Long before director Wong Kar-wai's 1994 art-house classic Chungking Express, Chungking Mansions was known around the world - but for all the wrong reasons.
The complex's dim, dirty and crowded corridors were frequented by travellers on shoestring budgets who were catered for by dozens of guesthouses. But Chungking Mansions was also a magnet for prostitutes and criminals, especially drug dealers.
Poor building management has been blamed for its notoriety.
Last year, a visitor from West Africa was found dead in his room, and a postmortem examination revealed he had swallowed 55 tiny bags of cocaine.
Over the years, police have conducted numerous raids and made countless drug seizures in the guesthouses.
In 1993, a circuit overload led to an explosion that blacked out the entire centre for 10 days.