Hong Kong - the vertical city

We were in Wan Chai when we came through on the way to NZ; this time we're in Kowloon - Tsim Sha Tsui. It's just along the railway line from Mong Kok - about a mile along Nathan Road. Not really thinking about what the most densely populated area in the world would be like on a Saturday afternoon when it was out shopping, we headed over there yesterday.

Boy, it was busy! Think of Regent Street on the Saturday before Christmas and that about sums it up. It was pretty difficult to get anywhere, you have to duck and dive and go round people, pause and dodge and take your chance. Not easy when there's two of you - I'm better at it than Richard so I was always having to pause and wait for him - or else he for me. There are some junctions just too busy for both people and traffic so there are walkways over and along the streets as well, you get up to them by stairs from pavements.

I can see why you need areas of green and oases of calm when you live in that environment. It's very tiring!

We went out for dinner last night - and (not mentioning the idiocy of my husband in refusing a 45 minute wait at one place when it took another 45 minutes to get a place anywhere else!) ended up at a Shanghai-ese place. On the way back to the hotel after it struck me. We'd gone up in a lift but it was only the 6th floor so we took the escalators down. Some of the restaurants in the building were on the 25-31st floors.

So off we went - down three floors on one escalator, over and down another two on another one, then a final one to the street level. All busy, with people going up and down and lots of folk milling around. That's when it struck me - we would never have that sort of business (public-oriented) up that high, but it's taken for granted here. That's only one tower in a city full of them - it really is a vertical way of living!