Family

memories from hong kong

November 22, 2017 by Settayah No Comments
Being a child of the Eastern European panel apartment blocks wide-spread during the communism, I have long been convinced that I know everything about floors, elevators and towering flats. Until I set foot in Hong Kong. We had visited Dubai, Los Angeles and Singapore a couple of years earlier so we thought we’ve already seen some skyscrapering but the concrete forests of Hong Kong beat them all.

Actually, it wasn’t the blocks that grabbed our attention at first. It was the cabs. I have seen many taxi vehicles through the years and didn’t think there’s much room for surprise but I couldn’t be more wrong. The minute we left the airport and headed to the taxi queue was also the minute we gained new insight into this means of transportation.hong kong
Taxis in Hong Kong obey a complex colour scheme depending on destination and each has its own allocated stop. Once we figured out the main principles we were kindly directed to the colour we need where dedicated personnel was taking a good care of the organisation.
 
The driver who was responsible for us fairly quickly assessed the volume of our suitcases and speedily arranged an exquisite pile of luggage in the open trunk of his seemingly centenarian automobile. A second later he produced a long red rope and started wrapping the pile with the swift movement of a person not only skilled but highly experienced. Our bewildered stares didn’t seem to bother him at all and he impatiently urged us to enter the car immediately, making telling gestures towards the queue behind us. This haste is the reason I don’t have photos from this memorable moment – something I will long regret.
 
It wasn’t a big journey but surely an exciting one. I was photographing the towering armies of blocks, making regular pauses to double check on our 8 suitcases + 8 bags stacked one on another under ropes tight and trunk cover open. The kids were contemplating the age of the car, with suggestions varying between 20 and 50yrs, while their father was trying to calculate the total amount of flats and floors per building.

hong kong blocks

About a month later all his estimations were proven wrong, when a friend of mine saw the photos and told me she had spent her childhood in a similar block which had 12 entrances and 65 floors x 8 flats per floor. That makes 6240 apartments whereas we opted for about 5000… Ever since I feel uncomfortable to boast about my own childhood spent in what now seems like a dwarf block – a totally insignificant communist panel monument with just 580 apartments.
hong kong blocks

Dizzy with the city scale and the humid air of Hong Kong we utterly enjoyed the Peking duck in our hotel, followed by a mocktail on the terrace overlooking myriad of night lights. I might not be the biggest fan of urban developments but if there is anything good about concrete, it is its illuminated version. There is something very romantic in the electric garlands of a super city after dark (if one can distance themselves from any ecological thoughts, of course).

city lights at night

We had heard that a visit to The Peak during sunset hours is well worth the crowd so this is what we did on the very next day. The wait for the Peak Tram is a delicate topic which I’d rather skip but the experience up there was lovely indeed. The color palette just before the sun went down was incredible, painting a landscape of purple mountains on the left and soft shade living towers on the right.

the peak hong kong hong kong cityscape night cityscape

The last day of our first visit to Hong Kong was all about the streets. As tourists we rarely insist on the mainstream must-see attractions. Our preference lays in the most residential areas, markets or restaurants a place may offer, revealing its hidden soul and unpolished daily vibe. And the vibe of Hong Kong is really really busy. Tiny streets and an astounding number of people. There is movement, organised chaos and a lot of advertisments. And then it’s the air. A heavy, fragrant, smoky air, absolutely foreign to our Eastern European lungs. 

My fingers hurt from so much typing (and from the effort to select just a few of the thousand Hong Kong photos I have) so I’ll leave the Buddha’s birthday which we also celebrated there for another time. At the end, a couple of interesting facts about Hong Kong:

  • Hong Kong means “Fragrant Harbour”.
  • The city has more “Rolls Royce” cars per person than any other city in the world.
  • It has the most skyscrapers (building with more than 14 floors) in the world; double that of its nearest rival: New York City.
  • Eating noodles on one’s birthday is considered by the residents of Hong Kong to afford one a long and blessed life.
  • As of 2018, the population is 7,482,500, and the population density is 6,777/km2.

 

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