There is nowhere else in the world quite like Chungking Mansions, a dilapidated seventeen-story commercial and residential structure in the heart of Hong Kong's tourist district. A remarkably motley group of people call the building home; Pakistani phone stall operators, Chinese guesthouse workers, Nepalese heroin addicts, Indonesian sex workers, and traders and asylum seekers from all over Asia and Africa live and work there-even backpacking tourists rent rooms. In short, it is possibly the most globalized spot on the planet. But as Ghetto at the Center of the World shows us, a trip to Chungki.

Note on Hong Kong -- Place. Introducing Chungking Mansions ; "Ghetto at the center of the world" ; Why Chungking Mansions exists and why it matters ; The building ; History ; Owners' association ; Business ; My own involvement -- People. Traders ; Owners and managers ; Temporary workers ; Asylum seekers ; Domestic helpers ; Sex workers ; Heroin addicts ; Tourists ; How these different groups interact -- Goods. The passage of goods in Chungking Mansions ; Selling goods ; Taking advantage of buyers ; Copy goods ; Manufacturers and middlemen ; Tricks and travails of a phone stall ; Varieties of traders ; The generation gap among traders ; Techniques of traders ; The lure of China ; The perils of customs ; The significance of goods and traders -- Laws. The omnipresent shadow of the law ; Conflicts within and beyond the law ; The role of police ; Visas and residence rights ; Asylum seekers and the law ; "Real" and "fake" asylum seekers ; The lives of asylum seekers ; The changing treatment of asylum seekers ; Future. Changing imaginations of Chungking Mansions ; How Chungking Mansions transforms people ; Cultural identity ; Global significance ; The future of Chungking Mansions / the future of the world.