Hong Kong, the vertical city

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There is no other way to apprehend why Hong Kong is often called “the vertical city” than to climb upon a mountain and to look down on the city. The pictures in this post are taken in Kowloon.

Human Density

Kowloon is one of the most densly populated areas of Hong Kong and also cumulates a number of the poorest areas such as Sham Shui Po or Yau Ma Tei.

The human density on this part of the city led to a profusion of high-rise buildings erected as far as the eye can see. In some way, this both answers to and replicates the human density with an architectural density.

In a previous post, I wrote about “architectural compression” in Hong Kong when talking about Montane Mansion. Here, we are talking about a different “compression”.

Compression takes place in height, rather than in space. With the limited space available, logically, most buildings are erected upwards.

View from a mountain

All of the pictures featured in this post were shot from a mountain, namely Shatin’s pass, between Kowloon Peak and Wong Tai Sin. It is a lovely hiking route, with almost no danger (excepted the cars attempting to replicate a mountain rallye race). In addition to the lovely route, Shatin’s pass affords some exceptional viewpoints when the sky is clear.

In this case, there was some haze (treated partly under Lightroom), so not the ideal situation.

A vertical city soon in crisis?

Despite the construction craze which can be seen in some of the pictures, the HK Government has kept on warning hongkongers to beware of a backlash and possibly a drop in real estate pricing. Pointless to say that with some cultural factors such as no lady accepting to marry you if you don’t have your own flat, such warnings fall into deaf ears. Real estate prices still climb, fed by cheap money with the low interest rates for mortgages.

How to get there?

Ok, I forgot to tell you how to get there… Two routes. Either you get down to Wong Tai Sin MTR and walk up to Shatin’s Pass, or you take the thougher route which is to climb the whole Jat’s Incline after alighting at Choi Hung MTR. Either way, be prepared for some tough climbing even if it will be on perfectly paved roads.

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