Chungking Mansions

Chungking Mansions
重慶大廈
The front of Chungking Mansions
General information
Address	36–44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong
Completed	1961
Technical details
Floor count	17 floors. 5 blocks

Chungking Mansions is a building located at 36–44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The building is well known as nearly the cheapest accommodation in Hong Kong. Though the building was supposed to be residential, it is made up of many independent low-budget hotels, shops and other services. The unusual atmosphere of the building is sometimes compared to that of the former Kowloon Walled City.

Chungking Mansions features guesthouses, curry restaurants, African bistros, clothing shops, sari stores, and foreign exchange offices. It often acts as a large gathering place for some of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, particularly South Asians (Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans), Middle Eastern people, Nigerians, Europeans, Americans, and many other peoples of the world. Peter Shadbolt of CNN stated that the complex was the "unofficial African quarter of Hong Kong".

The building was completed in 1961, at which time Chinese residents predominated. Now, after more than five decades of use, there are an estimated 4,000 people living in the complex.

Chungking Mansions is 17 storeys tall and consists of five blocks, A, B, C, D and E.

There are two lifts in each block, one of which serves even-numbered floors, the other odd-numbered floors. A CCTV camera system exists at the ground floor level for each of the lift cars.

The first two floors are common space where you can wander around under the blocks; the third floor is actually a terrace level between the blocks where the tower blocks start to rise out of the base of the building; and all floors above this are accessible only by the stairways and lifts contained in each block.