Chungking mansions

Written on 11:26 AM by Admin

ani ashekian, michael connelly, michael connelly books, comune di pietrasanta, edgehill university

When the guidebook said that the best budget backpacker accommodation in Hong Kong was in Kowloon at a place called Chungking Mansions, I got excited by the name. However, when we pulled up at 12:30am after our flight from Bangkok was delayed I got a fast dose of reality. Built in the 1960s as a cheap place for the Chinese to live, the building has since become a mixing pot for dozens of different races living in various degrees of squalor.

Over the years, the Chungking Mansions has become famous due to a string of fires, robberies, racial flare ups and bad press. It was notorious during the 80’s, but recent events have led to the installation of hundreds of CCTV cameras and the hiring of dozens of security guards. Now, it is more slummy in terms of the filth and dirt everywhere than due to safety concerns.

A walkthrough the lobby of Chungking Mansions

Chungking Mansions is made up of five different wings (referred to as blocks) that are served by separate elevators and staircases rising up the 15 stories to the roof. Each block houses hundreds of apartments, guest houses, hostels, restaurants, sweat shops, stores and Lord knows what else. The first two floors form a massive lobby and to get anywhere, we had to cross through a maze of shops selling everything from bootleg cell phones to computers, DVDs, magazines, porno, phone cards, gifts and Indian food.

Every time we would walk into the Mansions, we would be surrounded by a group of Indian men hawking their upstairs restaurants and offering us discounts if we went up with them right now. I was good about ignoring them, but Carrie is nicer than me and would say “not now,” so every time we came back they would find us again and ask, “how about now?” We did finally go to one of the restaurants on our last night and, although the food was delicious, our favorite Indian meals were still the little stalls that peppered the first floor.

Each of the stalls had pretty much the same food: samosas, naan breads, curries, fried snacks and other traditional Indian fare. However, the question was which of the ten or so would have what we wanted at any given time. The samosas went the fastest and we often had to search around to find these tasty 50 cents treats. The other foods were amazing also and one night we literally pieced together a meal from four different stalls using the freshest bits from each one. Craving anything India, we also befriended many of these stall keepers and got lost in numerous conversations as our food got cold.