The 29-storey hotel-office tower at 72 Gloucester Road, among one of the small commercial buildings in Wan Chai, may not be outstanding enough to draw your attention.
But the Luk Kwok Hotel located in the building achieved fame for its role in Richard Mason's popular novel The World of Suzie Wong, when Wan Chai was the domain of prostitutes and sailors.
The Nam Kok Hotel at the waterfront featured in the book is based on the Luk Kwok Hotel, where Mason stayed for four months to finish the book, which was published in 1957.
'The Luk Kwok was originally built in the 1930s on what was then the waterfront; seven storeys high, at the time it was the tallest building in Wan Chai,' said James Li, the general manager of Luk Kwok Hotel.
Things have changed.
The hotel, which is now located some two blocks inland due to land reclamation, not far from the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, has totally faded from the image of the old and obsolete hotel described in Mason's book after the redevelopment as a hotel-office block in 1989.