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Sai Yeung Choi Street


Sai Yeung Choi Street (Chinese: 西洋菜街) are two streets in Mong Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong, namely, Sai Yeung Choi Street South (西洋菜南街) and Sai Yeung Choi Street North (西洋菜北街). Although officially two streets, local people seldom make distinction between them. They are separated by the Mong Kok Police Station.

The streets were built on watercress cultivation in a village, Mong Kok Tsuen (旺角村), in Mong Kok in 1924. The name Sai Yeung Choi is the Cantonese name of watercress. As time went by, the village and fields were replaced by high-rise buildings. When the police station was built, they were no longer connected. On 12 January 1979, the streets were renamed to north and south sections.

In the 1970s, some buildings on Sai Yeung Choi Street were demolished to make way for construction of the Mass Transit Railway.

Sai Yeung Choi Street has been the site of several criminal acts of objects and fluids being thrown from buildings. On 13 December 2008, two bottles of corrosive liquid were hurled from buildings, burning 46 people. On 16 May 2009 two bottles of corrosive liquid were thrown, injuring 30 people. The police increased the award for information leading to an arrest, while the Yau Tsim Mong District Council installed a CCTV system to help catch the perpetrator. A third acid attack occurred on 8 June 2009, injuring 24. A similar attack occurred on 9 January 2010 on nearby Temple Street. On 10 June 2014, a pedestrian was killed on Sai Yeung Choi Street after being hit by a swivel chair thrown from a rooftop by a mentally-ill Mainland Chinese who had been drinking.

Sai Yeung Choi Street was a frequent site of demonstrations during the protracted 2014 Hong Kong protests.

Starting from Dundas Street in Yau Ma Tei, it runs north and meets major roads, Argyle Street and Mong Kok Road, and ends at the junction with Prince Edward Road West. This street is a hot spot for Hong Kong people. The section south of Argyle Street concentrates shops of electronic products at street level and upstair bookstores above.


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