Chungking Mansion (or, where to stay in Hong Kong if you're into being fascinated and mildly terrified)

I wanted to find somewhere cheap to stay in Hong Kong. This was easier said than done: The place is about a zillion times more expensive than the Mainland; prices rival even those of North America. I spent my first 24 hours in the city in sticker shock.

But before I came, the cheapest hostels I could find online were all at the same address. When I arrived, exhausted and disoriented from a surreal customs experience, I took a cab to the one address I had, and arrived at Chungking Mansion.

Imagine an enormous concrete honeycomb.

Now double it in size.

Now cover it in grime and fill it with people.

That's kind of what Chungking Mansion is like.

The building has four "blocks," each of which has 15 floors. Each floor has at least three hostels, with a couple of dozen rooms in each one. I'm shit at math, but that works out to thousands of transient people living in this hulking building.

I was one of the more pathetic ones.

Chungking Mansion, I later learned, has become famous as a stopover for migrants of all kinds. One friend called it the most diverse block in Asia, and he could be right. Bangladeshis, Indians, Gambians and Nepalis come here, either looking for a job in Hong Kong or--more likely--getting a Chinese visa.

All in all, it's a very cool place and I met some fascinating people. And it has the best Indian food on this side of Delhi.