Hong Kong: Ghosts & Myths of Wan Chai

Wan Chai, March 2018

Though I spent pretty much half my childhood in Hong Kong, I've never really explored Wan Chai area. It is merely one station apart from where my apartment was in Causeway Bay. So earlier this year when I visited my granny's sister, I decided to join a local walking tour that I've been eyeing for quite sometimes, Walk In Hong Kong. Nope, it's not a sponsored post. I write this simply because I love what they do and maybe you guys would enjoy some of their tours too. I booked two different walking tour through their website which were Ghost & Myths of Wan Chai Tour and Kowloon Walled City & Food Adventure Tour. Since we are in the Halloween mood now, let's talk about something spooky first and I'll write the latter on different post. Wan Chai is one of the oldest district in Hong Kong and has many untold stories in the dark corner of this concrete jungle.

Now, don't forget to pack those huge cross, holy water, silver bullet and garlic as your weapon before we walk through the most haunted alley in Wan Chai!....okay....I'm just kidding! It's more like packing an umbrella, mineral water, some coins to buy something and garlic bread as a snack actually. Fred not, this tour is completely safe even if you are a scaredy cat. We won't be doing some ghost hunter like the Ghostbusters 😂


STAR STREET SHRINE

I met my guide, Audrey at our assigned meeting point in One Pacific Place that afternoon. After a  brief introduction, we headed to our first stop just across the building. At one cul-de-sec off Wing Fung Street, lays this shrine blocking a door which apparently is an air raid tunnel. During the World War II, hundreds of people were killed on the spot before they managed to reach the bomb shelter. It happened one day when the alarm failed to warn them of an air raid. Since then the people who live in the neighbourhood often saw some ghost heads wailed in the street. The shrine was built to seal the entrance of an air raid shelter and suppress the restless spirits from within.

haunted bomb shelter

"You can actually take a peek inside the tunnel, but I'm not coming with you. I will just wait here." Audrey whispered to me.

"Do you think that would be okay?" I was a bit concerned because I saw the 'no unauthorised entry' sign on the door. Audrey looked around and nodded. I slowly climbed up the steps towards the black door with rusty slits and moved the wood bar. I looked back and saw Audrey nodded, once again. I pulled the door and suddenly a gust of wind pushed the door open from inside. I was stunned, not expecting that. A musty odour stung my nostrils. Staring at the dark grey tunnel, I felt uneasy. A voice in my head kept saying, "Don't go in! Close the door now!" As a person who is very sensitive to negative energy and have a claustrophobia issue, I didn't want to have the same experience as the one in the Catacombs of Paris. I decided to take a final glance at the shelter and shut the door. Maybe not today, I told myself.

saw this on the street, it's meant to keep the evil spirits away

ST. LUKE'S COLLEGE

Located at Hill Side Terrace street, this private English school started its operation from 1950 and ended around 1980. It became an empty abandoned building since then. A couple of real estate developers have been trying to reconstruct this building but for some weird reasons, their plan have always failed. Years before the college, this building used to be a private residence, owned by an old couple. They refused to surrender their house and the Japanese soldiers killed them and used the building as a military brothel. Stories of ghostly sightings have been circulate that people who live around this college would put a small shrine and burn incense to keep the evil spirits away.

Once again I climbed up the stairs to the entrance alone because Audrey insisted she wouldn't go nearer the building. I walked around the college hoping I would find any access to enter but it seems everything have been locked. I was actually curious to see the classes which have been said still have all the student wood desks and chairs. I couldn't stand the stinky odour  so I left immediately when I couldn't gain any access into the school.

NAM KOO TERRACE 

💔💔💔

It's considered one of the most haunted places in Hong Kong and the one I was looking forward to visit the most. Sadly there was a major construction in the area and it's prohibited to access the alley towards the historic building 😭.  What's so special about Nam Koo Terrace then? While most ghost stories in the area are based on urban myth or stories passed among the locals, one incidents at Nam Koo Terrace actually managed to be the headlines on newspapers and TV.

In 2003 a bunch of high school students broke into the house in order to have some 'supernatural adventure'. They stayed overnight inside one of the room and played Ouija board to communicate with the spirits. After a while, three of the girls started to act really strange, got really depressed and soon hysterical. The rest of the group were frightened, called the police and tried to drag the girls out the house.  The polices came to help but one of the most affected girls turned psychotic and refused to leave the house. She kept saying there's a man from upstairs calling her back so she fought the policeman. A couple hours later they finally managed to drag this girl out and sent her straight to a hospital for a psychiatric treatment. Later on the girl escaped from the hospital and was reported missing until today.

Nam Koo Terrace was built in 1915 and was originally owned by a tycoon from Shanghai who then was forced to flee the house by the Japanese soldiers around 1940. They turned it into a brothel house by kidnapping local girls, raped and tortured them for a 'recreational reason' before finally the soldiers beheaded the girls. Years passed by and the house became a suicide house where desperate people come to end their own life. Dozens of bodies had been discovered since. It's been said that people in the neighbourhood often hear women crying and screaming from inside the house until this day. Audrey also told me that the house is now in renovation progress and it will turned into a marriage registry office.


HUNG SHING TEMPLE 

Interesting fact about this tempe, around 1847 it started out as an altar built on a rock that stood on what used to be the Wan Chai shoreline. From outside I couldn't see the huge boulder which is actually a part of the main altar. This temple is dedicated to Hung Hei, a god of southern seas and protector against disaster. There's also a shrine of the 3 Goddesses but I can't remember the name now. My bad! Gotta ask Google soon 😜



HOPEWELL CENTRE

In the 80s, the 64-storey building was famously known as the tallest building in Hong Kong. But behind the impressive title, there's a tiny hiccups during the construction. A Feng Shui master was concerned about the tall cylindrical shape of this building which looks like a candle. It is believed to attract the fire element and might cause some problem to the building. Thus as the master requested, a round pool was added on the rooftop of Maxwell Centre. It was aimed to cool or tame down the fire element. As an Indonesian Chinese, I'm familiar with this superstitious and feng shui thingy. It's quite big deal for the Chinese. Does the pool addition really protect the whole building? Well I can't say much but there wasn't any fire related incidents up till now.


THE BLUE HOUSE

Built in 1923, the Blue House is the most iconic historic building of the district. The building was once used as a hospital then turned into a temple to a brewery, a shops, a martial arts school (one of the students of Wong Fei Hung!) and a chiropractic clinic. Nonetheless this building is loaded with captivating stories. It is nowadays the home for Wanchai Livelihood Museum. There's a rumour about a nearby eatery was being asked to send some food to the 4th floor and when the delivery boy arrived, he could hear the noise of people playing mahjong (Chinese tile-based games) from inside the room. He kept knocking on the door for a quite sometimes but no one responded. He then decided to open the door only to find that the room has been unoccupied for a very long time.



OLD WAN CHAI MARKET

What you see now as a luxury apartment building was once a traditional market built in 1937. During the war, there were way too many bodies scattered around this area. So the basement storeroom of the market used as a makeshift mortuary. Many sightings have been reported here. And there's a story that has been passed down through the generations about the Cha Siu Bao (barbecue-pork-filled bun) seller in the market. During the war it was expectantly difficult to get food and most people were not well feed. Though at that time the meat supplies was almost non existent, this seller was still producing piping hot bun with fresh meat filling every single day. There was some scepticism about where he managed to get the daily meat supplies from. Errrr....I think there are some things that are better left unknown 🙈



PAK TAI TEMPLE

We walked uphill on the Stone Nullah Lane and reached our final stop, the Pak Tai Temple. It is one of the oldest and the most important temples in Hong Kong. Entering the temple, Audrey explained to me that the main area used to be an open courtyard but now is the home to the statue of Pak Tai, the God of the north. On the right wing, there's a room filled up with incense smokes and a shrine for the Dragon God Mother. Women from around the world come here to pray for fertility and to be able to conceive a baby.

Don't fear the ghosts, fear the human...that's what I've been telling my friends who asked me why I'm so fascinated by myths and horror stories. I, myself never intend to meet any ghosts if they were really existed. But I seriously think that even the scariest ghosts I've seen on the movie are pale to comparison with some cruelest black-hearted people I had encountered in real life. I'm a very curious person and most of the time I wonder what's the history behind old buildings. What happened there? How did the ghost story start to spread among the locals? And the question goes on. 

Time really does seem to fly by when you are having fun. I couldn't believe it had been 2,5 hours strolling around the area and it was time to bid Audrey goodbye. I certainly had a blast listening to her stories. To me this ghost tour is not only about those hair-rising stories but more about appreciating the historical buildings that keep decreasing throughout these years. And of course there's still plenty of spots that I haven't explored which have equally interesting stories. But I shall keep it for my next visit to Hong Kong 😉

Have you ever joined any ghost tours before? Which city would you recommend me to join?