Chungking Mansions — Hotel in Hong Kong

If you are planning to book a room in this mansion from Agoda, Booking or any other website, Avoid this place like the plague. I repeat, Avoid Avoid Avoid.

The whole building is filled with scammers. Please don't get mislead that the guesthouse on one floor is good, other floor is bad. NO. They all belong to the same owners. The names are interchanged to English names, Indian names, Chinese names and Filipino names.

Few things to note:

1. They will try to get you into paying extra money for the silliest possible reasons. They can say 'Taxes', 'Service charge', 'Check in fee' etc and take cash from you and the amount would be whatever they feel like they want to extort from you. Can be in the range of HK$15-100. Similarly for checkout.

2. Rooms are way smaller than they appear on the photos. Too much surveillance. Cameras everywhere. Even in lifts. People outside waiting can see you inside the lift. All receptions of guesthouses here have 10-15 cameras right from outside the lift, to common area, entrance everywhere. The moment you walk out of lift, the guesthouse reception can see you walking towards their guesthouse. There are literally seeing it live. I understand other hotels have it too but they are not constantly looking at monitors and seeing who is coming or leaving. Obviously this place has had many incidents before, hence this extreme level of surveillance.

3. Lifts have a 'Queue' system and there are always people queuing to get in to lift. Because the building has too many guesthouses and only 2 lifts to serve.

4. After you enter your desired floor, there are a lot of laundry being dried. They wash bedsheets and leave for it drying outside the guesthouses. As soon as you come out of lift, you are welcomed with laundry hanging.

5. If you dare to take stairs to come down because lifts are taking too much time, get ready to vomit, puke and fall sick. It has disgusting, extremely smelly, worst than a garbage collecting truck. Stairs and walls are in VIBGYOR colors as I don't know what all stains have been left on them for years. Yellow stains, blue stains, green stains, you name it is there. The smell is basically a Nose Tolerance Test.

6. Most guesthouses here have a Checkout time of 10:00 and check in time of 2:00. Yes unbelievable right. If you are sleeping or showering, it doesn't matter. They will knock on the door and pester you to leave because they have to clean the room.

7. Level 2 has some restaurants or bakeries. I have no idea how some tourists are eating and buying food items from this place. The moment you enter, it is obvious that it is filthy, disgusting place which smells worst than a bathroom. We couldn't even roam the floor and quickly left. A lot of tourists from 2 most populous countries can be seen buying many stuff. I have no idea why.

8. Shops near entrance. Most are scammers. Some of them have horrible exchange rates. Some of them will display one rate and when you try to convert, ohh for these notes our rates are different and give you a very bad rate. Stay firm and say No and leave. Very few shops are good.

9. There are many touts at entrance asking you for hotel and restaurants. They are all part of the nexus of the guesthouses. Trust me, I have even heard some of them discuss near these shops, 'How many did you scam today'? And one dude was laughing and replying how he 'earned' this much today.

10. Guesthouses will increase prices during special occasions and public holidays. Average price of these is about USD $20 but during these period, they will try to scam you for $200-300 per night. I am not joking. They will tell you 'All guesthouses in HK are booked'. This is the only place you will find and rip you off for $300 USD.

11. Since this is a big Nexus and operating as a gang, the positive reviews could most likely be from them from different accounts. Don't get misled by it. I don't know how the local government is not looking into this and allowing such a place to even exist.

Avoid....

Excellent location! There’re many guesthouses/hostels inside with great competition between them. Therefore, the room prices are low (except for holidays). The currency exchange stores on G/F offer very good exchange rates. There’re some Indian food shops there but they’re not my cup of tea. Don’t be scared by the people standing at the entrance. Don’t expect much on the room conditions also.

Note: However, Chunking Mansion's reputation is poor & many travelers avoid it. Some unethical operators take this opportunity & run youth hostels/guesthouses/hostels (with so-called dorms & private rooms) inside old mansion or building in other areas (e.g. Wan Chai (Kwong Wah Mansion), Causeway Bay, Jordan / Yau Ma Tei (Alhambra Building), but they're even much worse: A bedroom originally worth about HKD 200 a night was turned into a room with two three-compartment beds, and each bed then charged HKD200. Lifts, firefighting facilities, & toilets are often broken, and escape exits are blocked. These hostels are exorbitant & horrible (8/9 people in a tiny room with short narrow, thin "triple bunks" + thin mattresses on the floor. You’ve to crawl into the lowest bed & can’t sit straight, the top bunk is near the ceiling). Bunks are unstable and shaky. Small gap between bunks & people can touch each other. Filthy with bedbugs (skin get itchy red). Poor soundproof (people in & out, lights on & off). So-called private rooms may be inside the same apartment unit with dorms. Poor ventilation (insufficient air / breathe bad smell from others/drainage/trash & get diseases). Poor facilities (e.g. 15 people shared & wait long outside a broken tiny stinky wet toilet (sometimes no water to flush) with a shower above the toilet seat (electric water heater needs 20 mins to heat & no hot water a few minutes after shower), poor security (things lost as strangers (e.g. thieves / homeless people) squeezed into a few small rooms, CCTV can’t help). Some owners may engage in illicit activities & exploit travelers (e.g. cancel bookings & resell beds to others at higher prices during holidays, make unauthorized credit card charges). You may meet people with various issues (e.g. drunkards, druggies) there. Don’t be fooled by misleading reviews about these hostels. These hostels prices will begin to surge once YHA Mei Ho hostel is nearly fully booked.

Instead of staying at horrible hostels in other districts (e.g. Wan Chai or Yau Ma Tei), some savvy backpackers stay at 24-hour McDonalds, they’re better than some youth hostels in Wan Chai & Jordan / Yau Ma Tei. You'll meet some overseas travelers at various branches. Some travellers may camp at government’s free campsites run by the Leisure & Cultural Services Department (e.g. Pui O Campsite) or Agricultural, Fisheries & Conservation Department. For other paid options, travelers stay at 24-hour internet cafés (~ HKD 60/night, busy on weekends). Some rest on night buses (KMB launches unlimited daily tickets (HKD 55 each). Some buses have Wi-Fi & USB chargers. Many travellers choose to visit HK & stay at Shenzhen or Zhuhai which is much better value for money.

Tips: Sometimes hotel prices may be cheaper...

"Why is ChungKing Mansion in Hong Kong a Paradise for Tourist from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka"

While Roaming on Tsim Sha Tsui, I saw this crazy Crossing where on every Traffic light, Hundreds of People crossed the street and this happened every 2nd minute.

It was a delight to watch this and I kept watching this for 20 minutes and captured iska Timelapse on my GoPro.

Now, one thing that struck me was that ⅓ of the junta crossing it from one side headed inside a Building. And this made me anxious and I followed the path.

I took the first 3 steps and I could see some faces, Apne jaise.

I took another 10 Steps and could see 2 Queues waiting for an elevator. Normal nahi lag raha tha.

Thora aage barra and I heard a Voice, “Paajee Sim Card le lo”, I was stunned and looked around, there was this person Smiling at me from what looked like a FARRI from Gaffar Market, I smiled, waved my hand ki nahi chahiye and took another 2 steps and awaaz aayi, “Sardarjee, Dollar Exchange”, Maine phir piche dekha to saw this man sitting under a chamakta hua board with signs of Yen, Dollar, Pound & Euro”

Zarurat nahi thi and I smiled and moved aage. Ab pata chal gaya thi ki mein kisi Apni market type mein hu.

Par my smile got wider when I smelled the Khusboo of Biryani.

Uss time to pait bhara hua tha pr I took the card and for 2 days ordered Khaana wahi se.

Ab let me tell you about this Indian SubContinent market called ChunKing Mansion.

This was a Mix of Gaffar Market and Palika Bazar and thora thora Chandni Chowk too.

The place has shops that Sell Phones, Phone Accessories, Travel Tickets, Indian food, India Grocery and of course Exchange Currency too.

The Shops are owned by Indians, Pakistanis, bangladeshi’s, Sri Lankan’s and people from Nepal.

Food from all these Countries are available here.

MDH ke Masale Chahiye ho ya phir maggi, woh bhi hai. And wahaan it is touch to see ki kaun Hindustani hai, kaun Pakistania nd kaun Nepali. Waise zarurat bhi nahi hai.

Ground floor and First Floor are Markets and uske uppar 14 floors are different Guest Houses jahaan lift se bahut log jaa rahe the. Seems like it was backpackers paradise bang in the centre of the city.

When this building was constructed in 1961, it was a residential one, but then slowly changed into a group of multiple Guest Houses where an estimated 4000 people stay.

Ek time par it was Infamous for Smuggling etc too, par now its a Property that is constantly watched by 330 CCTV’s

So next time you are in Hongkong then do pay a visit to Chungking mansion.

Absorb some History, Exchange some Indian Rupees, Buy a New Local SIM, Quench some Thirst by buying Roohafza ki Bottle or have some Samose, Jalebi, Laddoo after your meal of Dal Chawal, Mutter Paneer and kebabs.

Please: *Agents can be of great help but do Stay cautious. *It’s one Minute Walking Distance from Tsim Sha Tsui MTR Station *JollyBee, Mc.Donalds, KFC etc are 2 mins Walk from the Chitkung Mansion. *It’s 5 Minutes walk from HK Space Centre, Avenue of Stars, WaterFront, Star Ferry Pier, HK Museum of Art.

#TravelWithTikku...