A Trip to Hong Kong

Singapore is always comparing itself to Hong Kong, and imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Singapore’s train system is the MRT; Hong Kong’s is the MTR.
I haven’t been to Hong Kong since 1993. It’s changed a bit.

For instance, these buildings used to be on the waterfront. Now, thanks to land reclamation and wild building, they are about 3 skyscrapers away from the water.

There are a lot more skyscrapers, holding a lot more financial industry workers. Hong Kong’s shipping business has largely gone to Shanghai, so finance is the big dog here. That and construction, relentless large-scale construction. The new airport is on a separate island, connected by fantastic huge bridges to Hong Kong Island – the airport sprawls everywhere. Very modern and safe, but a lot less adventurous to land there. When I landed at the old airport I could look into the windows of the skyscrapers and wave to the workers there. Kind of like reading the license plates on the 405 when you land at LAX.

These new apartment buildings have holes in them, each hole taking up the space of at least 10 apartments. Why? It’s not for aerodynamics. It’s for feng shui; the necromancers persuaded the builders and architects that the spirits would object to these buildings and dash their evil influence against them. But with these nice big holes, the spirits will be ineffective; they’ll just fly harmlessly through the holes. The builders are taking a sizeable financial hit with these holes, but they make a good story.

This private boat was so huge I’m not sure it fit entirely into my viewfinder. But what I like about this is its dependence on the tiny rusty tugboat at its flank.

Below is the view of the Hong Kong skyline at night.

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