Mong Kok Road is a road in Kowloon, Hong Kong, running through the entirety of Mong Kok. It begins at Tong Mi Road in the west, and runs past Nathan Road until reaching Sai Yee Street in the east. There is a footbridge that runs over Mong Kok Road between MOKO and Portland Street, providing access between Mong Kok Station and Mong Kok East Station.^[1]

History

Before 1929, today's Mong Kok Road was part of Mong Kok Village (芒角村), which had already been charted and named in an 1866 map by Fr.S.Volonteri, marked as Mong Kok. ^[2] ^[3]

From 1900 to 1904, there was a large reclamation project off the coast of Yau Ma Tei that pushed the coastline from Reclamation Street to Ferry Street.^[4] In the 1920s, the village gradually lost its land to urban construction of the Government, and by the 1930s was taken possession of by the Government and demolished. The new planned road was named in a Government Gazette on 28 Sep 1923:

Four main roads were erected over the old Mong Kok Village: Sai Yeung Choi Street, Fa Yuen Street, Tung Choi Street, and Sai Yee Street.^[5] Mong Kok Road was already a bustling street of the city by 1955, especially at its intersection with Nathan Road. ^[6]

The Mong Kok Road Footbridge System began construction in 1998 by Sun Hung Kai Properties, and the section between Mong Kok East Station and Nathan Road was completed in 2003.^[7] After more than two decades of delays,^[8] the section of the Footbridge crossing Nathan Road was completed and opened on 30 Sept 2021. ^[9]

Transportation

Mong Kok traffic control since the 1970s

As the MTR was built in the 1970s, and some exits of the Mong Kok Station had occupied the right lanes of Argyle Street from Sai Yeung Choi Street to Portland Street, thus the government at the time had made the control in effect: vehicles can only travel westbound on Argyle Street between those two streets mentioned above. As a result, vehicles from Tai Kok Tsui via Argyle Street, eastbound towards Kowloon City, should make a left turn onto Reclamation Street and then a right onto Mong Kok Road. After crossing the junction between Mong Kok Road and Nathan Road, one shall turn right to either Sai Yeung Choi Street South or Sai Yee Street in order to lead back to Argyle Street. For the same reason, all vehicles are not allowed to make a right turn directly from Nathan Road to Argyle Street, and must follow the route described above. With a large number of buses and minivans passing through this section daily, these intersections have frequently encountered accidents and problems of traffic congestion.^[10] ^[11] There have been plans to correct this, but they are still in discussion.^[12]

MTR

The MTR's Mong Kok station has two exits on this road: Exits A and B. Exit B directly leads to the Mong Kok Road Footbridge System at the intersection of Mong Kok Road and Sai Yeung Choi Street South.