Hong Kong - Vertical Living

Sunday -- We finish the obligatory tourist shopping in Stanley Market, a seaside outpost on the southeastern part of Hong Kong Island. Not much to report here other than the collection of stalls of inexpensive artwork, souvenirs, silk clothing, and tee shirts. Since the last time we were here, they've added a mall-like addition to the more carnival-like atmosphere of the older market area.

The trip to Stanley, however, got me thinking about the verticality of life in Hong Kong. The bus took us over a familiar route, passing the mountain-top apartment complex my sister used to live at when she was here. The road winds up from the harbor, above and around a race course and a largely residential area known as Happy Valley, then down the southern side of the mountain that is the island. Since we were last here four years ago, it seems that the already dense area of "housing estates" had multiplied, with newer and fancier towers filling the sky.

These housing units yield nothing to their commercial skyline neighbors in height. Many of them are easily 30 stories, and not a few reaching 40 to 50 stories by my rough drive-by count. Happy Valley, being on northern part of the island and a part of the neighborhoods that make up the city proper, is home to probably some of the above average in affluence, and show a bit more architectural style than the middle class counterparts in the farther from downtown Aberdeen and Kowloon. There was one new addition on the road to Stanley, easily 40+ stories, standing high on an overlook above the area, with aggressive styling dominated by curved blue-green glass exterior. Its height, impressive on its own, is added to by its seemingly precarious perch over the road and the valley. One has to wonder what it's like at the top of that tower in a typhoon.

But again, these houses in the sky are not limited to the affluent. In the northern reaches of Kowloon, surrounding the harbor of Aberdeen on the souther part of the main island, and flanking the airport approach in both Kowloon and Lantau, these behemoth bedroom communities dominate the scenery. Middle class and lower income get their own share of the sky, contributing to the overall density of population of the region...a density that, while significant compared to my suburban New Jersey home (no slouch itself in the density department for US standards), somehow seems to work in Hong Kong.