The Monster Building is an iconic residential building complex in eastern Hong Kong Island. In the recent years, it has become a very popular spot to take photographs, especially for Instagrammers and urban explorers, the building is one of the most seen places in Hong Kong on Instagram.
People are impressed by the building's unique symmetry and striking density. When standing on a courtyard of the building and looking up, you will see the towering concrete buildings rise on all three sides, leaving only a small, U-shaped gap of sky on the top.
"Monster Building" is not the building's formal name, but a nickname given by the locals for its mammoth appearance and the incredible conglomeration of residential units, the building is actually a building complex that consists of five different buildings, each of these buildings has its own name, they are connected together as a whole, forming an E shape seen from above.
The building on the east of the complex is Yick Fat Building, the middle one in the complex is Yick Cheong Building, the one on the west is Montane Mansion, and the one that connects these three buildings together on their north is Fook Cheong Building, which is also connected to the smallest building of the complex, the Oceanic Mansion on its west end. There are two courtyards between these buildings. The whole complex is officially referred to as Yick Cheong Building, which is also the name of the central building in the complex.
The building has been featured in some popular films, most notably the 2014 American film Transformers: Age of Extinction.
As a concrete giant, the Monster Building closely resembles the demolished Kowloon Walled City, but not that messy.
The Monster Building is part of a group of public housing projects built in the 1960s by the local government, providing subsidized accommodation for the low-income residents in the city. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hong Kong experienced a population boom, waves of refugees flooded into the city in order to escape the political chaos of mainland China, leading to a severe housing shortage, this forced the local government to build a group of housing towers to accommodate those people.
Like most of other residential buildings in Hong Kong, the upper floors of the Monster Building are for domestic use while the ground floor is occupied by a variety of stores selling seafood, groceries and household goods. The Yick Fat Building (the easternmost building of the complex) has a coffee shop on its ground floor.
As an E-shaped concrete complex, it has two courtyards between the buildings, the two courtyards are very similar, but are painted differently, the western courtyard is painted mostly with plain white color, while the eastern courtyard is painted with a variety of colors and looks more colorful and interesting.
Another difference between the two courtyard is that the eastern courtyard is actually surrounded by 4 tower blocks, there's an additional tower sitting on the south side of it, and that tower is much higher.
The tower is known as Kornville Tower 2, it is 478 ft (146 meters) tall and has 50 floors, and was built in 1995. If you stand on the eastern courtyard and look up, you can find that the Kornville Tower 2 is perfectly integrated with the Monster Building, the sky is enclosed by buildings on all 4 sides.
The upper floors of Kornville Tower 2 is no doubt an ideal place to get a different and even better view of the Monster Building, the price for buying or renting a unit in the tower are lower than the average in the city, as the tower is situated a little far from the city center.
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The view seen during daytime and nighttime are different, when the night comes, the buildings will look more fantastic with the illumination and the dark sky on the top.
Although walking between these towering concrete walls can get you a fascinating experience, you should realize that these buildings are for residential use, people actually live there, you can find elders sitting at tables playing Mahjong in the courtyards. As so many people are flocking to the site everyday, a sign has been erected stating visitors should ask for permission before taking photos, though it has done little to stop those happy snappers.
How to get to Monster Building and its courtyards
Monster Building is located on King's Road in Quarry Bay, eastern Hong Kong Island, there are many ways to get there.
The most popular way is by subway, take the Island Line of the Hong Kong MTR to Tai Koo Station, get out at Exit B and head west along King's Road for two blocks, it takes about 5 minutes to reach the Monster Building complex.
You will see Fook Cheong Building first, as it sits by the King's Road, the both courtyards are behind the Fook Cheong Building.
An entrance to the western courtyard can be found on the ground floor of Fook Cheong Building, at its west section near the Oceanic Mansion. And after you walked through the entrance you will be in the western courtyard, from there you can walk to the eastern courtyard through a path at the south side of the building complex. Below is how it looks like when first entering into the eastern courtyard.
And go closer, the building in the center will appear more majestic.
Before you entering into the courtyard, it's recommended to first have a look at the Fook Cheong Building from the King's Road, the facade of this residential building is extremely long, and also tall, its view is not less impressive than what is seen from the courtyards.
