The most haunted places in Hong Kong

The most haunted school in the city. No, it’s not the premise of a really lame Scooby Doo episode. From 1931 until 1961, the school originally resided in the centuries-old Yu Kiu ancestral hall in Ping Shan, Yuen Long (now a declared monument), where it was believed to be one of those massacre sites during WWII. It moved to its current location in 1974, and when the facility closed in early 1998, rumour has it that the schoolmistress had committed suicide by hanging herself in the girls’ toilet while wearing a red dress, thus leaving behind a lingering red-clothed spirit – the source of many paranormal sightings over the years. 

Along Granville Road is a building with an extremely grisly backstory. In 1999, a 23-year-old woman was brutally assaulted and abused over the course of a month – which included forcing her to consume faeces and burning her with melted liquid plastic – and eventually murdered at 31 Granville Road.

The assailants dismembered her body and discarded the rest of her remains. The police, later on, found her head stuffed inside a large Hello Kitty doll, and only one tooth and some internal organs were recovered. 

The apartment building where this ghastly crime took place was eventually demolished in 2012, and a hotel was built on the site in 2016. Ever since then, there have been many reports of people seeing the girl's spirit wandering around the location. 

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It’s not often that you’ll see an abandoned structure in prime real estate on The Peak, but such is the case with Dragon Lodge. The property went through several owners over the years – one went bankrupt, and another died in the house. During World War II, Japanese soldiers occupied the grounds and decapitated several Catholic nuns.

There have been attempts to renovate the place in 2004, but construction workers believed the place was haunted after hearing strange noises and an unseen child crying. It has since been derelict and has gained the reputation for being a haunted house. The place eventually became such a popular spot for ghost hunters and thrill-seekers, to the point that the current handlers of the site had to increase security in the area to avoid any trespassers.

Unlike some places' arguably speculative supernatural nature, this century-old building is the site of a real tragedy. The structure was built in 1892 and was used as a mental hospital. During World War II, Japanese soldiers tortured and executed rebellious locals. Ghosts or not, the building's morbid past gives it an undeniably unsettling atmosphere. In 1998, the building was repurposed as the Sai Ying Pun Community Complex, and its granite facade was preserved. Rumour has it that women can be heard crying, mysterious footsteps abound, ghosts burst into flames, and decapitated bodies float by. 

Built in the 60s, the Hong Kong Central Hospitals used to perform thousands of abortions every year. Since its closure in 2012, passersby have felt an eerie presence and reported unsettling noises. A peek inside reveals corroding equipment and a general state of desolation that would give anyone goosebumps. 

Before this Grade I historical building was turned into a Chinese medicine and healthcare centre for Baptist University in 2012, Liu Seng Chun was vacant for decades due to a number of strange occurrences and ghost sightings. The story goes that there were plans to remodel the building in the 80s, but construction workers and cleaning staff all fell ill one by one. Fatal accidents occurred, and things mysteriously disappeared. As a result, the construction plans were halted, and the building was abandoned. Many would report sightings of children playing 'football' with a decapitated head, and the upper floors would light up in the middle of the night, and numerous shadows were seen roaming around.

Though it is now home to waterfront restaurants and shopping retailers, this historical building carries with it a spooky reputation. Murray House was the officers' quarters of the Murray Barracks in 1846 and originally stood at the corner of the Queensway and Garden Road of present-day Central. During the Japanese occupation, this historic building was used as an execution spot where more than 4,000 Hong Kong citizens were tortured and murdered. Stories of ghosts disrupting the grounds became so troubling that the Hong Kong government ordered two exorcisms at the site in 1963 and 1974 to free the lost souls. The Victorian-era building was dismantled and put into storage in 1982. It took a while before it was decided to rebuild the place in Stanley, and in 2000 the project of restoring the structure was completed to where it now stands. 

This two-storey Grade I historical building located in Wan Chai was used as a military brothel during the war from 1941 to 1945, where women were raped and murdered. In 2003, a group of middle school girls who attempted to stay overnight reported to have seen a ghost. One girl claimed she was possessed by the spirit, and another required psychiatric treatment because of the trauma. 

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Encircled and now primarily dominated by dense forest in the far northeast New Territories, abandoned So Lo Pun is one of Hong Kong’s oldest villages – and you know how keen ghosts are on old stuff that’s abandoned. Much information about the village is prefaced with the word ‘supposedly’, which just adds to the intrigue. For example – supposedly – many of the village inhabitants died on their way to a wedding in a boat accident. The remaining survivors did not stay in the village, and overnight, the town became utterly abandoned.