The legend: Chung King Mansion

Chung King Mansion is legendary. A building located at 36-44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, a busy tourist area, Chung King Mansion is famous for its curry restaurants, low-budget guest houses and the mingling of the Africans, South Asians and the locals doing trading.

Hong Kong has over 700 licensed guesthouses and nearly 25% of them, a whopping 160, are located in Chung King Mansion. This is a stunning figure. So if you are looking for a cheap place to stay, go to Chung King Mansion and you are almost guaranteed that your wish will be granted. Chung King Mansion has the city’s cheapest guesthouses and accommodation. And the advantage is not only its low cost but also its convenient location. Located in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, the MTR station is just right across the road, with tourist spots such as Star Ferry pier, Hong Kong Art Museum, etc just a stone’s throw away.

I viewed a documentary about Chung King Mansion lately, which unfortunately is in Cantonese.  But if you go through it quickly, the visual can still give you a sense of what the Mansion is like and what the cheap accommodation in it is like. (And, you can use “translate” function of Youtube to help you understand! An English-speaking anthropologist speaking upfront also helps! )

“For the past ten years, I have not raised prices. It is still HK$60 per bed. I will not raise the prices either in the future,” a guesthouse owner vowed. The 40-year-0ld Guesthouse is therefore very popular with backpackers. The owner said his hostel is always full for the weekends.

The lower-end accommodation in Hong Kong all has commonality: very small space with full array of facilities such as 24-hour hot shower, clean shower rooms/toilets, water facility, storage service, laundry room, etc. If it is an ensuite twin room, the room will have everything, including a TV set on the wall to save space, and a tiny shower room with toilet. But be prepared that the room is only slightly bigger than the space for a bed, and you have to pay HK$250-300 (US$32-40) per person per night.

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