Western District, High Street: Haunted Stories

I don't mean to start a rumor mill of superstition, but I want to do more research and have a better understanding of High Street of the Western District.


I've been looking at an apartment on High Street that I found to be quite acceptable.


When I've mentioned this to some local friends, they were shocked. They warned me of "haunted" elements and these are educated, rational, and professional people. Some told me not to go there outright.


High Street formerly housed some disreputable elements. I was told that High Street used to be the location for a leper colony, and I couldn't find much info on that.


However, I did find that the Old Chinese Lunatic Asylum used to be there. Then the Japanese Occupation came in and it would be safe to assume that the Japanese aggravated the already dismal conditions. Who knows if human experiments and whether other crimes of humanity were conducted there?


Then, I read that High Street housed a crowded, understaffed psychiatric institution during the Post-War Years before Castle Peak asylum's opening in 1961.


After that these buildings were abandoned. However, the creepy history continued. During her school years, my friend said that she knew some of her school mates who would climb over those abandoned buildings whenever they wanted. I guess it's the proverbial crackhouse.


I heard that drug addicts did their business there, because the buildings were abandoned and the government couldn't decide what to do with these lovely, but haunting colonial buildings. Some of these buildings were left in a limbo and were eventually demolished.


I was able to find that the Eastern Street Methadone Clinic is the site of the former Lunatic Asylum and that the current Sai Ying Pun Community Center was the Old Mental Hospital.


Do any of you old hands have an idea of this history of High Street?

Hi Lost,

I live in the area, & have never had any problems!

Its a lovely area, obviously close to everything, in that you can walk to anywhere/accessible transport.

There are a few people associated with the methadone clinic, & I walk by them most days & don't have any hassles...unlike some streets in Melbourne! There are plenty of long time residents around & they must be happy enough. Am prone to getting the heeby jeebies myself, but don't get them here. Good Luck

There's as much info as you could want in the local history section at Central Library (Causeway Bay) - class 951.25 and the Map Library. Much is on display, and much more in the "Closed Stack".



Also the archivists at the Museum of History could help:

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/History/en/about_museum.php

It's not whether you feel a place is haunted but the perception of others. You might get a reasonably priced flat but find it very hard to resell later, no matter how 'quiet' it has been.

Are you buying or just renting the apartment? If I were you, I wouldn't buy it...renting is ok. Chinese people are very superstitious and "haunted" apartments are usually extraordinarily cheap, I think landlords usually target gweilos to sell these apartments to because many westerners do not believe in ghosts. I used to live in a building in Tai Koo where one of HK's biggest murder cases took place, I was told that all of the apartments in this builing are now cheaper than the rest of the estate and they were also lucky enough to re-sell that particular apartment to a gweilo. I personally wouldn't move there....... You never know what may come out from the bottom of your bed in the middle of the night.... ;-)