Ladies Market, Hong Kong

If you want to buy a knock-off purse that looks 99% like the original, Ladies Market is the right place to be. However, the trick is that these bags cannot be sold by the vendors on the street. The ones that you see on the stands are the ones that say "Cucci" or "Prado" and they are obvious knock-offs. Since they can't have these in the stores, you have to look through a catalog on table and tell them what you want. If you are lucky, they will invite you "upstairs" and you will be in a huge apartment with walls of luxury purses, wallets, and belts. It might feel a little shady going upstairs with a stranger, so make sure you bring friends with you. What you can also do is request they bring things down, but that takes awhile and you don't get to see the entire selection of goods. (and it's definitely worth it to see everything together)

What to buy: What you need to buy are 99% authentic handbags that comes with the bag protector and are lined and zipped just like the original. The prada bag that I bought had actual Prada lining and the word Prada on fine details. I bought my friend a LV mini handbag in the classic print and we took the bag into an LV store later on... I couldn't tell the difference!

What to pay: Bargaining and paying with US dollars is the key. I bought about 8 items for $100 US Cash and that includes purses from Gucci, Burberry, and LV.

The "Ladies Market" can be found on Tung Choy Street in Mongkok and is where you can find many bootleg and counterfeit items of clothing from bags to jeans and from watches to shirts. Some of the items are fairly basic looking and not branded and so are cheap to buy. Even if you're not intending on buying anything, it's a good place to come in the evening and take a walk around, despite it being murderously busy. Oh, and haggle the prices down. The northern section of this street is home to a fish market - pets not food.

When walking in the Mong Kok markets you will see lots of stalls selling fake Gucci, Burberry's, LV, etc.

Not all of them are good but some of them are absolutely very well faked and it is worth to give it a try.

You can bargain as much as you want and you are bound to walk out with a LV for 10 GBP :-)

My experience is specially good, and I have got very good memories of these little markets. My husband encouraged me to have a look at the LV's in one of the stalls (God bless him !!) and the owner showed me the LV catalogue and asked me what model exactly I wanted. As I could not decide myself the guy started to walk and asked us to follow him. We did, and he took us to a very dark alley with ended in another one even darker and smaller :-{ scary, eh....

Well, he took us to a flat and (now, have a look at my pic) what would you say of a flat without walls or doors, only shelves stacked up with all the LV, Gucci's, Burberry's in the word. You name it !! every brand and model.

YOu could choose whatever you fancied and later you had to bargain with the guy for the price you wanted to pay.

Lots of fun!! I got a Burberry's for a friend for the very reasonable price of 12 GBP and back in the UK no one could spot that it was a fake. NO ONE.
Well, my friend knew because I told her but the rest of her friends never knew the truth.

Only a word of advice.
The trade of fakes is illegal and it breaks the laws of the copyright. Get yourself a pair of items for personal use or pressies but don't get carried away unless you want the guys at customs to confiscate all your consignment :-)

Good luck

What to buy: Designer fakes. All brands and models.
Come on... treat yourself....

What to pay: You can bargain as much as you want. Really. some 10 or 15 pounds will get you a Burberry's or a small LV.
The big ones will be a bit more. Like 20 GBP or so. Still a good price.

Most shopowners actually sell rather expensive items and of course, this is not unusual as they wanna make a living out on the tourists. However, if you want to get a better deal, the art is to bargain like my mom. At least, till you get a happy price. Some people said the prices which you bargain for should mark down at least 75%.

What to buy: Fake brands, bags, clothes, mobile accessories, shoes...Come on, it's ladies market!

The Ladies Market in Mongkok is the most well known street market in Hong Kong. Independent vendors set up stalls from mid morning along several blocks of Tung Choi Street between Argyle and Dundas Streets. The thing you will notice most is while there are hundreds of stalls, there is not a lot of variety to them, so you will see the same handbag, wallet, iphone case, scarf, shoes, chinese pyjamas etc at any number of stalls.

Which brings me to the subject of bartering. This is expected at the Ladies Market and pretty much all markets in Hong Kong. If you cannot agree on the price after many minutes of lighthearted bartering and furious tapping on oversized calculators... then just say you dont want the item and walk away. Chances are you will see exactly the same thing you walked away from at a stall 20 metres away. Be mindful though that there will be little difference in the price of items between stalls (as owners often have a number of sites) so you may need to start bartering all over again for a similar result.

Many items wont have prices on them. This allows the price to be chosen by the stall owner according to what they hope you MIGHT be persuaded to pay. If the vendor thinks you look like you can afford to pay more, then of course you will be asked to pay more. This is essentially what bartering is all about. Historically the market specialised in ladies clothing but I have always found that the majority of clothing stalls dont stock the latest fashions. In fact over the last five years, the style of clothing has not really changed at all so its certainly not the place to seek out the latest trends.

Some stalls are set up by noon but I suggest arriving from mid afternoon when all are set up. From experience try to go during fine weather. The stalls are covered but many of the wares will be covered by thick plastic or tarpaulins if it is raining. Trying to shop with an umbrella is a nuisance.

What to buy: Childrens clothes and toys, lingerie, chinese souvenirs, costume jewellery, iphone accessories, mens underwear, sunglasses, knick-knacks, possibly DVD's (sometimes they are available, sometimes not)

FAKE DESIGNER HANDBAGS AND WALLETS:
These are what they are!! Speaking from experience the zips will break and the stitching will come apart on many of these items so compensate for this by paying the cheapest price possible.

What to pay: Its up to you. Overall the quality of items is not that great with a few exceptions. If you really want the item pay according to its value for money, not how long it will last/work for.

This market reminded me of Fashion Street in Mumbai where you can get good stuff for amazing discounts. You can reach the Ladies Market by MTR. This is at the Mong Kok station on the Tsuen Wan line. When you get off at the Mong Kok station then the Ladies Market is 2 blocks away. This market is also a stop on the Hop-On Hop-Off Big Bus Tour of Hong Kong.

Things you can get at good bargains in the market are souvenir T-Shirts and other cheap apparel, necklaces, bracelets, trinkets, purses and bags. All the items in the shops have a price tag on them however you can negotiate to 50% of that price and to even lower if you are buying in bulk. However, I would sincerely advise that you just take a look at every shop and start talking to the shopkeeper only if you have a genuine interest to buy, else things can get very ugly.

For the complete review you can visit my travel blog on
http://traveltantra.blogspot.com/2010/02/attraction-review-ladies-market-mong.html

Most popular items seem to be knock-off bags and watches. Diesel bag for 70 HKD, offer price for a knockoff Tag Heuer 220 HKD (1st offer). Other than that, clothes, souvenirs, DVDs, etc.

I did not know going prices before coming - felt at a disadvantage....

The stallowners were generally quite friendly.

Ladies Market is truly indeed a ladies market with exception of occasional items like souvenirs, electronic accessories, gifts items. Quality of goods sold aren't very good.

The stores along Ladies Market sells almost the same thing over and over again. Repeats of what you, probably, purchased from an earlier store can be found everywhere.

Remember to bargain. For the brave hearts, try 50% off the asking price and 30% off should be the minimum. You can, always, proceed to the next few stalls and raise offer if deal is not successful.

The stalls are open from 12 noon to 12 mid-night but most stalls are close by 11:00pm

Behind each stall are proper shophouses that housed shophouse restaurants, mainly, with food of all nationalities.

What to pay: 30% to 50% off asking price

The Ladies market is very similar to the Temple Street market, in fact I think it has more stalls, although items sold are the same. The crowd here is much larger and so it would feel much livelier here. I didn't buy much stuff here, but I think the atmosphere is great for a night walk

What to buy: The usual Hong Kong merchandises, copy watches, bags. There are quite a lot of sports shop around the area and they have a wide range of shoes, but I think it is still more expensive than in Singapore.

What to pay: Most stuff tend to be sold in bulk around HK$100. Bring cash definitely

You can buy almost everything here except for the food. I went here to shop for things that I could bring home as gifts. I was able to buy those "I Love HK" T-shirts. Shopping is exhilirating and will give you most satisfaction coz you can haggle everything! hehehe. We were able to get 5 shirts for a hundred hong kong dollars instead of 4 shirts.

One useful tip: Ask for the price, and then act like it's too much and walk away. The vendor will run after you and will give you the price you want. One time I asked for this bag, the seller says its $180hkd, I haggled for a hundred, but she said only $150, so I walked away, then she followed me and was giving the bag for 120! and when I said no, she was giving it for a hundred! But am no longer interested with the item, but the seller gave it at $80!

What to buy: "I Love HK" shirts, pyjamas, cute tops, no Beijing Olympic shirts here though. Amazingly the government was able to control imitation merchandise for the Beijing Olympics. I bought my olympic merchandise at the official outlet in the Cultural Center near the harbour.