Officials believe they have finally driven the ghosts out of a 'haunted' old mental hospital in Sai Ying Pun as they enter the final stages of a $368 million restoration project.
The multimillion-dollar revamp of the unique 109-year-old building will be opened mid-year and government architects say they have preserved the old and the new - but not the spirits.
The old hospital will retain its stylish granite facade but inside will house the newly erected nine-storey Sai Ying Pun Integrated Community Centre. It will include a home for the elderly, offices for outreach workers, a day nursery centre, a sheltered workshop for the handicapped and hostels for the mentally retarded. A pictorial history of Hong Kong will also be on display.
The original two-storey building was built in 1892 as dormitory accommodation for medical officers. It passed into the territory's ghostly annals after it became a psychiatric clinic between 1942 and 1971.
It was deserted in 1971 after Castle Peak Hospital opened. It then deteriorated into a rat-infested, overgrown shell that locals avoided because it was thought to be possessed by the spirits of screaming patients.
Property services manager Lung Man-leung said although he saw no actual ghosts, he and his team were on edge while doing surveying work in 'total darkness'.