09/11/2025
Yu Yuen is one of the most famous abandoned mansions in Hong Kong and was built in 1927 in Wang Chau village in Yuen Long by a self-made businessman called Tsoi Po-tin. The mansion was built as a summer home for Mr Tsai, who normally resided in Causeway Bay with his 4 wives and children. Yu Yuen means Joyous Court in English. Which may or may not be meant in jest considering Mr Tsoi's home environment. It remained a place of residence until 1990 and was sold off to a New Territories property developer and politician called Lau Wong-Fat who wanted to demolish it but the site was saved by the government which blocked this proposed demolition and made it a grade 1 historical building in part due to its unique European style architectural features. As a result of this, the mansion has been left to rot in protest by the pi**ed owner and was subsequently downgraded to grade 2 status as a result of this decay and I think it was also used as a dumping ground by the owner.
It had been locked for a long time but in 2016 or 2017 someone managed to break open the door to gain access and as a result huge numbers of people have visited the site over the years and even some musicians have shot music videos inside. Some notable Hong Kong films have also used it as a filming locations such as the 1977 film 10 Magnificent Killers, the 1984 Chow Yun-Fat flick Hong Kong 1941 and the 1987 Leslie Cheung movie Rogue.
Despite all those who have visited there is a distinct lack of graffiti compared to other such famous abandoned places in Hong Kong which could be due to the demographics of this neighbourhood which is almost entirely local with barely any rich, expat teenagers. Currently, there are no plans to redevelop the site that I know of and the site was locked up one of the owners last year. One of the factors that explains why the site is what it is, is that since Lau's death in 2017 ownership has passed on to his children which always creates problems when it comes to redevelopment because everyone has to agree. From what I understand the owners still need the permission of the government to demolish this mansion which could explain why this has not happened.
Yu Yuen is also supposed to be haunted, but I have never heard, seen of felt anything the 4 times I have been and one of those times I was alone. It seems that almost every famous Hong Kong abandoned building gets labeled as haunted. In this case, rumours have it that the Japanese army executed people here during World War 2 and that 7 servants drowned in one night. It was also rumoured that 7 prostitutes died in one night here, too. The number 7 is both a lucky and unlucky number in Chinese numerology and it probably is not a coincidence that in lots of places in Hong Kong, the number of victims in haunted sites tends to be seven because the 7th month is considered the ghost month.
These photos were taken in July 2018 with a Nikon D610 28-300mm f3.5-5.6
IG: IamtheUrbex (https://www.instagram.com/iamtheurbex/)
#城市探索 #廢墟攝影 #廢探 #香港廢墟 #廢墟
