Haunted Toronto: Hsin Kuang Centre

The Hsin Kuang Centre, not overall
terrifying looking from the outside.

It's time to take a look into another haunted location within our fair city of Toronto. On the menu this time we have the Hsin Kuang Centre - formally the Hsin Kuang Restaurant. Located at 346 Spadina Avenue this place was said to have been built on what was originally a Chinese funeral parlour and morgue. Not exactly a good luck omen according to many Chinese people - no surprises there. The restaurant was originally opened in the 1970's to cater to Chinese Torontonians in and around the area.

The nature of the haunting according to residents? There is supposed to be a ghost that haunts the woman's washroom which makes an occasional appearance. There does not seem to be any recounts of the spirit being violent, but unsettling nevertheless.

The really bizarre thing about this case was how the Chinese owners said the spirits were able to enter into the restaurant. If you look across the street, onto the roof of the opposing building there are a couple of billboards that form an "arrow" shape pointing towards the Hsin Kuang Centre. The shape was said to act as a conduit allowing spirits to enter into the restaurant.

These billboards acted as the gateway to the restaurant for spirits.
Why couldn't they take the front door like everybody else?

This problem was identified by a Chinese exorcist. Although the owners requested for the billboards to be removed, the company that owned them would not comply. As a solution, exorcist suggested for the owners to place stone lions by the doorway to guard against the approach of evil spirits. Although they did sit in the doorway for a while, eventually the owners moved the entrance of the centre to St. Andrew's Street along with the stone lions. Doing so would protect the centre from new spirits moving in, but they would still have to cope with the ones already inside.

Creepy stone lions guard the entrance to the restaurant
which is now on St. Andrew's Street.

The location still exists today and the spirits are still supposed to be inside. If you're a woman in the area and need to use the washroom, maybe you should just look for a Tim Horton's instead...