Chungking Mansions
Chungking Mansions (重慶大廈) is a famous building in Hong Kong. It is located at 36-44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, with the size approximately 50’(H) x 25’(W). Chungking Mansions is an accommodation with relatively low rent comparing with the rest part of Tsim Sha Tsui.
The Chungking Mansions features a labyrinth of guesthouses, curry messes, sweatshops, and sari stores. It is an interesting building in the way that it acts as a large gathering place for the minorities in Hong Kong particularly Indians and those from the middle-east like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan. The building was completed in 1961 and local Chinese residents were dominant at that time. Now, it has nearly 4,000 people lodging in the Mansions, which is mainly because of the cheap lodging fee of the Mansions. In addition, there are some foreign exchange shops offering favorable exchange rates. Chungking Mansions, therefore, attracts lots of foreigners and backpackers to stay in.
In fact, Chungking Mansions is not only famous for their low lodging fee, but the mansions also provides a chance for cultural interchange of people from different nations. Indeed, Chungking Mansions is a symbol of culture integration in Hong Kong.
Building's Structure
The Chungking Mansions rises 17 stories, consists of 5 blocks--block A, B, C, D, E. From the entrance, left elevator is for block A, B and C, while D and E are on the right. There are two very slow elevators in each block, one services even-numbered floors,, the other one services odd number floors. Stairway is another choice to go up the mansion. Besides CCTV cameras are all around the building including the elevators to monitor everythings happened in the building and to prevent crime.
How to get there
Since Chungking Mansions is well-located, tourists can get there by various kinds of transportation easily, for example: MTR, several airport buses (A21) or taxi. Indeed, it only takes a few minutes walk from the MTR station. For tourists arriving from China by trains, the best way to reach there is to take a taxi from the Hung Hom KCR station.
Housing
Chungking Mansions, the infamous ghetto-like structure, has some of the cheapest rates in town, making it a legendary haunt for backpackers and budget travelers in search of adventure.
Actually, there are 5 blocks of buildings in Chungking Mansions, each seventeen stories high. And there are 90 guest houses with 980 rooms in it. The rent is low, from $150 to $280 per day. It is the mansion that has the most guest houses in Hong Kong.
It is not expensive to buy a flat in Chungking Mansions. From a recent statistics, the price of a flat is found to be ranged from $300,000 to $1,000,000.
Featured films
Many film makers are also fascinated by the unique identity of Chungking Mansions.A famous Hong Kong director, Wong Kar-wai, has chosen Chungking Mansions as the setting of one of his award winning film, Chungking Express (重慶森林） in 1994 and Fallen Angels （墮落天使） in 1995. The former one won 4 prizes in the 14th Annual Hong Kong Film Awards-best picture, director, actor and editing. In the film, Chungking Mansions made a great contrast with the building in Lan Kwai Fong. The former shows loneliness and disconnections in the city, while the latter shows happiness. In addition, there was a survey result published in Sight & Sound Magazine (the monthly magazine of the British Film Institute) before, saying that "Chungking Express" came in at number eight after asked fifty leading UK film critics to choose best films from the past 25 years. It is being ranked as the highest placing of all the Asian film.
Business found
There are various kind of interesting business that can be found in the Chungking Mansions.....
A. Trading
The interesting combination of people in the Chungking Mansions has developed a special trading environment. As most of the Indian and African governments implement strong trade restrictions over the amount of export and import, this triggers a high demand of consuming products over those countries. Therefore many businesses are done through importing parallel goods.
B. Food
Although Chungking Mansions had a bad reputation for security, there are many restaurants, e.g. small, family-run Indian or Pakistani restaurant with delicious, traditional Indian curry and Nepali food. Together with their reasonable prices, they can indeed attract visitors coming all over the world. Due to the keen competition of the very large number of similar style restaurants, many of them always send some very aggressive stuff to distrubute leaflets on the surrounding streets to help promoting their restaurants.
C. Money Exchanger
There are lots of money exchangers at the lower floors of the Chunking Mansions to provide exhange services. This is because people living or doing business there come from all around the waold. Most of them carry plenty of cash from their motherland to do business in Hong Kong. However, the capital they got are most likely non-local currencies such as Pakistani Rupees, Indian Rupees, South African Rand.
D. Local Retailers
The shops you will find in the Chungking Mansions are definitely not the one you can find all over the streets in Hong Kong. They have interesting goods that are imported from the community's own countries. DVD, VCD, clothings and traditional snacks from the own countries can be found inside Chungking Mansions.
Security issue
Chungking Mansions has been stigmatized as a symbol of crime. CCTV can be found easily in everywhere. Because of their cheap lodging and convenient location, Chungking Mansions induces a lot of illegal immigrants coming from Africa, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. The Hong Kong police raid hundreds of illegal immigrants lodging in Chungking Mansions every year. Moreover, prostitution, drug dealing, robbery, theft,etc are also security problems of Chungking Mansions.
Implication of Chungking Mansions
Whenever people pass by the Mansions, they try not to put up their heads. They try to avoid looking at those people standing besides the Mansions. Why does this happen? Actually, Chungking Mansions is the hotbed of criminals in Hong Kong. Even policemen are not willing to get into it, not to mention the others. The Mansions show the police force of Hong Kong is not good enough. Chungking Mansion manifests the feeling of loneliness and disconnections of people in the city. Chungking Mansion is always a mysterious place in the city. However, the citizens, even the cops, are not willing, to know more about it. They just get rid of it. This shows that the Mansion is being disconnected from the society indeed. What has happen inside the building does not catch people's attention. People just regard it as a normal incident. No one care about it. It shows the disconnection between Chungking Mansion and the city.
Companies inside
Block A
| 3/F Taiwan Hotel |
| 4/F De Luxe Hotel |
| 5/F De Luxe Hotel |
| 6/F A1,A2 London Comfort Guest House |
| 6/F A3 Sedique Mess Pakistani & Indian - Halal Food |
| 6/F A7 Mabell Time Co. Ltd. |
| 7/F A1 First Guest House |
| 7/F A5 The Welcome Guest House |
| 7/F A5 Yat Shing Trade Co. (Rough Gemstone) |
| 7/F A7 Double Seven Guest House |
| 8/F A1 Sun Yins Guest House |
| 8/F A5 Tom's Guest House |
| 8/F A6,A7 New Asia Guest House |
| 8/F A9 New Mandarin Guest House |
| 9/F A3 Future Trading Co. |
| 10/F A5 Super Guest House |
| 12/F A1,A2 New Peking Guest House |
| 14/F A2 Himalaya Guest House |
| 14/F A5 Tokyo Guest House |
| 14/F A6,A7 New Hawaii Guest House |
Block B
| 3/F B2 New Delhi Guest House |
| 3/F B3,B5 Dragon INN |
| 3/F B4 Taj Mahal Club |
| 4/F B2 Thomtex Enterprise |
| 4/F B5 Wakas Mess Pakistani & Indian - Halal Food |
| 4/F B6 Harbour Guest House |
| 5/F B5 Ashok Club (Nepali Food) |
| 5/F B1 Chung King Lodge |
| 5/F B2 New Delhi Guest House |
| 5/F B4 Hang On Tailors |
| 6/F B6 Kamal Guest House (Domitary) |
| 7/F B3 New York Guest House |
| 7/F B8 Himalaya Guest House |
| 8/F B1 Hollywood Guest House |
| 8/F B7 Beverly Guest House |
| 9/F B1,B2 Grand Guest House |
| 9/F B3 Happy Guest House (Reception) |
| 10/F B4,B7,B8 Kowloon Guest House |
| 10/F B5 China Sources Co. (China Visa) |
| 11/F B4,B7 Kowloon Guest House |
| 11/F B3 Hong Kong Guest House |
| 12/F B1,B3 Hong Kong Guest House |
| 12/F B2 Columbia Guest House |
| 13/F B1,B2 New Washington Guest House |
| 14/F B3 Da Shing Guest House |
| 15/F B3 Shangri La Guest House |
| 15/F B5 China Guest House |
| 15/F B6,B8 Cosmos Guest House |
| 15/F B7 Carlton Guest House |
| 16/F B2 Building Services Design Ltd. |
| 16/F B3 New Carlton Guest House |
| 16/F B4 Hang Hing Co. Underwear |
| 16/F B5 China Guest House |
| 16/F B6 Lucky Trading Company |
| 16/F B7 Tom's Guest House |
| 17/F B2 Traveller's Friendship Hotel |
Photos of Chungking Mansions
The above photos are owned by wikipedia member 94vincentyung
Related news articles
- Bodies found in Tsim Sha Tsui: Police Report April 2004
- Another crime happened in Chungking Mansions: Yahoo HK news 2004-02-04
- Murder in Chungking Mansions: ycwb.com 金羊網
- 11 illegal immigrants caught by police: Yahoo HK news 2004-01-19
- Wekipedia about: List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong