The original Ho Man Tin was quite different from today's Ho Man Tin. It was located in the heart of nowaday Mong Kok. With cultivated lands, it was surrounded in the north by Argyle Street, west by Coronation Road (present-day Nathan Road), and east by Quarry Hill, No. 12 Hill and Tai Shek Kwu (present-day Kadoorie Hill). Southeast from its original location is Fo Pang and to the south Mong Kok. Streams from those hills in the east offered water for cultivation, the latter reflected in the area's name last Chinese character, i.e. tin, , which means field. The Ho () and Man () part of the name are both Chinese surnames; so Ho Man Tin represents the agricultural land owned by the Ho and Man, the major families who took their residence around the area.