HONG KONG 1.0 :: Mongkok and the MTR :: 88 photos

[christopher dewolf]

guess where i am!



can't get it? maybe this will help:



that's right, i'm in...

HONG KONG

i got here nine days ago and have been thoroughly enjoying myself. (i don't leave until august 21st.) this city is spectacular and i'm now seriously considering moving here in a couple of years to try my luck at teaching english (provided the lovely mlle. laine decides to pursue grad studies at one of the local universities, of course).

the energy here is amazing. hong kong reminds me of nowhere more than new york, albeit a far more efficient and very chinese big apple. but you'll hear from me later -- now it's time for the photos. i've already taken an obscene amount and have created three threads from my first week alone. my first seven days were spent entirely in kowloon; you won't be seeing any hong kong until next week.

which brings me to a quick geography lesson: if you don't know much about hong kong, i'll break it down for you. the hong kong SAR (special administrative region) is for all intents and purposes an independent country with its own laws, currency, politics, customs and demographics that are different from those of mainland china. the main language here is cantonese, but english is very prevalent on signage and in the business world and is in fact an official language. the standards of living here are extremely high and are comparable to those in any north american or western european country.

hong kong is home to roughly 7 million people and covers a mere 1,000 square kilometres of land, but it is best of think of it as a (very small) province or state rather than a single city. the territory can be divided into three main regions: the new territories, which contain several large suburbs that consist largely of highrise housing estates, along with dozens of small villages and lots of mountains (through which roam packs of feral cows and dogs). kowloon is the urban area to the south of the new territories and is home to some of the most densely-populated neighbourhoods in the world; and hong kong island is the generally glitzier cousin across the harbour where all of those shining skyscrapers are (not to say that kowloon doesn't have its fair share of shining skyscrapers, too).

anyway, enough expository remarks. onward!

I. MONGKOK

mongkok sits on the northern end of the kowloon peninsula; in a sense, it's downtown kowloon. it is one of hong kong's main shopping and nightlife districts but is also a densely populated residential neighbourhood. many of its streets are pedestrianized and still more are de facto pedestrian streets; there are several prominent street markets, too.
























flyer distributors are everywhere in hong kong, standing on pretty much every main street and outside every MTR station.



















fa yuen street, one of mongkok's bigger street markets.







dryers are not common in asia, so people simply hang their clothes on racks that hang out into the street. i'm staying in a very swanky luxury condominium tower right now and even here, people hang their clothes outside over the interior courtyard.



hong kongers love to eat. they eat several times a day so there are tons of restaurants and food vendors are that are always busy. the food is great, too: fresh and flavourful. (and for the record, i eat anything: i guarantee you that there is virtually no chinese food i will refuse, provided it is not alive.)



the following shots were taken in the northern part of mongkok, between prince edward road and boundary street. it's a lot more laid-back up there than in the chaotic southern portion of the area.



















now we're back below prince edward.





















nathan road bisects the kowloon peninsula, running straight through mongkok. it's loud, brash and always congested with buses.







the side streets in mongkok are just as busy as nathan road, though.













this street's name in english is soy street, but in chinese it's actually soy sauce street. how cute.











hong kong is busiest in the evening, when it's cooler (the daytime temperature is usually between 30 and 33 celsius, with 80+ percent humidity). many shops stay open until 10 or 10:30pm.







this was a live improv perfomance, a promo for a show playing nearby.







just in case you're curious, these evening and night shots were mostly taken on monday and friday.















a final parting shot of fa yuen street. don't worry, though; there will be more mongkok for everyone in coming weeks.




II. SHAM TSENG

sham tseng is a small waterfront neighbourhood that's somewhere in the grey zone between kowloon and the new territories. it contains, among other things, good beer, roast goose and a big pretentious housing development (the kind with ten identical 50-storey towers) called 'the bellagio.' one night we were here to sample the beer and goose.





fish balls...



... and fried eel. the photo of the goose didn't turn out. this, by the way, is a lot heavier than the typical hong kong meal.




III. CHOI HUNG

choi hung is a large housing estate built on top of an MTR station. it contains an old village with a market. for the first week we were staying in a house near the town of sai kung, so we had to take a 15-minute minibus ride to choi hung every day to connect to the subway.






IV. THE MTR

that subway, of course, is the MTR. i normally frown upon the privatization of public transit, but the privately-operated MTR is so incredibly well-run i might have to reconsider. i cannot overstate how great this system is: it has a complex fare system but is totally affordable, much cheaper than most north american subways; it is spotless (i dare you to find any dirt or litter in it); each well-lit station contains an array of shops, including the ubiquitous 7-11, circle-k and maxim's cake shop; the trains are extraordinary quiet and smooth, and obviously well-maintained since any malfunctions actually make the news and cause an uproar; and announcements are extremely clear and broadcast in three languages: cantonese, mandarin and english. all signage is flawlessly bilingual.

oh, and then there's the octopus card. it is a smart card that allows you to travel (with a slight discount) on all forms of public transit in hong kong. (it works by microchip, so you don't even have to swipe it -- just keep it in your wallet or bag and wave the latter in front of the scanner.) you also pay for parking with it and many stores, such as 7-11 or supermarket chains such as wellcome, allow you to pay for things by octopus. you pay an initial HK$150 and each trip you take deducts a certain amount of money from your card, depending on your mode of transport and how long your voyage is.
















that's it for now. keep and eye out for editions 1.1 and 1.2 in the coming few days.

[timeo]

Thank you for that! I haven't been in Hong Kong for about six years now and I miss it quite a bit with its crazy liveliness. It was that aspect that initially made me uncomfortable, but now that I think about it, where else could you go out at like 2 in the morning and still find tons of people walking down streets and eating late night snacks on the street? Lovely place.....just really dirty, heh.

Have you had a chance to shop at the really sketchy markets or eat on the street yet? It's not something to be missed!