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March 23, 2005

Chungking Mansion

The infamous "guesthouse central" in Tsim Sha Tsui, mentioned in various Hong Kong guidebooks. Location for Wong Kar Fai's movie "Chungking Express", it is also my temporary home here

The Mansion actually consists of four blocks of flat named A to D, each 16 floors high. There is one main entrance, and two lifts that serve each block. One lift goes to the even floors and the other the odd floors. As the lifts are slow and can hold up to eight passengers at most, there is usually a row of passengers waiting in front of each lift on the ground floor.

There are the usual moneychangers, tailors, baggage, souvenir and sundry shops on the first two floors of the Mansion. Above these, each floor in each block has eight residential units. Many of these units, especially in Block A, have been converted to guesthouses. For instance, I stayed on the 15th floor of Block A, and there are 3 guesthouses on this floor alone. In such a competitive environment, I wonder how the owners make any money. In the 3 days I was staying in the guesthouse, there were only 2 other guests there. Some owners have multiple guesthouses, so it is not unusual to wander into a guesthouse and find it empty, with a notice besides the telephone informing potential guests to call the owner at another location.

Touts would line up at the Mansion's entrance, pouncing upon anyone with some luggage to take a look at their guesthouse. However, they would back off if told firmly.

Chungking Mansion is a mini-UN with guests of many nationalities. Nevertheless, there seems to be a high proportion of Africans who stay at the place. Several of them would be loitering at the entrance and lift lobby, and whenever I took the lift, there would at least be one African passenger with me.

The whole place is definitely no five-star hotel. That would be the Holiday-Inn next door or Hilton opposite. It is dirty, grubby, noisy, a fire-trap, and not suitable for everybody. However, with its location - 10 minutes walk from Star Ferry Terminal and with the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station at its doostep - choice of cheap accommodations and unique ambience, it can be considered if you are not too fussy and are only looking for a place to sleep during the night.

Posted by Lin on March 23, 2005 04:18 PM
Category: Hong Kong
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