Hong Kong Night Markets Business Hours Guide
Posted opening hours, market by market
Three Kowloon markets get filed under "Hong Kong night markets", and they do not keep the same hours. Temple Street is the one that trades into the evening as a licensed street market. Ladies' Market runs a comparable evening two MTR stops away in Mong Kok. The Jade Market closes in the middle of the afternoon, so it cannot be folded into a night out at all. The table gives the posted windows; the notes underneath give the regulation each figure comes from and the date it was checked.
Hong Kong night market hours at a glance
| Market | Opens | Closes | Nights it runs | Best window | MTR station and exit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Temple Street Night Market Jordan Road to Kansu Street, Yau Ma Tei |
2:00pm, when the licensed pitches may start trading | 11:00pm licensed trading; the street itself reopens to traffic at midnight | Every night; Sundays and public holidays change nothing | After dark, about 6:00pm-11:00pm | Jordan, Exit A (south end) or Yau Ma Tei, Exit C (north end) |
| Ladies' Market Tung Choi Street, Argyle Street to Dundas Street, Mong Kok |
About noon for the stalls; the street closes to traffic at 4:00pm Monday to Saturday and at 12 noon on general holidays | About 11:00pm for the stalls; the car-free window runs to midnight | Every night; on general holidays the car-free window starts four hours earlier | The first hours after the street closes to traffic | Mong Kok, Exit E2 (Nelson Street); Exit D3 for the Argyle Street end |
| Jade Market Kansu Street and Battery Street, Yau Ma Tei |
10:00am | 4:00pm - daytime only, before either night market is open | Every day, but it is not an evening market | Morning to early afternoon | Yau Ma Tei, Exit C (the exit signed for the Jade Market) |
Where each figure comes from (all figures checked 13 October 2026).
- Temple Street. The 2:00pm-11:00pm trading window is what the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department prints on its own fixed-pitch plan for the Temple Street Hawker Area (drawing YT-TE-PK; "morning set-up, evening dismantle" pitches 2:00pm-11:00pm, cabinet-type pitches 6:00am-11:00pm). The midnight figure is not a closing time at all: it is when the Transport Department's part-time pedestrian street, Temple Street between Jordan Road and Kansu Street, reopens to vehicles (2:00pm to 12 midnight daily since July 2002). The licensing detail behind both is on the opening hours page.
- Temple Street, and why "after dark". The 2:00pm start is when pitches may trade, not when they do: the street is a dusk trade - "The market starts at 2 p.m., but is lively at dusk daily" (Wikipedia, Temple Street, Hong Kong, checked 13 October 2026) - and the cooked-food pitches arrive with the dark.
- Ladies' Market. No trading schedule is published for it, by anyone. The official figure is the traffic one: Tung Choi Street between Argyle Street and Dundas Street is a part-time pedestrian street from 4:00pm to midnight Monday to Saturday and from 12 noon to midnight on general holidays (Transport Department). The "about noon to about 11:00pm" stall hours are what current Hong Kong guides report for the vendors - treat them as the trade's own rhythm, not a posted rule.
- Jade Market. No government schedule is published. Guide listings put it at 10:00am to 4:00pm daily (Time Out Hong Kong and mingleplace, both checked 13 October 2026); other listings give a later close, and individual stalls open and close inside that window.
- The exits. Jordan Exit A and Yau Ma Tei Exit C are the two exits MTR's own station material points to for Temple Street; Yau Ma Tei Exit C is also the exit whose signage lists the Jade Market. Mong Kok Exit E2 and Exit D3 are the two walking routes the guides give for Ladies' Market, from the Nelson Street and Argyle Street ends. Full walking directions are on how to get here.
Sundays and public holidays
One market moves on a holiday, and it is the Mong Kok one. Tung Choi Street goes car-free at 4:00pm on Monday to Saturday but from 12 noon on general holidays, so a Sunday puts you in the middle of Ladies' Market four hours earlier than a Tuesday would. Temple Street's two windows do not move - the pedestrian street runs 2:00pm to midnight daily and the licensed trading hours are the same every day. The first and last trains at all three stations are identical on weekdays and on general holidays.
Two markets in one evening: Jordan, then Mong Kok
You can do two, and Jordan then Mong Kok is the order that works best: eat first on Temple Street, then shop at Ladies' Market. They are two stops apart on the same line, the Tsuen Wan line, with Yau Ma Tei in between, so the hop is about four minutes on the train. What makes the plan fit is that both markets stay busy until around 11:00pm while the last trains leave well after midnight.
The evening, in order.
- 5:45pm - Jordan station, Exit A. Walk west along Jordan Road to the market's southern gateway, the archway at the Temple Street junction. The stalls are setting up; the food is an hour behind.
- 6:00pm-8:00pm - eat on Temple Street. The licensed pitches trade to 11:00pm and the cooked-food stalls arrive with the dark. What to order is on the food guide.
- 8:00pm - back to Jordan station, Exit A, two stops to Mong Kok. From the market's north end, Yau Ma Tei station Exit C is one stop instead.
- 8:20pm-10:45pm - shop Ladies' Market. Leave the station by Exit E2 (Nelson Street) or Exit D3 (Argyle Street). Shopping tactics are on what to buy.
The last train that makes it work
Mong Kok is the end of the run, so Mong Kok sets the deadline. The Tsuen Wan line's last departures from Mong Kok are 00:48 towards Central and 01:05 towards Tsuen Wan (MTR station service hours, checked 13 October 2026). MTR's own note on that page is the part most people miss: you may not pass through the entry gates less than five minutes before the last departure, so the practical deadline for a Hong Kong Island hotel is through the Mong Kok gates by 12:43am.
| Station | Last train to Central | Last train to Tsuen Wan |
|---|---|---|
| Jordan | 00:52 | 01:01 |
| Yau Ma Tei | 00:50 | 01:03 |
| Mong Kok | 00:48 | 01:05 |
Those three rows are the whole constraint, and none of them is tight: Temple Street's licensed trading ends at 11:00pm and Tung Choi Street's car-free window ends at midnight, both comfortably inside the train service. Do it the other way round if you would rather shop first - Mong Kok from 4:00pm (12 noon on a general holiday), then Temple Street from about 7:00pm, with the last trains from Jordan at 00:52 to Central and 01:01 to Tsuen Wan.
What closes early, and what rain does
What closes early.
- The Jade Market, by its hours. It shuts at 4:00pm, before either night market is properly open, so it needs a morning or an early afternoon of its own. Its detail is on the Jade Market guide.
- The Ladies' Market stalls, by the clock. The guide-reported trade thins from about 11:00pm even though the street stays car-free until midnight.
- Temple Street's licensed trade, at 11:00pm. The car-free street outlasts the trading licence by an hour, so the last hour is a street people walk down more than a market they buy from.
What rain does
Both night markets are open-air street stalls - pitches on the roadway itself - so they are the first thing to stop when the Observatory escalates.
- Rainstorm warnings. Amber means rain exceeding 30mm an hour, Red 50mm, Black 70mm. Under Red, the Observatory's guidance is that employees working outdoors in exposed areas should suspend outdoor duties if conditions warrant; under Black it is to stay indoors or take shelter, and for outdoor workers to stop work and take shelter. A Black Rainstorm evening is not a market evening. (Hong Kong Observatory, Rainstorm Warning System, checked 13 October 2026.)
- Typhoon signals. At Signal 8 the Observatory's advice is to avoid staying in the street and to return home; at Signal 9 and above, to stay indoors. The MTR runs a limited service under Signal 8, then suspends the open sections of the railway at Signal 9 or above, and MTR Bus stops three hours after Signal 8 is issued. If a signal is up, the market is not the plan.
- What rain does not stop. The Jade Market is a covered market under the Gascoigne Road flyover, and the MTR keeps running far longer than the stalls do - but the Jade Market has closed at 4:00pm anyway, so weather cannot rescue a Jade Market evening that never existed.
If you came to eat, or to shop
Eating is a Temple Street evening: be there by 6:00pm as the cooked-food pitches come out, and you are inside the market's real window rather than its licensed one. Shopping is Ladies' Market once Tung Choi Street closes to traffic - 4:00pm Monday to Saturday, 12 noon on a general holiday, through to about 11:00pm. Jade is neither: that is the Jade Market at 10:00am to 4:00pm, a daytime stop.
The whole-day version of this, from the Bird Garden and Flower Market through to an evening at Temple Street, is laid out in our Hong Kong night markets complete guide. For Temple Street on its own, the full licensing detail is on opening hours and the case for when it really closes is on closing time.
