> After years of living in a small house in Hong Kong’s countryside... Hong Kong has countryside?!?
Yes and some nice beaches too.
Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
21–30 of 77 posts
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#22Up to 60 floors / 20,000 people in an apartment building? I didn't realize that existed. I don't think you'd find an apartment building in the US that has even a fraction of that. The largest hotel in New York is the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It has 49 floors / 1,949 rooms, which I don't think comes close to 20,000 people; I couldn't find the exact occupancy.
I found a mention online that the average household size in Hong Kong is 3 people (in 2006). So that's 20,000 people over 60 floors, 3 per apartment. That's 100 apartments on a floor! They must be incredibly compact if those numbers are correct.
It's actually usually a set of half a dozen same shaped buildings. See the first image in the article.
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#23"In Hong Kong, Rich Live In Mountain Mansions And Poor Live In Cages"
http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-rich-live-in-mansio...
I think it wouldn't be too far out to guess that the eventual end of planet earth is to be covered with structures like in the article posted and people living in it along the lines of the one linked here.
How many people could you cram in like that?
Hope you like to eat fish.
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
Grass is always greener on the other side. Living in Hong Kong right now I do miss living in a detached house in suburban Melbourne. A lot. And no, we rarely see anyone else in the hallway, and even when we do we don't say hi to each other.
You can always start. My grand mother who lives there talks to everyone on the elevator.
Or use Wechat's "look around" feature. I don't recall if it is widely used in Hong Kong but in China I have met a few neighbors this way.
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#25I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away. Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sens…
i assure you, from personal experience, you are right that it's unpleasant to live in these conditions. and whatever hallway interactions you have with neighbors is either unpleasant, or neutral (as in, you smile and move on, no conversation). and if you're used to living in a nice house in a suburban neighborhood, imagine a 3-bedroom apartment squeezed into a space that's approximately your living room. i once lived…
I live in an apartment in Tokyo (not any near as cramped as these places, though). I've stayed at guest houses in Hong Kong and Tokyo. I love it. I don't miss living in a house at all. (I sure don't miss mowing the lawn or shoveling snow off the sidewalk, either.)
I used to romanticize about these kinds of places. I explored them a bit and I liked it. (These days, I'm living in a fairly normal apartment, though. Normal job, normal life.)
I've stayed at guesthouses where I've had lots of socializing with the neighbors. I've had some fun times (and some not-so-fun times...) If you're curious, give it shot!...
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#26There is a fortunate side effect to living in such tiny spaces. Having spent a couple of years living in what could be considered submariner sized dwellings, I found that the only thing I used the spaces for was sleeping. When one lives in a tiny, depressing hole, one tends to maximise the time spent out in the world doing things and socializing. With all of that activity I lost weight too.
There is a tendency to beautify and manicure our dwellings as if they were tombs in which to be eternally housed, sometimes with the result us of not wanting to leave them.
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#27I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away. Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sens…
Grass is always greener on the other side. Living in Hong Kong right now I do miss living in a detached house in suburban Melbourne. A lot. And no, we rarely see anyone else in the hallway, and even when we do we don't say hi to each other.
Travelling in the US, this Australian found that Americans are far more likely to start a conversation with a total stranger, apropos of nothing. It's so rare here, but pretty commonplace there.
So... just try saying 'hello' - it may just be cultural reticence on your part.
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#28I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away. Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sens…
25 years ago i used to live in public housing in HK where there are around ~60 apartments (~400 sq. ft) each floor. hallway interactions are common, we even leave the door open so people can have a quick chat when neighbor passes by.
Nowadays more people live in private housing, usually 8-10 apartments each floor. And people hardly know the last name of their neighbors. Not knowing who lives next door is the norm in HK private/subsidized housing now...
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#29I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away. Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sens…
Spacehunt and gotrecruit are on the money.
Even if you spend 3-4x more than the average household's entire monthly income so that you live in a flat that's almost got half as much usable space as a typical suburban home in, for example, the US, you've got your neighbors to contend with.
The exorbitant rent or mortgage that you're paying only buys you a bit of extra elbow room (likely translated into more bedrooms and a coffin-like chamber into which your domestic helper, i.e. maid, is supposed to be banished at the end of their workday) and a better address. That money doesn't translate into a higher quality of construction. Everything is built as cheaply as possible and buildings begin to degrade pretty much as soon as they're put up for sale. There's no insulation and floors/ceilings are very thin.
Upstairs neighbor's child practicing piano at midnight ahead of a piano exam that they have to pass so that they can cram another cert for another activity into their portfolio for school applications? Their dog(s), which they keep in a cage or exile to the balcony at night, barking or whining? Deal with it. Down-the-hall neighbor having an epic, all-night mahjong tournament and the neverending ka-lakka-lakka-lak-lak sound of the tiles driving you bonkers? Watching a football/soccer match on their TV and bellowing every time that "their" team scores a goal? Deal with it. Condensation from someone's air conditioner dripping from a great height and impacting one of your air conditioners (or a nearby neighbor's) with a loud twang! every few seconds? Deal with it.
Then, there are the sidewalks. Thirty-floor (and taller) highrises are the norm, but the sidewalks tend to be the same size as the ones in a low-density suburb ... or smaller. At peak periods, trying to navigate the sidewalks without getting elbowed or shoved into a railing or wall or (worst case) off the curb and into traffic, is an adventure. At off-peak periods, you'll play air conditioner drip Frogger and try to get to your destination without being slimed with a melange of condensation, pigeon poop, and algae/mold/bacteria by inferring a safe path from the locations of puddles on the sidewalk. Aiyah! Look out! Here comes a guy pushing a metal cart laden with 3-liter cans of corn oil barreling towards you down the sidewalk!
Re: Hong Kong’s Massive High-Rise Neighborhoods
#30I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away. Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sens…
Grass is always greener on the other side. Living in Hong Kong right now I do miss living in a detached house in suburban Melbourne. A lot. And no, we rarely see anyone else in the hallway, and even when we do we don't say hi to each other.
Whenever I pass someone in a quiet street and there's often that awkward moment, I think about the thousands of years we've evolved in smaller tribes and communities. And how poorly we are prepared as animals for purposeless encounters with others.