Mathews, who teaches at the Chinese University, spent the past year exploring Chungking Mansions as part of a study on cultural identity. But his research drew him closer to its economics because 'that's what makes the place go around', he says. 'There are interesting cultural issues - but it's mostly a place for money.'

The Nathan Road complex later gained notoriety for drugs, prostitution and other criminal activity. Even so, Mathews says, it remained primarily an international bazaar, a place for sourcing goods that were shipped to Africa or South Asia where the majority of visiting traders come from.

The focus of trade has shifted, though. In the past, African traders regarded Chungking Mansions mainly as a cloth emporium. Now mobile phones are the main item in demand, with 81 shops specialising in the trade.

There are several reasons for that, Myboto says. Traders prefer not to buy mobile phones on the mainland because of the poor quality - they're 'cheap and break easily' - and the business environment can be hostile.

'Doing business [in Chungking Mansions] is easy compared with the mainland. Here you can walk away if you don't like the deal, but on the mainland people will threaten you with knives if they think you're carrying a lot of money.' He has since found a reliable mainland source for mobile phones through his suppliers for car parts that he buys over the border. 'The asking price is right,' he says. 'He wouldn't try to fool me because I do a lot of business with his friend. I have guanxi [connections].'

There's a tacit understanding that the units are copies of well-known brands, says Myboto, who has been doing business via Hong Kong for 20 years. And he has a ready market for the copies in Gabon villagers who can't afford the genuine item.

Mathews suggests that as traders such as Myboto start developing business connections on the mainland, it may spell the end of Chungking Mansions as it exists now. 'If it weren't for the lure of China, there wouldn't be a Chungking Mansions,' he says. 'As soon as China loosens up visa restrictions, traders will fly straight to Guangzhou or elsewhere.'

Adams Bodomo, a linguistics expert at the University of Hong Kong who has studied the African community in Chungking Mansions, doesn't think so. 'Even if Chungking Mansions were razed today, another would emerge in Hong Kong,' he says. Even if China were to open up and allow Africans to come and go as they wish, he says, there would still be an African community in Hong Kong, in a Chungking Mansions-style block.

'Ideally, what most Africans would love is to have a Hong Kong base - call it a headquarters if you like - then go back and forth to locate good sources of the items they trade in.'

Chungking Mansions also continues to attract short-term workers, mostly from South Asia, who arrive on tourist visas and work illegally for two or three months before returning home.

However, the demographic mix is shifting in other ways. Owners and managers of the several dozen guesthouses are mostly from the mainland, Mathews says, but an increasing number are from South Asia. 'The [current owners] came from the mainland, bought these places and struggled to make them succeed. But their children are becoming bankers, teachers or whatever, so many of these guesthouses are being sold to South Asians as the older Chinese retire.'

The hostels' clientele is changing, too, as visitors are increasingly from the mainland. 'Savvy guesthouse owners are going online to attract the mainland market because traders are no longer staying several weeks; they spend only a day or two here before heading to China,' Mathews says.

Many guests are Japanese, who view the mansions' multi-ethnic anarchy as a refreshing antidote to Japan's order and homogeneity, he says, noting that the largest website about Chungking Mansions is in Japanese. While there are no statistics on the nationalities of guests at the guesthouses, several owners and managers confirm his conclusions.

Despite an uncertain future for many businesses as visitors' attention shifts north of the border, Mathews suggests that owners would do well to adopt the recipe used by the more popular restaurants, which have withstood many tumultuous years.

'These restaurants - Deli Club, Taj Mahal, Everest Club, and a couple others - have survived and flourished because they've attracted the local market. If you go to any of these restaurants you'll see it's overwhelmingly Hong Kong Chinese,' he says. 'It's become very fashionable.'

Even if Chungking Mansions attracted fewer African and South Asians who give the complex its exotic flavour, Mathews believes it would still keep its 'cool' factor.

'The effect of the facelift would eventually be to [improve] the sense of Chungking Mansions in the local community,' he says. 'People will begin to realise, 'Hey, this isn't the hellhole I thought it was'.'

That may not have happened yet, but Myboto has long realised he gets value for his dollar at Chungking Mansions. 'I've slept in this building many, many nights for more than 20 years and every night slept well,' he says. 'They renovated it and it's still the cheapest place in town.'