Chung King Mansions is a building located at Tsim Sha Tsui which is well-known as having many Indian restaurants and the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong. It is consisted by five blocks with 17 floors each. It was supposed to be a residential building but now it is a composite building with various businesses include inside like guesthouses, shops, restaurants and currency exchange stores. It is an ideal place for backpackers and budgeted travelers due to its low-cost rate. There are about 80 guesthouses in the building. The first two levels of the buildings are filled with shops selling toys, electronic devices, watches, food and snacks from other countries etc. Indian restaurants and guesthouses are normally distributed in the upper levels.
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Chung King Mansions is one of the symbolic buildings in Hong Kong. It is not because of the architecture style but due to the cultural diversity found in the building. The characteristic of the building is unique. Residents and shop owners are of different counties (mainly minorities) like, Indian, Pakistani s, Nepalese etc. it is a place that can fully reflect the cultural diversity of Hong Kong. There are people with different nationality. Though they are of different cultural background, they can still stay together in harmony. You can rarely see another place like this from other countries.
In the past, people didn’t have a good impression towards Chung King Mansions. They thought that it was a dangerous place with poor security and public order. After the renovation, the situation has been changed. Now, it is not only a popular place among visitors. Local people are also attracted by the place as the building is famous for “eating curry”. We can now see there are many people inside the building no matter in weekends or weekdays. |
ChungKing Express (1994) [ A movie filmed in ChungKing Mansions]