Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Vengeance - Johnny Hallyday (2009) - Royal View Hotel, Ting Kau
The scene when the hitmen (led by Anthony Wong Chau-sang) follow their target to a hotel: the Royal View Hotel in Ting Kau. Of course in the film this is still supposed to be Macau. I'd never heard of this place until today and had no idea there was even a hotel there! It's located on the mainland side of the Ting Kau bridge that connects Tsing Yi with Tsuen Wan side.
7 comments:
Revisiting some old houses in the area and came across this. The movie was filmed only a couple years after the opening in 2007. A plan has already been approved to turn the hotel into residential units, though the existing building will remain intact and just the floors will be converted.
I knew this joint existed because I actually stayed here once. If Wong turned left at the railing in your bottom picture, he would get to the restaurant. Had he turned right, he would be in the gym and I believe the exit out to the pool. Several years ago a certain amusement park operator rented many suites here for its staff.
The structure that was on this site before Royal View was built looked quite substantial. Some of the long-demolished houses west of the hotel from Ting Kau to Tsing Lung Tau were used in old TVB and ATV series.
Hi Rodney. It's a curious one isn't it. I originally figured it was one of those places opened to cater specifically for the Mainland tour groups because it's such an odd location for a hotel. Speaking of old TVB, I walked past Robert Chua the other day in Whampoa, he was with his wife and appeared to have a gaggle of eager beavers running behind him in formation. I think they were all heading for lunch. Phil
Trekked out here, but couldn't post a comment because the blog returned an error. Anyway, let's try again.
The three developments behind the hotel look to be on very compact plots. The immediate development behind RVH is the lowrise Sea Cliff Lodge and its occupation permit was issued in '66. I couldn't find the date for the seven-houses of Aztec Lodge, but in the 1960s maps it was labeled as Rockcliff. Ting Kau View, the house at the top of the peninsula, likewise has an occupation permit date of '66 and the site looks to have been cleared for redevelopment a few years ago. The 2011 Google Street View shows the gate of Ting Kau View still intact.
I still cannot tell if the previous structure on the present RVH site was a huge home or lowrises. The RVH site is 69,225 sq. ft. according to the residential conversion scheme, so if it was a home, it is mighty impressive the owner held out until the mid-2000s.
Hi Rodney,I would assume that the previous large property would have been a single private residence. This is because I can't see a name or address that I wouldnormally associate with a multi-residence building. I could be wrong though. The only way to really find out would be to retrieve the plot details from the land registry. I've done this a few times before but at $25 a pop it starts to add up. Do you have any real estate friends who have free/unlimited access to the registry? It's TWIL 5 - Tsuen Wan Inland Lot 5 on DD399.Phil
I know a couple of indy realtors though they handle mainly commercial and retail stuff, but hey it's all the same reg, right? There are a couple of old sites nearby I am interested in and I really want to try narrow down which one of them I think was offered for sale to my grandfather for peanuts in the 1970s before mooching a reg search.
If you look at the earliest Street View just west of Royal View, you will see a house named Villamar. You can get an especially good view of it from the elevated road up to the neighbouring Deauville development. I've seen quite a few old houses on this stretch from Ting Kau through Sham Tseng, Tsing Lung Tau that were of a very similar design. Even the side of Dragon Villa where final fight was filmed was like that, i.e. stone and concrete exterior, balconies and canopies adorned by red metal railings and archways.
It seems the present RVH was two sites - the front part where the driveway is and the rear part where the actual building is constructed. They were both initially HK Breweries & Distillers properties and later transferred to San Miguel. Well, both sites were sold to the present corporate owner in 1992 and redeveloped. The name of the company that bought the sites from San Miguel in '92 matches that on the hotel website. I think the old building might have been a lowrise managers' quarters.
Chinese wikipedia puts the price San Miguel paid for HK Breweries & Distillers at $6 million in '48. I would suspect the old Sham Tseng factory nearby would have been transferred then as well.
nice find Rodney, thanks for the update.
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