Quiet in the Streets

In my previous post, I concluded with an allusion to the livability of Hong Kong. Yes, there's usually a lot of people on the sidewalks, but once you're out of the Kowloon hawker areas, it somehow doesn't seem oppressive.

Yes, around rush hour, the MTR might approach the mythic density of its Tokyo counterpart (and from our experience, it matches, if not exceeds it, in utility and efficiency), but if you don't get on one sardine-packed train, it always seems that the next one has plenty of room, comparatively.

And yes, traffic can be heavy, but (and this is easy for me to say, never having been behind a wheel there) it moves in a reasonable manner. We did run into some relatively peaceful moments on Saturday and Sunday mornings during the hour or so before shops opened and before the suit and watch hawkers awoke. But there's nothing like a 5:00am taxi ride to the Airport Express train station to see how quiet the streets actually can be, as is the station before the first train of the day. Downright deserted, it's a nice respite to ready ourselves for the flight to Xi'an.