The magic carpets of Hong Kong
2May 17, 2007 by Colin
Twenty six years ago, I was wandering the streets of Hong Kong, setting off each Saturday on day-long meanders from the safety from my parent’s three bedroom apartment on Po Shan Do.
Located up in the Mid-levels on the island, our apartment building sat right beside a rather horrible landmark: a hillside full of concrete flumes and drains, put in place after a neighbouring construction site slid down the hillside after torrential rains.
Clutching my HK$15 allowance, I would make my way down the winding roads inside a relatively safe minibus. In those pre-SARS days, I thought nothing of the minibus driver rearing back and hocking out a giant loogie while waiting for the stoplight to change.
In the years since, a lot has changed. To put things in perspective, I left just as the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank building was being built – then the largest building in the colony. Now it’s one of many.
And there was no sign of the extensive network of escalators now in place. Polar inertia describes the magic carpets that help ease commuters on their way to work in the morning.
Pointer from Cityofsound.
[tags] Hong Kong, Po Shan Do, Escalators [/tags]
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[...] As I’ve mentioned, I spent four years of my childhood in Hong Kong. [...]