Chungking Mansions
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Chungking Mansions is a building located at 36-44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The building is well known as nearly the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong with a single bed of US $8 one night. Though the building is supposedly residential, it is made up of many independent low-budget hotels, shops, and other services. The strange atmosphere of this building is sometimes called by some "the scent of Kowloon's Walled City".
Chungking Mansions features a labyrinth of guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices. It often acts as a large gathering place for some of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, particularly Indians, Middle Eastern people, Nepalese, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, Nigerians, Europeans, Americans, Pakistanis, and many other peoples of the world.
The building was completed in 1961, at which time Chinese residents predominated. Now, after more than four decades of use, there are an estimated 4,000 people living in the Mansions.
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[edit] Building structure and housing
Chungking Mansions is 17 stories tall and consists of 5 blocks, A, B, C, D, and E.
There are two elevators in each block, one of which serves even-numbered floors, the other one odd-numbered floors; there is often a queue for this lift.
The price of a flat in the Chungking Mansions ranged from HK$1,000,000 to HK$2,000,000 as of August 2006.
[edit] Location
Chungking Mansions is located in one of the busiest districts of Hong Kong; it is very close to the Tsim Sha Tsui MTR station, and the East Tsim Sha Tsui railway station of the KCR. Several airport buses run by it (A21 No14-Bus Stop).
Kowloon Park is anchored by a Mosque and this structure and the park itself is a popular refuge from the crowding of the Chungking Mansions and the surrounding area. The Hong Kong Cultural Centre including the Museum of Art is conveniently close by.
[edit] Businesses
While the Chungking Mansions are nominally intended for residential use, there is a large variety of commercial establishments in the building.
Chungking Mansions contains the largest number of guesthouses in Hong Kong in one building, with 1980 rooms in total. The rent ranges from HK$60 to HK$380 per day (as of 2006). Since it offers some of the cheapest rates in town, it has become a legendary haunt for backpackers and budget travellers.[1][2]
[edit] Mall
The mall was closed in 1998. In 2003, the first and second floors were acquired by a developer for approximately HK$200 million, and spent HK$50 million on renovations. Under the new building plan, the 50,000-square-foot second floor was divided into 360 small shops measuring 50 to 500 sq ft each and resold. The new "Chungking Express" mall was relaunched at the end of 2004.[3]
Many businesses deal are import/export businesses of parallel goods to Asian and African countries. There are many restaurants inside that attract visitors from all over the world. For example, some small and family-run Indian and Pakistani restaurants with traditional Indian curry and Nepalese food are very well-known and have lot of customers from Hong Kong. Due to competition between the very large number of restaurants inside the Mansions that are similar in style, many of them send staff to distribute leaflets on the streets to aggressively promote their restaurants.[4]
There are many money changers in the lower floors of the Chungking Mansions to provide exchange services, due to the high number of people living or doing business there are from all over the world.
Shops in the arcade sell not only traditional items from all over the world, but also trendy goods. Some of the shops found in the Mansions are different from those that are outside on the streets, selling articles which are imported from Asia and Africa. Computers, DVDs and VCDs, clothing, and some traditional snacks from foreign countries can be found inside Chungking Mansions.
[edit] Public safety
The age of the building, the diverse ownership, and management structure are the cause of the building's reputation for being a fire trap. The unsanitary conditions, security, ancient electrical wiring, block staircases contribute to the hazards.
On February 21, 1988, a fire broke out in the building. A Danish tourist who was trapped inside was killed. The fire in this building, as well as a blaze in a similar building provoked a review of rules and regulations concerning public safety.[5]
[edit] Melting pot
CUHK anthropologist Prof. Gordon Mathews revealed that there are people from at least 120 different nationalities who have passed through Chungking Mansions in the past year.
With this lively mix of guest workers, mainlanders, local Chinese, tourists and backpackers, the Chungking neighbourhood is one of the most culturally diverse locations in Hong Kong. Chungking Mansions was elected as the "Best Example of Globalization in Action" by TIME Magazine in its annual feature The Best of Asia,[6] although racial tensions are known to boil over occasionally.[7]
It is also known to be a centre of drugs, and a refuge for petty criminals, scammers,[8] and illegal immigrants. For example, in a Police swoop in June 1995, about 1,750 people were questioned, 45 men and seven women from various Asian and African countries were arrested on suspicion of offences including failing to produce proof of identity, overstaying, using forged travel documents, possessing equipment for forging documents, and possessing dangerous drugs.[9] In "Operation Sahara" in 1996, 52 men and seven women from 14 countries were arrested for violating immigration regulations.[10]
A murder took place there.[11] It was later revealed that Sushila Pandey, a 37-year-old Indian tourist was killed in a domestic dispute with her Sri Lankan partner Attanayake Wasala Dangamuwa, 54.[12]
The Chungking Mansions served as one of the filming locations for Wong Kar-wai's movie, Chungking Express.
[edit] References
- ^ Priscilla Cheung, Backpackers live life on the cheap; The Big Mac of travellers, The Standard, July 19, 1996
- ^ Tom Carter, Down & Out In Hong Kong, That's PRD, December 1, 2006
- ^ Eli Lau, Backpacker haven gets $50million makeover, The Standard, November 9, 2004
- ^ Paul Wenham, Can the charms of Chungking survive?, The Standard, November 3, 2004
- ^ A burning question of public safety, The Standard, August 29, 1988
- ^ The Best of Asia TIME Magazine, May 7, 2007
- ^ Laura Beck, Furniture flies in brawl at Chungking, The Standard, August 3, 1995
- ^ Angel Lau, Justice catches up with fugitive, The Standard, November 14, 1997
- ^ Magdalen Chow, Police raids criticised, The Standard, June 7, 1995
- ^ Michael Wong, Police nab 59 in dawn raids on guest houses, The Standard, April 24, 1996
- ^ Hedley Thomas, Woman Killed, The Standard, February 18, 1995
- ^ Erick Ko, Pre-handover agreement no longer valid, Sri Lanka judges rule, The Standard, April 26, 1999
