Hong Kong horror stories – the hottest haunted sites in the city and beyond

Radio host Edmond Poon Siu-chung had little time for ghost stories when he took over the Horror Hotline show from a colleague at Metro Radio almost 20 years ago. He already worked the overnight shift playing music, and he was adding another hour to his working day – from 1am to 2am, five days a week – where listeners called in to share their spooky experiences.

“A few times I was too scared to go home because some of the callers’ stories were about ghosts in elevators,” says Poon, who is described as a “horror DJ”.

The 46-year-old says he gradually developed more of an interest in paranormal activity and began to ask himself questions – such as why a ghost would trouble the living.

“Maybe you have bad luck, so ghosts might affect you, or if you murder someone they will take revenge on you. But also, if you purposely go to haunted places to disturb ghosts, they will bother you,” he says.

One popular place in Hong Kong for ghost hunting used to be Sai Ying Pun Community Complex on High Street, nicknamed High Street Ghost House. The 124-year-old structure was originally a nurses’ dormitory, and then occupied by the Japanese during the second world war. Urban myth has it that the building was used by the invasion force as a place to house comfort women, or even as an execution hall. After the war it became a mental hospital, until it was abandoned in the 1970s.

“Many people died there,” Poon says. “And because of the lack of medical supplies [because of the war], or they couldn’t be saved, some people were there waiting to die, so there are many ghosts there.”