Chungking Mansion Movie

[Dot Liljenquist]

Theproblem with this decision was that we had been traveling for near 1.5 years already without working and our funds were starting to deteriorate. Hong Kong is not a cheap place to visit, in fact, it is actually quite expensive!

On each floor there are several different hotels, each was originally a different apartment unit. Essentially these apartments are located in such a great location that the owners capitalized by turning their own unit into a hotel!

Most of these apartment units have been redesigned to fit in as many rooms as possible. Our hotel had about 6 or 7 rooms in a space that I would consider a normal size one or two-bedroom apartment!

Chungking is popular with travelers, backpackers, asylum seekers, and business people! It is such a mix of people and all of the languages you can hear by just walking around is crazy!

The first being electrical. Everywhere you look loose wires are hanging. Millions of wires are all in a tangled mess in the back of the building. It looked like a fire hazard waiting to happen if you ask me.

In Chungking Mansions there are even smaller rooms without bathrooms attached that are cheaper, and some rooms that are much more spacious and therefore more expensive. However, $40 USD seemed the be about the average price and our room was the average size.

The elevators were definitely the most annoying part of our stay in Chungking Mansions. My best advice would be to book a place as close to the ground floor as possible so that if you wanted to take the stairs then you would have the option.

Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon is a safe and interesting place for any visitor to stay. It is central in the fact that it is across the street from the metro station, down the road from the harbor, and near Kowloon Park.

There are many touristy places to eat but also local joints. You can sit down for a fancy meal or find street food in Kowloon. There are markets nearby and you can easily access tons of things to do and see in Hong Kong right from your front door.

While the rooms were small and the elevators were frustrating it was a fun experience overall. I loved seeing all of the different nationalities all in one place. It also felt more authentic staying in a place that is the same size as to how many people in Hong Kong live.

Hello. You can also get a $10 room in Chungking mansion too price so vary depends on the app / website you book I guess. In Traveloka I found some $10-$20 options are available. Stayed there in the $10 room one and looking the same like others.The name was Germany hostel.I hope this info helps for others who considering staying there! Cheers!

Thank you for this blog. I seacrched the wikipedia about CK Mansions and was worried as I have booked the accommodation for my family. The site while I was booking looks fine. I knew very well the accommodation is expensive in HK. We thought of a budget staying cum conveniences. Came across ur blog gave me a bit of relief though I guess.

Kowloon or Nine-Dragons as it is called in Cantonese, is one of the most densely populated regions in the world with roughly 2 million or about 50% of the total Hong Kong population living in the 47 sq.km area. It has a very vibrant nightlife though not without a seedy underbelly, which is mostly centered around the Mong Kok area, specifically in the Portland street.

Another reason to choose ChungKing mansions is its diversity. If you understand Hong Kong, about 92% of the population is of Chinese descent and the rest are from Indonesia and South Asian countries like India, Nepal,Pakistan and Bangladesh. But the ChungKing mansions itself will look like a place out of South Asia or Africa depending upon the location within the mansions.

ChungKing Mansions is made of A,B,C,D,E,F blocks, each having their separate elevators. There are a total of 17 floors in the Mansions. The first two floors, Ground floor and 1st floor contains Bangladeshi, Nepali, Indian, Pakistani, Nigerian stores and restaurants. These have a common walkspace. The remaining floors are separated from different blocks and have private homes and guesthouses. Many of these guesthouses are run as budget hotels. And these hotels offer one of the cheapest accommodations in the whole of Hong Kong. But ChungKing mansions are also famous for its notoriety with its drug dealers and illegal immigrants. Chung King Mansions were constructed in 1961. It is located on the Nathan Road, which is famous for cheap electronics stores.

Take the Airport Express of Hongkong MTR, which is the fastest way to get to Kowloon and which you can take within the Hong Kong airport. A 20 minute journey would get you to Kowloon station which is located in Tsim Sha Tsui area. The MTR service offers complimentary shuttle service which will get you to different parts of Kowloon. The MTR complimentary shuttle is within the Kowloon station. Take K2 shuttle to get to the Peninsula Hotel stop and you and it is a 600 feet walk to the Chung King Mansions. The shuttle service is available every 12 minutes.

On return, get to the same stop which is next to the Peninsula Hotel and head to the Kowloon station where you can get the MTR back to the Hong Kong airport.

MTR Airport Express will cost you around $12 USD or 90 HKD one-way or the roundtrip is around $21 USD or 160 USD.

Hi all,

I'll be travelling to HK in april and currently i'm looking around for some cheap hostel. From what i know, there are many hostels available in both Mirador Mansion and Chungking Mansion and i've also read some comments about those places being erm....seedy and stuff. Now my question is, which is better Mirador Mansion and Chungking Mansion in terms of the location, surroundings, etc.

Location doesn't matter as they're almost next to each other. Are you sure you wanna stay there? I do know some people who didn't mind staying at the mansion but most of the people who stayed there wouldn't wanna go back willfully.

Here are some other, a little more decent, hostels fyi.

Check it out:

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Cheers,

Robert

Hi,

As stated above, the two mansions (which makes them sound much grander than they really are!) are almost next door to each other. Chungking Mansions is marginally closer to the Star Ferry terminal and to Tsim Sha Tsui promenade - but the difference really is just a 1 minute walk!

Personally, I found a lot of the negative comments that I read prior to staying at Mirador Mansion to be hugely exaggerated. Ok, it's not the cleanest place in the world and the building's exterior is hideously ugly, but I never felt the least bit unsafe. Yes, there are a few shady characters loitering about outside the mansions - they are mainly tailors or counterfeit watch sellers - they are annoying, but not that persistent and not at all threatening.

I stayed at the Man Hing Lung Hotel which is located on the 14th floor of Mirador Mansion. My single room was tiny, with a very small shower room attached - but it was clean and, at just 200 HKD per night, good value. There is a more extensive review on my HK page if you are interested.

General consensus seems to be that Mirador Mansion is the slightly more salubrious of the two, whereas Chungking Mansions suffers because of its notorious past. Just take a lot of the negative reviews with a pinch of salt - they are generally written by people who are not used to budget accommodation and didn't realise what they were booking, or by backpackers who like to tell the world that they've stayed in the grottiest, most disease-ridden, rat-infested hell holes on Earth!

The reality is that you'll get basic budget accommodation at budget prices in a great location! If you're wanting luxury surroundings, daily maid service and extensive hotel facilities, then this isn't the place to go!

Enjoy your trip,

Jonathan

Hey Robert,

It's great to know these budget hostels in HK. I'll be going to HK this April so your tips are really useful. By the way, do they accept credit cards? If yes, any charges? Thanks!

The Chungking Mansions... even if you've never been to Hong Kong there is still a chance you may have heard of this infamous area. Located on the lower digits of Nathan Street, it's a very popular place for tourists on a budget and even tourists just looking for an unique experience.

Before we get into this post though let me tell you that I'm back in Chengdu. I had an amazing 5 days in Hong Kong and I took sooooo many photos! While I was in Hong Kong, I still kept up with a post a day despite most days heading out almost immediately after waking up and coming back home very late in the night. I still want to post everything, but I came back and immediately had an extremely busy 2 days of work. I have the next 2 days off though and plan to try and catch up and post about all the amazing stuff that happened while I was in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Park & Aviary! - This might actually be two blogs because it's a lot of pictures! Hong Kong park is insanely beautiful and inside they have a bird aviary that for me at least was incredibly beautiful and I took sooooo many pictures of cool birds.

You know you're near the Chungking mansions when you have shady individuals coming up to you every 10m with the famous lines:

"Hey buddy.... do you want to buy a watch?"

"Hey buddy.... do you want to buy a suit?"

"Hey buddy.... do you some weed? ice? cocaine?"

"Hey buddy.... here's my card, anything you need just contact me.. girls, drugs, anything"

No one back home believed me when I had like 40 drug dealers approach me in just my first day at the Chungking Mansions, especially that they're so open about it on the streets. If you're white or just look foreign in any way then you're a target and every single one will approach you. They aren't dangerous and you don't need to be afraid, they usually back off if you just give them a wave no or just ignore them completely. It certainly feels scary though for your first time and I was a bit uneasy until I realized nothing happens. It can get annoying having them come up to you so often and if you let them talk, they will not stop talking and trying to sell you anything you could imagine.

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