Chungking Mansions may have celebrated its much-vaunted makeover yesterday, but for some residents it was business as usual inside the infamous Tsim Sha Tsui landmark.
Owners, tenants and district officials celebrated the new look and enhanced security of the once-vice-riddled mansions with lion dancing, roasted pigs and a blessing ceremony.
The celebration also marked the formal opening of the so-called 'super zebra crossing' across busy Nathan Road outside the mansions, relieving one of the biggest crushes in Tsim Sha Tsui.
But it will take a little more to impress V.S.M. Thamby, who has lived happily in the complex with his family of four since 1967. He's had four decades of living alongside criminals, prostitutes and drug dealers, witnessing countless police raids and suspicious deaths.
'Though many friends have moved out over the past few years, I think it is safer living here,' the leather and gemstone trader said.
'There are more Indians and Pakistanis and I am closer to these cultures so I feel safer.
'I don't see much of a change actually; the appearance has changed a lot, the order has improved, but not the inside,' Mr Thamby said flatly.