Metroplace Olympic

Location & Transit

Metroplace Olympic sits at 36-38 Li Tak Street in Tai Kok Tsui, a short walk from Olympic MTR Station on the Tung Chung Line rather than directly above the concourse. That single stop puts West Kowloon Cultural District and the high-speed rail terminus within easy reach, with onward connections toward Hong Kong Island and the Airport Express interchange at Nam Cheong requiring one change rather than a direct run. Ground-level movement in this stretch of Tai Kok Tsui relies on the elevated walkway system tying Olympian City’s two shopping malls together, which also gives pedestrians a way to cross Tung Chung Road and the West Kowloon reclamation without dealing with traffic at street level.

Neighbourhood & Local Taste

Tai Kok Tsui sits between Mong Kok and the West Kowloon reclamation, and it carries a working-class, largely residential character that distinguishes it from both — an area of aging tenement blocks and mid-rise estates that has, in the past decade, begun attracting attention for street art projects and small independent cafes moving into ground-floor units once occupied by hardware shops and metalworking trades that gave the district its industrial edge through the mid-20th century. Along Tai Kok Tsui Road and the surrounding side streets, dai pai dong-style stalls and small Cantonese kitchens serve wonton noodles, beef brisket in clear broth, and congee to a mostly local clientele rather than to visitors, a contrast with the more overtly tourist-facing food streets of Tsim Sha Tsui a few stops south. Olympian City itself opened in stages through the early 2000s as part of the broader West Kowloon reclamation and rail-property development model that has since defined much of Kowloon’s newer built environment — shopping and residential towers built directly over, and cross-subsidised by, the MTR station beneath them.

History & Architecture

The ground beneath Tai Kok Tsui’s western edge did not exist as land within living memory for much of the district — the West Kowloon reclamation that now carries the Tung Chung Line, the high-speed rail terminus, and the West Kowloon Cultural District was filled in stages from the late 1980s through the 1990s and 2000s, part of a broader pattern of harbourfront reclamation that has repeatedly reshaped Hong Kong’s coastline since the colonial era. Olympic Station opened in 1998 as part of the original Airport Railway, named for the nearby Olympic House sports complex rather than any Olympic Games connection, and the shopping and residential development above it followed the rail-plus-property model that MTR Corporation has used across the territory: build the station first, then finance the surrounding towers through the value the transit link itself creates. That model explains why a hotel guest can walk from check-in to a supermarket, cinema, and MTR platform entirely under cover — the whole complex was planned as a single integrated structure rather than assembled piecemeal from independent buildings, a materially different urban logic from the older tong lau streets a few blocks inland toward Mong Kok.

Practical Information

Rooms come equipped with air conditioning, Wi-Fi, and the usual mid-tier amenities expected of a Kowloon business hotel; a 24-hour front desk handles check-in and luggage storage. The hotel’s elevated position within the Olympian City complex gives direct covered access to supermarkets, a cinema, and a wide range of retail and dining options without stepping outside, useful during the summer humidity or the occasional typhoon signal that closes down street-level activity across the territory.

Setting Expectations

Metroplace Olympic carries an 8.5 rating on Booking.com, though — as with several smaller Kowloon properties under the same operating group — the review count behind that figure remains thin, so it is worth treating as an early indicator rather than an established track record. Rooms are priced from around HKD 950 a night. The trade-off here is straightforward: Tai Kok Tsui offers fast rail access to West Kowloon and the airport corridor along with a quieter, more residential setting than Mong Kok or Tsim Sha Tsui, at the cost of being a stop or two removed from the harbourfront attractions most first-time visitors prioritise. For travellers with an evening arrival at Hong Kong International Airport, the Airport Express connection at Nam Cheong followed by a single change onto the Tung Chung Line makes this one of the more direct hotel options in Kowloon West, without the higher room rates commanded by properties built directly inside the West Kowloon Cultural District a station further along the same line.