4 Best Places to Shop in Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong

Each evening, as darkness falls, the lamps strung between the stalls of this Yau Ma Tei street market slowly light up, and the air fills with aromas wafting from myriad food carts. Hawkers try to catch your eye by flinging up clothes; Cantonese opera competes with swelling pop music and the sounds of spirited haggling; fortune-tellers and street performers add another element to the sensory overload. Granted, neither the garments nor the cheap gadgets sold here are much to get excited about, but it's the atmosphere people come for—any purchases are a bonus. The market stretches for almost a mile and is one of Hong Kong's liveliest nighttime shopping experiences.

This popular purveyor of Chinese goods has 12 stores across Hong Kong, and the flagship one features seven floors laden with everything from clothing and housewares to traditional medicine. The logic behind its layout is hard to fathom, so go with time to rifle around. As well as the predictable tablecloths, silk pajamas, and chopsticks, there are cheap and colorful porcelain sets and offbeat local favorites like mini-massage chairs. The fifth floor has a selection of tea—you can pick up a HK$50 packet of leaves or an antique Yixing teapot stretching into the thousands.

Stocking alternative-spirited books, graphic novels, magazines, and music in a variety of foreign languages, Kubrick is the closest thing to a bilingual community bookshop you're likely to find in Hong Kong. Coming here will give you a good, if slightly unpolished, sense of the city's contemporary culture. As an added bonus, the store is attached to a cinema that regularly shows art-house flicks and a casual café that occasionally hosts poetry readings or music gigs. When seeking directions, ask for the Broadway Cinemateque.

You might be wary of the lustrous pearls hanging at this little Jade Market stall. But the charming owner does, in fact, sell genuine cultured and freshwater pearl necklaces and earrings at reasonable prices. Some pieces are made from shell, which Sandra is always quick to point out, and could pass muster among the snobbiest collectors.