55-468: Chungking Mansions is a building located at 36–44 Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui , Kowloon , Hong Kong . Though the building was supposed to be residential, it is made up of many independent low-budget guesthouses, shops and other services. As well as selling to the public, the stalls in the building cater to wholesalers shipping goods to Africa and South Asia. The unusual atmosphere of the building
110-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
165-437: A major fire in 1993, and eight maintenance orders from the government in 1997–98, a committee was appointed and the building was then renovated four times in the 21st century. Before Chungking Mansions was completed in 1961, Chungking Arcade ( Chinese : 重慶市場 ), a mall with a U shaped "horseshoe" plan containing more than 30 shops selling a variety of goods catering to tourists, stood in its place. The 50,000 square ft. site
220-410: A review of rules and regulations concerning public safety. In 1995, Chungking Mansions made local newspaper headlines when Sushila Pandey, a 37-year-old Indian tourist, was killed in the building by her Sri Lankan partner Attanayake Wasala Dangamuwa, 54. In an effort to tighten the building's security, in 2003 CCTV cameras were installed. As of 2013, there are 330 CCTV cameras covering 70 per cent of
275-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
330-591: Is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
385-662: Is about 3.6 km (2.2 mi). The first section of the road was completed in 1861. It was the first road built in Kowloon, after the land was ceded by the Qing dynasty government to the United Kingdom and made part of the crown colony in 1860. The road was originally named Robinson Road, after Sir Hercules Robinson , the 5th governor of Hong Kong . To avoid confusion with the Robinson Road on Hong Kong Island ,
440-437: Is hard to get from one place to another. The only exception to the disconnected blocks is the separate Chungking Express (Cke) Shopping Mall, accessed by escalator via a separate entrance a few meters north of the main entrance. It was opened in 2009 and protrudes into the third floor of blocks A and B, yet it remains isolated from the other parts of the building through always-locked back doors. Due to various incidents such as
495-486: 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
550-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
605-610: The Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of the predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such
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#1732780608800660-641: The Kowloon Mosque , the park itself is a popular refuge from the crowding of the Chungking Mansions and the surrounding area, while the mosque serves an important religious function for the many Muslims who inhabit the building. Chungking Mansions is named by developer Jaime Tiampo after the city of Chongqing , to commemorate the time when the Republic of China established the provisional Capitol there during WWII . The old postal name of
715-568: The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) are built directly underneath Nathan Road. These stations are, from north to south: The road is heavily trafficked by numerous bus routes. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in
770-579: The Mos Eisley cantina in the original Star Wars and quotes anthropologist Gordon Mathews: "whereas the illegalities in Chungking Mansions are widely known, the wondrousness of the place is not." Chungking Mansions serves as the main scenery in the book Aap in Pak by Nicky Runge. The main protagonist follows the case of 4 missing women who have all been seen last in the Chungking Mansions. In Xu Xi's 2005 novel Chinese Walls , Chungking Mansions serves as
825-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
880-420: The filming locations for Wong Kar-wai 's 1994 movie Chungking Express , and is referenced in the title. In Michael Connelly 's novel Nine Dragons , detective Harry Bosch travels from Los Angeles to Hong Kong's Kowloon district in search of his missing daughter. Chungking Mansions is described by a character in the novel as a "post-modern Casablanca —all in one building." The Economist compared it to
935-467: The 1950s, Tsim Sha Tsui was rapidly growing as an commercial district, leading to plans for re-development of the Arcade. Plans began as early as June 1956, with eviction notices issued to its 50 plus owners. Although initially unsuccessful, the tenants were eventually vacated in 1958, with construction of the Chungking Mansions starting in 1959. While Chungking Mansions was designed as mostly residential,
990-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
1045-587: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
1100-417: The arcade from Nathan Road. Shops were owned mostly by Chinese merchants, and offered a variety of products including audio-visual products, fur clothing, jewellery, watches, and currency exchange . There were also foreign style bars, including one such called Henry's Café operated by Henry Lowcock (father of DBS headmaster S.J. Lowcock), which were popular with British servicemen at the time. Operation of
1155-499: The arcade was suspended during 1941-1945 when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong , during which Allied bombers dropped two bombs on the Arcade, one exploded and another which weighed over 500 pounds was buried and not uncovered until the construction of Chungking Mansion in 1959 fifteen years later. After the war, the arcade expanded into more than 50 shops with new stores such as tailor shops , silk and ivory stores to bars. During
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#17327806088001210-432: The blocks; the third floor is a terrace level between the blocks where the tower blocks start to rise out of the base of the building. All floors above this floor are accessible only by the stairways and lifts contained in each block, which is unlike the designs of other similar buildings in the same period such as Mirador Mansion. This quirk cemented the image of Chungking Mansions as a maze or labyrinth, where once inside, it
1265-436: The building are import/export businesses dealing in parallel goods that are predominantly sold to Asian and African countries. On the main floors as well as on upper floors in the towers, there are many restaurants that attract visitors from all over the world. For example, some small and family-run Indian and Pakistani restaurants with traditional Indian curry and Nepalese food are very well known. Due to competition between
1320-602: The building includes a wide variety of commercial establishments, including many residential units repurposed into guesthouses. There are three shopping arcades within Chungking Mansions. All have their main entrances on Nathan Road: the main arcade, Cke Shopping Mall and Wood House. The original mall was closed in 1998. It reopened later and the Cke and Wood House (later replaced by Health) were created. In addition, licensed and unlicensed shops and restaurants can be found on many upper floors, some requiring codes to get in. Many shops in
1375-750: The building's public spaces. Chungking Mansions is also known to be a centre of drugs, as well as a refuge for petty criminals, scammers, and illegal immigrants. For example, in a police raid in June 1995, about 1,750 people were questioned, and 45 men and seven women from Asian and African countries were arrested on suspicion of offenses including failing to produce proof of identity, overstaying, using forged travel documents, possessing equipment for forging documents and possessing dangerous drugs. In "Operation Sahara" in 1996, 52 men and seven women from 14 countries were arrested for violating immigration regulations. An episode of National Geographic's Locked Up Abroad showed
1430-507: The building, organized ethnic minority members to offer water and food to protesters on 20 October 2019. Since then, tours of the building organized by ethnic minority members has attracted many ethnic Chinese visitors, to celebrate rather than fear the building. Chinese University of Hong Kong anthropologist Prof Gordon Mathews estimated in 2007 that people from at least 120 different nationalities had passed through Chungking Mansions in one year. Mathews also estimated that up to 20 per cent of
1485-404: The building, the diverse ownership and management structure are causes of the building's reputation for being a fire trap. Unsanitary conditions, security, ancient electrical wiring and blocked staircases all contribute to the hazards. On 21 February 1988, a fire broke out in the building. A Danish tourist who was trapped inside was killed. The fire, as well as a blaze in a similar building, provoked
1540-471: The cheapest rates in town, it has become a legendary haunt for backpackers and budget travellers. In 1975, it was dubbed by Tony Wheeler in his influential guide South East Asia on a Shoestring as the only place for backpackers to stay in Hong Kong, cementing its reputation as a backpacker's haven starting from the 1970s-1980s. There are over 110 guest houses in the five blocks providing as many as 1200 rooms, with various sizes and serviceability depending on
1595-495: The city Chungking was specifically chosen as this resembles its Cantonese pronunciation more closely. The building is 17 storeys tall and consists of five blocks, named 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 public spaces where most shops are located, and where residents wander around under
1650-554: The dim light wells, making it hard to distinguish night from day. Television is a staple within these guesthouses, and is distinctly different to others in Hong Kong due to its wide range of television channels from a diverse array of countries. Apart from Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese channels, channels from India , Pakistan , Nepal , as well as the BBC , the French channel TV5Monde are available in these guesthouses. This reflects
1705-477: The focus for the short story. Set in the 1960s, the protagonist, a young girl, is fascinated by a young orange haired prostitute who inhabits the multi-faceted city-like building. Nathan Road Nathan Road ( Chinese : 彌敦道 ) is the main thoroughfare in Kowloon , Hong Kong , aligned south–north from Tsim Sha Tsui to Sham Shui Po . It is lined with shops and restaurants and throngs with visitors, and
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1760-539: The golden mile of Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui , Chungking Mansions is in one of the busiest districts of Hong Kong; it is surrounded by entrances to the Tsim Sha Tsui station and East Tsim Sha Tsui station of the MTR . The area surrounding the building is highly touristic, with two adjacent hotels including the lavish Peninsula Hotel , and a Holiday Inn hosting many tourists year-round. Shopping malls such as Isquare and Harbour City are shopping hotpots nearby, while
1815-540: The infamous tourist icon Star Ferry is only a ten-minute walk from the building. Cultural attractions such as the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and the Museum of Art are also only a few minutes away across Salisbury Road . Being on such expensive land, Chungking Mansions with its budget friendly guesthouses and shops, contrasts sharply to its surroundings. Across the road is Kowloon Park anchored by
1870-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
1925-517: The location as the rendezvous for gold smugglers , contracted to be mules carrying 60 or more pounds of gold into Nepal . In recent years especially after the 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests , negative views on ethnic minorities in Hong Kong such as Africans have gradually decreased. Chungking Mansion's public image was improved too after Jeffrey Andrews, a social worker who leads the NGO Christian Action Centre for Refugees in
1980-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
2035-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
2090-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
2145-645: The mobile phones recently in use in sub-Saharan Africa had passed through Chungking Mansions at some point. With this mix of guest workers, mainlanders, locals, tourists and backpackers , the Chungking neighbourhood is one of the most culturally diverse locations in Hong Kong. In 2007, Chungking Mansions was elected as the "Best Example of Globalization in Action" by Time magazine in its annual feature "The Best of Asia", although racial tensions are known to boil over occasionally. Chungking Mansions served as one of
2200-496: The multi-cultural nature of the building. Due to many incidents throughout the years, Chungking Mansions has earned a notorious reputation by ethnic Chinese locals and overseas tourists alike as being a dangerous place of crime and disaster. Many people fear to even enter the building. Other factors that influenced the building's reputation include quasi-racist views from Chinese Hongkongers and upper class tourists, as well as media depictions which exaggerate its dangers. The age of
2255-514: The name was changed to Nathan Road in 1909, after Sir Matthew Nathan , the 13th governor who served between 1904 and 1907. The road started at Mody Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, ending northward at Austin Road. When Sha Tsui Wan was reclaimed in the late 1800s, Salisbury Road was extended east, and Nathan Road was extended south to meet it. Nathan was extended northward in the 1920s. The section of
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2310-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
2365-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
2420-453: The price, ranging from less than 100 HK$ up towards 600-700 HK$ . Rooms and/or floors are usually individually owned and managed. In most rooms space is at a minimum, having one or two beds, a small TV, an "all-in-one toilet/shower" and a small closet. In cheaper rooms, beds are hard with a thin mattress and a small pillow. Most, if not all, rooms are equipped with an air conditioner. Many rooms do not have windows, or only small windows facing into
2475-481: The road from Gascoigne Road to Argyle Street was originally named Coronation Road (加冕道), in honour of the coronation of King George V in 1911. The road was renamed as part of Nathan Road in 1926, after works joining the road and Nathan Road was completed. The section of Tai Po Road south of Boundary Street was also renamed as part of the road. The early Nathan Road was largely residential, with colonial-style houses with arched verandahs and covered archways. It
2530-581: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
2585-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
2640-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
2695-508: The very large number of restaurants inside the Mansions that are similar in style, many of them send staff to distribute leaflets on the streets to aggressively promote their restaurants. There are many money changers located in the lower floors of Chungking Mansions who provide exchange services to the high number of people from all over the world living or doing business here. Shops in the arcade sell not only traditional items from all over
2750-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
2805-463: The world, but also trendy goods. Some of the shops found in the Mansions are different from those that are outside on the streets, selling articles which are imported from Asia and Africa. Computers, DVDs and VCDs, clothing, and some traditional snacks from foreign countries can be found inside Chungking Mansions. Chungking Mansions contains the largest number of guest houses in Hong Kong in one building, with 1980 rooms in total. Since it offers some of
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#17327806088002860-510: The world. Peter Shadbolt of CNN stated that the complex was the "unofficial African quarter of Hong Kong". The building was completed on 11 November 1961. The developer, Jaime Tiampo, a Chinese-Filipino immigrant, had financed the construction by selling strata title lots off the plan. Many of the buyers were from overseas, leading to a multicultural environment from the complex's earliest days. Now, after more than five decades of use, there are an estimated 4,000 people living there. Located in
2915-751: Was developed into Chungking Arcade in 1941 by the Jaime Tiampo family, who were Hokkien immigrants from the Philippines . Jaime Tiampo was a merchant who built his fortune in Iloilo , Philippines, and moved to Hong Kong in 1938. By leveraging their Catholic connections in Hong Kong, they purchased a lot of land in Nathan Road from the Dominican Order of Priests and developed it into the U shaped shopping center. Vehicles were able to enter
2970-606: Was home to the Whitfield Barracks , which later became Kowloon Park . Saint Andrew's Church , the oldest Anglican church in Kowloon, has been located there since its completion in 1906. In 1996, the Garley Building fire broke out, killing 41 people. In 2008, the Cornwall Court fire broke out, involving more than 200 firefighters, killing 4 people, including 2 fire fighters. Five stations of
3025-583: Was known in the post– World War II years as the Golden Mile, a name that is now rarely used. It starts on the southern part of Kowloon at its junction with Salisbury Road , a few metres north of Victoria Harbour , and ends at its intersection with Boundary Street in the north. Portions of the Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan lines ( Prince Edward , Mong Kok , Yau Ma Tei , Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui ) run underneath Nathan Road. The total length of Nathan Road
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