bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

NAME: Mirador Man.

AGE: Somewhere between student and home-owner.

NATIONALITY: Citizen of the world.

PLACE OF RESIDENCE: Chungking Mansions, Mirador Mansions and other hostels, including that mythical 'really cheap' one that's supposed to be in Mongkok but which no one ever finds.

OCCUPATION: Breakfast, lunch, dinner ... er, that's about it.

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Poor personal hygiene, ethnic clothing that looked daft when he bought it and looks even worse in the middle of rush-hour Nathan Road.

MOTTO: Nothing in life is free but if you make a real effort you can get by.

CONVERSATIONAL GAMBITS: When he's not boasting to fellow travellers about the time he managed to go for a week on Koh Samui on 30 baht ($10) and three magic mushrooms, he's doing his best to win the How Long Have You Been Away? contest (this is played nightly in every travellers' hostel in the world). After two or three days in Hong Kong, he also has a new subject: 'Man, this place stinks - everything costs a fortune.' HOBBY: One-downmanship.

READING MATTER: Gunther Grass, the Lonely Planet guide to Hong Kong ('surely this can't be the only guest-house/hostel here'), a dog-eared German copy of an Agatha Christie that someone left behind in a Khao San Road hostel.

RESTAURANT OF CHOICE: None.

RESTAURANT OF NECESSITY: McDonald's.

GRIEVANCES: That he should end up in Hong Kong after months of bamboo huts and bad grass and discover that things are even more primitive here. His guest-house stinks, it costs five times what he was paying in Sumatra, his Nigerian room-mate keeps asking him to carry a bag for him next time he travels anywhere, he can't get banana pancakes and none of the locals seem impressed by his pierced septum.

NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH: The caged men - they live that way because they have to.

FANS SAY: Hey, Mirador Man and his mates come cheaper by the hour than Southeast Asians. I wait for them to straggle off the plane and then sign them up as sandwich delivery boys, moving men, pony-tailed barmen and extras in Canto movies.

CRITICS SAY: Do that and you encourage them to stay. Then it's only a matter of time before they end up on my Ikea couch.

MOST LIKELY TO SAY: You just can't win. If you turn the lights out so you can't see the rats, the mosquitoes get you instead.

LEAST LIKELY TO SAY: To hell with the cost. Let's splash out tonight by taking a room at The Regent, having a bubble bath, scoffing room service and making love in front of satellite TV.

ICONOGRAPHER 



Why French film star Garance Marillier just had to visit Hong Kong’s Chungking Mansions

Jeffrey Andrews turned a teenage arrest into a life of advocacy and change

Chungking Mansions: a haven and path to acceptance for ethnic minority Hongkongers

How a run-down flat in Hong Kong’s infamous Chungking Mansions became a haven for ethnic minorities

Chungking Mansions

ICONS OF OUR TIME