Fa Yuen Street

This is a huge swap meet street in the Mongkok area. It was a 10 minute walk from our hotel and is the next street over from the Mongkok Metro Station. This swap meet runs 4 – 5 long blocks. Everything that they sell here is new. Nothing is used. You just get things at a cheaper rate and you get to bargain.
They sell everything from suitcases, clothes, shoes, souvenirs, bags, electronics, to fruits. Don’t forget to bargain. You can name your price. What I’ve learned is that the father down you walk, the cheaper the same exact items get. I saw a suitcase that I wanted near the front. The owner told me it was $ 320HK. I bargained it down to $ 250HK. I thought I was getting a deal. Towards the end of the street, the guy offered me the same exact suitcase for $ 160HK. The smart thing to do is walk the entire street, see who gives you the best price, and go back to that vendor. However, we didn’t have much time that day to do that.
The fruits are cheap and fresh. We bought mangosteen that was 5 pounds for $ 4US. Back here in Hawaii, it’s $ 12 for a pound. What a big difference in price. Needless to say, we bought some fruits with us back to the hotel.
They’re usually open from 11am-​11pm. I don’t care what they tell you. If you’re buying any jade or gemstones from here, IT“S FAKE.

By far one of my favorite streets in Hong Kong. It has a charm that I can’t keep away from. Compared to other streets in HK, and believe me, there’s a load of them, Fa Yuen Street has the most flair.
At first, I can see how it looks strange since there’s tents in the middle of the street and behind that are shops. Not to mention, random people in the corner hawking household «as seen on TV» type products.
What I like to do is make my way down between the tents, then as I’m at the end of the street, I pick a side and walk along the hidden shops. If you’re hungry while shopping, there’s also different street food stalls and fresh fruit markets. If you want a sit down restaurant, Kam Wah Café, home of the top ranked pineapple baos, is two minutes away!

Hong Kong is renowned for its shopping, but the glory days of cheap souvenirs and clothing are now sadly gone. The big markets like Ladies Market and Temple Street draw in huge crowds of tourists, and they’ve lost that little sparkle that used to make them so magical.
Fa Yuen Street is a market mostly aimed at locals, so it has a huge selection of stalls and shops (more varied than the main markets I think), and also benefits from a large wide road, meaning no getting crushed by tourists as they storm down the middle in search of bargains.
Price wise as well, you’ll find that here things are a little better on your wallet for pretty much the exact same goods as you get at the main ones. But be warned, haggling here isn’t as prevalent as they are at Ladies/​Temple, so when they state their opening price, they’re probably not going to drop down much further.
For example, a bag I’d been looking for was quoted at 400 (starting) in Ladies, and 200 in Fa Yuen. Ultimately, I managed to haggle both stalls down to $ 180 but after a lot of work. The Fa Yuen stall as well was far more dismissive of me and «rude», whereas the Ladies market owner was happy to play the haggle game for 5 minutes.
Overall, I would still go and see Ladies/​Temple market for the atmosphere and experience. But for the actual shopping? Fa Yuen, hands down!

This is one of my favourite streets and places I have to go to whenever I visit Hong Kong.
The shops are separated by legal street vendors in the green tents and the shops behind the green tents towards the exterior of the street. You will occasionally find the illegal street vendors that will sell items for a much cheaper price, though you need to be careful because when the police comes, these guys book it!
The products sold in Fa Yuen Street are fairly cheap, though sometimes they raise the prices if they think you’re a foreigner. They sell daily necessities, cute and new products for young teenage girls, towels, clothes, stationary, toys, wallets, cell-​phone cases, etc. It’s usually the cheaper places where you can purchase your goods. However, I do believe that as time went on and the prices of the rent went up, so did the price of the products that they sell.

Just went to Fa Yuen Street again yesterday and it never ceased to amaze and amuse me.
There are 3 most famous market streets in Yau Tsim Wong district (Yau Ma Tei, Tsim Sha Tsui, Monkok), the famous Woman Street (in Tung Choi Street), Temple Street Night Market, and also the Fa Yuen street.
As a local, my favourite of these three has got to be Fa Yuen Street. Woman Street had grown overly tourist-​oriented over the years and mostly sells cheap souvenirs or gadgets, which the quality isn’t too good. As for Temple Street, the goods are too exotic and irrelevant for me (good if you have Asian fetish, though), not of much use to daily life, so I mainly went there to eat only. Now but for Fa Yuen Street, this, is where you can indeed got something useful, of reasonable quality, and at bargain price.
Just like the other market streets, Fa Yuen Street has 2 layers of shops/​stalls The shops at the G/​F of low-​rise buildings and the stalls that occupy either sides of wide road, so when you are walking along 1 side of the footpath, you are sandwiched by shop/​stalls on both sides. That means in order to browse through all, you’d need to walk through the street 2 times, & that is pretty LONG street (note that the stalls only exist between Mong Kok road and the cul-​de sec next to Nullah Street).
The stalls sells both wet goods like fruits and small dry goods like stockings, socks, undergarments, bags, shoe paddings etc. The shops behind, on the other hand, are infested with clothing. There are those selling sample clothes made for export, second-​hands, clothes in the latest Korean trends etc.etc. It is indeed a local thrifting heaven, once in, I can easily spend 1 – 2 hours of thrifting before I can get out. If you get hungry along the way, you can also have the local snacks from the corner stores at Bute Street at mid-​way.

The views of street markets in Hong Kong are actually magnificent. I appreciate those people making use of the long streets to create multitudes of shops and stalls. Take Fa Yuen Street as a case in point, the street can actually be divided into two parts — the green stalls and the stationary shops on the two sides. The stalls usually sell daily necessities and Chinese-​style products. Trendy clothing and accessories are found in the shops. Sometimes you can find good bargains there! Thus Fa Yuen Street is usually in my Mong Kok shopping itinerary!
As I remember, I started to know this street when I was around Primary 6, when my sister took up the hobby of knitting. In order to find yarns at a lower price, my mum took us to Fa Yuen Street and there were several stalls at the far end selling cheap knitting tools and materials, say $ 20 per skein. Later, more and more boutiques targeting at teenagers were set up on the two sides. Sometimes the price was cheaper than online stores, and the clothing offered was quite different from what we usually came across in other shops. You can find some stylish clothes of $ 40 – 100, and your budget of $ 200 may actually afford to buy 3 – 4 clothes there! During sales seasons the items there may be even cheaper! I remember I bought a pair of high-​heel sandals of just $ 79 last year! This street is always full of surprises! But remember to check the quality before you leave the shop! I once found that there was a large torn on my newly-​bought cardigan! Luckily I checked it right after payment and have it changed!
Shop till you drop — if you feel hungry after having a shopping spree, there are also a number of food stalls for you to choose! Want some fish balls? Stinky tofus? A bowl of hot noodles? You can find them all there!