I had to pinch myself. Dragonflies were flitting across a lotus pond, a 100-year-old traditional Chinese gable roof stood above me and Ming dynasty-style wooden fixtures abounded. No, I hadn't gone back in time: I was in Kowloon circa 2014, at the city's newest heritage hotel.
Perched on the lush hillside of Castle Peak Road is the boutique Heritage Lodge, in the former Lai Chi Kok Hospital building, which is now part of the newly christened Jao Tsung-I Academy, named after the 96-year-old renowned scholar and Hong Kong resident.
The lodge's 89 guest rooms are spread over five red-brick structures within the academy complex. The landscaped grounds have a country-park feel but a quick glimpse out of the window, to Mei Foo Sun Chuen - the city's first private housing estate - brings you back to reality.
The serenity here is not just remarkable given its location: this site has seen much pain and pestilence over the past century. Every room has a story.
Once a waterfront customs station - before land reclamation swallowed it up in the 1960s to create Mei Foo - the facilities have also hosted mainland labourers bound for mines in South Africa, and Victoria Prison inmates, when the jail became overcrowded in the 20s. In the 30s, it was a hospital for lepers and patients of infectious diseases. As epidemics peaked in the 50s and 60s, patients from all over Kowloon and the New Territories were isolated here. Later, until 2000, the site served as a sanatorium.
The heritage hotel is only the latest reincarnation, but what a wonderful one it is.