Meet the 75-year-old woman running Hong Kong’s notorious Chungking Mansions
Salina Lam, who has been chairwoman of the Tsim Sha Tsui tower block for 22 years, tells Gloria Chan how she helped turn it from a den of vice into the vibrant commercial centre it is today.
I WAS BORN IN FUZHOU, in Fujian province, in 1940. I married an architect but he passed away before reaching the age of 40. On November 19, 1979, I came to Hong Kong with my six-year-old daughter upon the request of my father.
MY FATHER OWNED a jade trading business in Hawaii and used to work in Hong Kong a few months every year. I stayed with him for just nine days in Hong Kong before he had to leave for [a trip to] Taiwan. He had a stroke there and, after struggling for 30 days, he died.
By 1988, I had managed to save enough money to buy a property in Chungking Mansions with two friends. It cost HK$600,000 back then. I currently have seven properties and they are all in Chungking Mansions. Running guesthouses is my main business.
Watch: How Chungking Mansions became what it is today
I became the chairwoman of the Owners' Corporation of Chungking Mansions. Sometimes I walk around, to meet the tourists and tenants. They say, "Hello, good morning", to me in Cantonese even though most of them are non-Chinese. They say, "Good morning", even when it's evening.