficult for the Western eye to appreciate. Landscape paintings from the 20th-century Guangdong and Lingnan schools form the bulk of the collection, and modern calligraphy also gets a nod.
The Contemporary Hong Kong Art Gallery showcases a mix of traditional Chinese and western techniques. Paintings account for most of the pieces from the first half of the 20th century, when local artists used the traditional mediums of brush and ink in innovative ways. Western techniques dominate later work, the result of Hong Kong artists’ having spent more time abroad.
Hong Kong Museum of Art Tips
- Traditional Chinese landscape paintings are visual records of real or imagined journeys—a kind of travelogue. Pick a starting point and try to travel through the picture, imagining the journey the artist is trying to convey.
- There is a collection search system on the first floor, as well as a research center.
- Guided tours can help you understand art forms with which you’re not familiar (in English Tuesday through Sunday at 11 am). Check the website for the schedule of more detailed visits to specific galleries—they change every month. If you prefer to tour alone, consider an English-language audio guide: it’s informative, if a little dry, and it costs only HK$10.
10 Salisbury Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui | 2721–0116 | hk.art.museum | HK$10 | Fri. and Mon.–Wed. 10–6, Sat. and Sun 10–7 | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR, Exit F.
Hong Kong Museum of History.
The permanent Hong Kong Story features spectacular life-size dioramas that include village houses and a Central shopping street in colonial times, while the ground-floor Folk Culture section is a Technicolor introduction to the history and customs of Hong Kong’s main ethnic groups. Upstairs, gracious stone-walled galleries whirl you through the Opium Wars and the beginnings of colonial Hong Kong. TIP Unless you’re with kids who dig models of cavemen and bears, skip the prehistory and dynastic galleries. Reserve energy for the last two galleries: a chilling account of life under Japanese occupation and a colorful look at Hong Kong life in the ‘60s.
Budget at least two hours to stroll through—more if you linger in each and every gallery. Pick your way through the gift shop’s clutter to find local designer Alan Chan’s T-shirts, shot glasses, and notebooks. His retro-kitsch aesthetic is based on 1940s cigarette-girl images. To get here from the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR walk along Cameron Road, then left for a block along Chatham Road South. A signposted overpass takes you to the museum. | 100 Chatham Rd. S, Tsim Sha Tsui | 2724–9042 | hk.history.museum | HK$10; free Wed. | Mon. and Wed.–Sat. 10–6, Sun. and holidays 10–7 | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui, Exit B2.
Kowloon Park.
These 33 acres are just behind Nathan Road, at TST’s north end. They’re crisscrossed by paths and meticulously landscaped but this is still a refreshing retreat after a bout of shopping. In addition to a fitness trail, soccer pitch, playgrounds, an aviary, and a maze garden, on Sundays and public holidays there are stalls with arts and crafts. | 22 Austin Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui | 2724–3344 | www.lcsd.gov.hk/parks/kp/en | Free | 5 am–midnight | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR, Exit A1, Jordan, Exit C1.
Worth Noting
Avenue of Stars.
You have to look down to appreciate the city’s walk of fame. Countless local film stars have pawed the wet concrete—you may not recognize many names unless you’re a fan of Hong Kong films, but the homage shows how big the local film industry is. | TST East Promenade outside New World Renaissance Hotel, Tsim Sha Tsui | www.avenueofstars.com.hk/eng/home.asp | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui, Exit E.
Hong Kong Science Museum.
The exhibits are kid-friendly and hands-on and include an energy machine, a miniature submarine, and cognitive and memory tests. That said, this is more of a rainy-day time-killer than a must-see. | 2 Science Museum Rd., corner of Cheong Wan Rd. and Chatham Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui | 2732–3232 | hk.science.museum | HK$25; free Wed. | Mon.–Wed. and Fri. 10–7, Sat.–Sun. 10–9 | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui, Exit B2.
Hong Kong Space Museum.
A structure behind the art museum that looks like an oversize golf ball sliced in half houses a planetarium, a solar telescope, and an Omnimax theater. It’s all fairly unremarkable, though, and children under 3 aren’t allowed to view the Omnimax shows. | 10 Salisbury Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui | 2721–0226 | hk.space.museum | HK$10 | Mon. and Wed.–Fri 1–9, Sat.–Sun. 10–9 | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui MTR, Exit F.
Kowloon Mosque and Islamic Centre.
Hong Kong’s largest Islamic worship center stands in front of Kowloon Park. Visitors can call ahead to arrange for a tour of the premises or simply drop by to see the building, which is also known as the Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre, and was designed by noted Indian architect I. M. Kadri. In addition to prayer halls, the complex includes a medical clinic and a library. | 105 Nathan Rd., Tsim Sha Tsui | 2724–0095 | kowloonmosque.com | Free | 5 am–10 pm | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui, Exit A1.
Nathan Road.
The famous Kowloon road runs several miles north from Salisbury Road in TST, all the way to Mong Kok. It’s filled with hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and boutiques—retail space is so costly that the southern end is dubbed the Golden Mile. The mile’s most famous tower block is ramshackle Chungking Mansions, packed with cheap hotels and Indian restaurants. The building was a setting for local director Wong Kar-Wai’s film Chungking Express. To the left and right are mazes of narrow streets with even more shops selling jewelry, electronics, clothes, souvenirs, and cosmetics. | Nathan Rd. between Salisbury Rd. and Boundary St., Tsim Sha Tsui | Station: Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, Prince Edward.
Yau Ma Tei
North of Tsim Sha Tsui, the vibrant area of Yau Ma Tei teems with people and is home to several street markets. The area of Yau Ma Tei around Jordan Road is often referred to as Jordan. The Jordan MTR stop is a good place to start your exploring.
Top Attractions
Temple Street.
Temple Street, in the heart of Yau Ma Tei, is home to Hong Kong’s biggest night market. Stalls selling kitsch of all kinds set up in the late afternoon in the blocks north of Public Square Street. Fortune-tellers, prostitutes, and street doctors also offer their services here. | Temple St. between Jordan Rd. and Kansu St., Yau Ma Tei | Station: Yau Ma Tei, Exit C; Jordan, Exit A.
Tin Hau Temple.
This incense-filled site is dedicated to Taoist sea goddess Tin Hau, queen of heaven and protector of seafarers. The crowds here testify to her being one of Hong Kong’s favorite deities—indeed, this is one of around 40 temples dedicated to her. Like all Tin Hau temples, this one once stood on the shore. Kowloon reclamation started in the late 19th century, and now the site is more than 3 km (2 mi) from the harbor. The main altar is hung with gold-embroidered red cloth and usually piled high with offerings. There are also two smaller shrines inside the temple honoring earth god Tou Tei and city god Shing Wong. Both the temple and stalls in the eponymous market outside are fortune-telling hot spots: you may well be encouraged to have a try with the chim. Each stick is numbered, and you shake them in a cardboard tube until one falls out. A fortune-teller asks you your date of birth and makes predictions from the stick based on numerology. Alternatively, you could have a mystically minded bird pick out some fortune cards for you. TIP It’s a good idea to agree on prices first; bargaining with fortune-tellers is common. | Market St. between Temple St. and Nathan Rd., Yau Ma Tei | Daily 7–5:30 | Station: Yau Ma Tei, Exit C.
Worth Noting
Kansu Street Jade Market.
From priceless ornaments to fake pendants, if it’s green and shiny, it’s here. Quality and prices at the stalls vary hugely, so if you’re not with a jade connoisseur, stick with the cheap and cheerful. | Kansu St. between Battery St. and Reclaimation St., Yau Ma Tei | Free | Daily 10–5 | Station: Yau Ma Tei, Exit C.
Shanghai Street.
Traditional trades are plied along this street. There are blocks dominated by tailors or shops selling Chinese cookware or everything you need to set up a household shrine. Nearby Ning Po Street is known for its paper kites and for the colorful paper and bamboo models of worldly possessions (boats, cars, houses) that are burned at Chinese funerals. | Shanghai St. between Jordan Rd. and Argyle St., Yau Ma Tei | Station: Yau Ma Tei.
Yau Ma Tei Theatre.
The government has converted this former movie theater (which had shown adult films for some years before falling into disuse) into a 300-seat venue for Chinese opera performances. A historic redbrick building next door serves as the theater’s administration building. | 6 Waterloo Rd., Yau Ma Tei | 2264–8108 | www.lcsd.gov.hk/ymtt | Daily 1–8 | Station: Yau Ma Tei, Exit B2.
Mong Kok
Mong Kok lives up to its Chinese name, which translates roughly as “busy corner.” Long city blocks here are known for bustling markets that sell clothing, flowers, pets, and temple goods. The neighborhood is the epicenter of Hong Kong street fashion—the trends that originate from these bustling streets are known as “MK style.” Mong Kok is technically the last district of Kowloon: Boundary Street marks the beginning of the New Territories, though these days the urbanized areas are known as New Kowloon.
Worth Noting
Fa Yuen Street.
This street that runs parallel to Tung Choi Street Ladies’ Market, between Argyle Street and Shan Tung Street, is sneaker central; sports shops sell some brands you know and lots you don’t. If you’re not sporty, the stretch between Mongkok Road and Nullah Road offers cheap versions of the latest clothing fashion trends. | Fa Yuen St. between Mongkok Rd. and Shan Tung St., Mong Kok | Free | Station: Mong Kok, Exit D3.
Flower Market.
Stalls containing local and imported fresh flowers, potted plants, and even artificial blossoms cover Flower Market Road, as well as parts of Yuen Po Street, Yuen Ngai Street, Prince Edward Road West, and Playing Field Road. | Flower Market Rd. between Yuen Ngai St. and Yuen Po St., Mong Kok | Free | Daily 7–7 | Station: Mong Kok East, Exit C; Prince Edward, Exit B1.
Goldfish Market.
A few dozen shops on Tung Choi Street and Nullah Road sell the ubiquitous fish, which locals believe to be lucky. In addition to feed and aquariums, the market is home to other varieties of animals. | Tung Choi St. and Nullah Rd., Mong Kok | Free | 10:30–10 | Station: Mong Kok East, Exit C; Prince Edward, Exit B2.
Tung Choi Street Ladies’ Market.
Despite the name, stalls are filled with no-brand clothes and accessories for both sexes. The shopping is best between Dundas and Argyle. | Tung Choi St. between Dundas St. and Argyle St., Mong Kok | Free | Station: Mong Kok.
Yuen Po Street Bird Garden.
Next to the Flower Market, more than 70 stalls sell different types of twittering, fluttering birds of numerous colors, shapes, and sizes. Birdcages and food, from seeds to live grasshoppers, are also for sale. | Yuen Po St. between Boundary St. and Prince Edward Rd. West, Mong Kok | Daily 7 am–8 pm | Station: Mong Kok East, Exit C; Prince Edward, Exit B1.
Northern Kowloon
There’s much to do in Kowloon beyond Tsim Sha Tsui and Mong Kok. Wong Tai Sin Temple and Chi Lin Nunnery, just a few subway stops to the east of Mong Kok, are two of Hong Kong’s must-do spiritual sights. The Kowloon Walled City Park and Cattle Depot Artist Village are surrounded by fairly uninspiring residential and commercial districts but well worth a trip.
Top Attractions
Fodor’s Choice | Chi Lin Nunnery.
Not a single nail was used to build this nunnery, which dates from 1934. Instead, traditional Tang Dynasty architectural techniques involving wooden dowels and bracket work hold its 228,000 pieces of timber together. Most of the 15 cedar halls house altars to bodhisattvas (those who have reached enlightenment)—bronze plaques explain each one.
Chi Lin Nunnery Highlights
Feng shui principles governed construction. The buildings face south toward the sea, to bring abundance; their backs are to the mountain, provider of strength and good energy. The temple’s clean lines are a vast departure from most of Hong Kong’s colorful religious buildings—here polished wood and gleaming Buddha statues are the only adornments.
The Main Hall is the most imposing—and inspiring—part of the monastery. Overlooking the smaller second courtyard, it honors the first Buddha, known as Sakyamuni. The soaring ceilings are held up by 28 cedar columns, measuring 18 feet each. They also support the roof—no mean feat, given that its traditionally made clay tiles make it weigh 176 tons.
Courtyards and gardens, where frangipani flowers scent the air, run beside the nunnery. The gardens are filled with bonsai trees and artful rockeries. Nature is also present inside: the various halls and galleries all look onto two courtyards filled with geometric lotus ponds and manicured bushes.
Chi Lin Nunnery Tips
- Left of the Main Hall is a don’t-miss hall dedicated to Avalokitesvra, better known in Hong Kong as Kwun Yum, goddess of mercy and childbearing, among other things. She’s one of the few exceptions to the rule that bodhisattvas are represented as asexual beings.
- Be sure to keep looking up—the latticework ceilings and complicated beam systems are among the most beautiful parts of the building. Combine Chi Lin Nunnery with a visit to Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, only one MTR stop or a short taxi ride away.
5 Chi Lin Dr., Diamond Hill, Northern Kowloon | 2354–1888 | Free | Nunnery daily 9–4:30, lotus-pond garden daily 7–7 | Station: Diamond Hill, Exit C2.
Kowloon Walled City Park.
Arguably Hong Kong’s most beautiful park, designed in Qing-dynasty style, is near the old Kai Tak Airport, between Tung Tau Tsuen and Tung Tsing roads. The park opened in 1995, and in previous centuries was a walled military site, then a notorious slum. Today the major attraction is the Yamen, an example of southern Chinese architecture of the 19th century, and is the only remaining structure from the original Walled City. There are also a number of traditional gardens on the grounds, and eight walks showcasing different flora, as well as free 45-minute guided tours. Hong Kong’s Thai community is based in the streets south of the park, and there are countless hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurants. Bus 113 stops nearby, or take the MTR to Kowloon Tong and take a cab. | Tung Tau Tsuen Rd. between Junction Rd. and Tung Tsing Rd., Kowloon City, Northern Kowloon | 2716–9962 | www.lcsd.gov.hk/parks/kwcp/en/ | Free | 6:30 am–11 pm.
Did You Know?: Only the occasional patch of daylight was visible from the labyrinthine alleys of the Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s most notorious slum. Originally a 19th-century Chinese fortress, the city wasn’t included in the British lease of the New Territories, thus it remained part of China and out of bounds to the Hong Kong police. The Triads ruled its unlicensed doctors and dentists, opium dens, brothels, gambling houses, and worse.
Fodor’s Choice | Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple. There’s a practical approach to prayer at one of Hong Kong’s most exuberant places of worship. Here the territory’s three major religions—Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism—are all celebrated under the same roof. You’d think that ornamental religious buildings would look strange with highly visible vending machines and LCD displays in front of them, but Wong Tai Sin pulls it off in cacophonous style. The temple was established in the early 20th century, on a different site, when two Taoist masters arrived from Guangzhou with the portrait of Wong Tai Sin—a famous monk who was born around AD 328—that still graces the main altar. In the ‘30s the temple was moved here; continuous renovations make it impossible to distinguish old from new.
Start at the incense-wreathed main courtyard, where the noise of many people shaking out chim (sticks with fortunes written on them) forms a constant rhythmic background. After wandering the halls, take time out in the Good Wish Garden—a peaceful riot of rockery—at the back of the complex. At the base of the complex is a small arcade where soothsayers and palm readers are happy to interpret Wong Tai Sin’s predictions for a small fee. At the base of the ramp to the Confucian Hall, look up behind the temple for a view of Lion Rock, a mountain in the shape of a sleeping lion. TIP If you feel like acquiring a household altar of your own, head for Shanghai Street in Yau Ma Tei, the Kowloon district north of Tsim Sha Tsui, where religious shops abound. | Wong Tai Sin Rd., Wong Tai Sin, Northern Kowloon | 2327–8141 | Donations expected. Good Wish Garden HK$2 | Daily 7–5:30 | Station: Wong Tai Sin, Exit B2 or B3.
Worth Noting
Cattle Depot Artist Village.
A former location for the slaughter of cattle has been transformed into a home for a number of artists’ studios, a theater, and some of Hong Kong’s best galleries, including 1a Space and Videotage. Individual artists and galleries keep erratic hours, and what you see will depend on who’s open to the public at any given time. Take the MTR to Jordan and catch a cab, or take a bus that goes through To Kwa Wan, such as the 101. | 63 Ma Tau Kok Rd., To Kwa Wan, Northern Kowloon | Free | Daily 10–7.
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