Hong Kong Honeypot

This is my photo gallery of Hong Kong. It also has a few images of places around the Pearl River Delta. I regularly update it. Enjoy!

: An Alexander Dennis with the Enviro 500 body (also known as Trident E500) rushing line 96 (operated by CityBus) past Sogo at CWB. Despite being only 40ft long and difficult to board and deboard, Hong Kongs double decker bus fleet provides a comfortable, economical, air conditioned and scenic trip experience. If you score one of the top seats, that is.

: This creepy creature is a dragon-back gold fish. The main reason why people perceive it as creepy is not its big eyes, but rather that it lacks a dorsal fin. Because they see and swim badly, they are rarely found in wildlife. Just like the Panda, it is a miracle it survives at all.

: Chrysaora Fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettle) is a common jellyfish in the Pacific ocean. It’s non-lethal and quite popular among aquariums due to its easy maintenance.

: On the second day of the Lunar New Year (Jan 24, 2012) Hong Kong celebrates with a massive display of fireworks. The fireworks, according to Chinese mythology, are supposed to scare away the evil 年獸 Nian creature (literal translation: Year Beast). The Hong Kong fireworks are said to be the most expensive in the world in the past 12 months and at least partly sponsored by the 中國共產黨 Communist Party of China. However, I couldn’t find any sources for this, and sponsoring also seems quite useless if noone knows about it.

: Gloucester Road looking east from the Wan Chai pedestrian overpass next to the Immigration Tower. About 90% of the daily journeys are made with public transportation, the highest in the world. It is almost entirely private and highly efficient while at very low cost. It consists of buses, coaches, minibuses, trams, cable cars, ferries, hydrofoils, helicopters and escalators.

: The 青馬大橋 Tsing Ma Bridge is the worlds seventh longest span suspension bridge with a span of 1377 meters. It has two decks, one with six lanes for cars, the other for the 東涌 Tung Chung line and Airport Express trains, which can operate even during the most severe typhoons. The highway that passes this bridge connects the city with the airport via 大嶼山 Lantau Island. It will be part of the 港珠澳大橋 Hong Kong – Zhuhai – Macau link that is expected to open in 2016. Glowing in the back you see the Hong Kong port.

: If you listen carefully to this picture, you can hear China’s real estate bubble burst. The area around 珠海 Zhuhai is scattered with failed infrastructure and real estate projects. In many cases the projects had to be halted because they were illegal or one of the involved contractors or loan sharks filed bankruptcy or fled the country. But there is increasing concern over a bursting real estate bubble, with signs like those in the picture here, where a gigantic housing park lies uninhabited, but without workers, machines or any signs of construction apart from rusting cranes.

: 珠海 Zhuhai, 澳門 Macau, 深圳 Shenzhen and 香港 Hong Kong all lie in the 珠江 Pearl River Delta. It’s main waterway is expected to be among the most polluted flows in the world, but its side arms can be surprisingly beautiful.

: Situated on the western side of 大嶼山 Lantau Island, just south of the new airport lies 大澳 Tai O. Having been known for smuggling and illegal immigration for a long time, it is still today an active fishing village, though tourism is also a big source of income. Today, most tourists come for the great sunset and the Chinese white dolphins that I sadly missed the day that I was there.

: The Hong Kong-Macau Hydrofoil. TurboJET operates different Hydrofoils between Hong Kong and Macau that take about one hour for the 70km ride (€ 15). An expensive alternative is the helicopter, doing the 15 min trip for € 200. This picture shows the 1976 Boeing-built Urzela passing Kennedy Town.

: Full moon above IFC 2. The bright building in the center is with 416m Hong Kong’s second tallest building and my personal favorite. To its right is my least favorite building of Hong Kong, “the Center” (346m). To the left of IFC 2 is Cosco tower (228m), right in front of it is IFC 1 (210m). Hong Kong has 281 skycrapers (> 150m), the most of all cities in the world.

: The pond on the Main Campus of the University of Hong Kong. Quite a nice place to hang out between water lilies, turtles and koi fish. On the left is the memorial for Sun Yat Sen, the first president of the (then) Republic of China and respectable figure in all of Hong Kong, Taiwan and the PRC. Sun Yat-sen studied at the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the forerunner of HKU.

: From Third Street, looking east, one gets a great afternoon view on the Cosco Building and IFC 2.

: This too, is Macau. With 60,000 US$ of average income per year per person Macau is listed by the World Bank as the third richest territory on the planet. However, with an income Gini (World Bank) of 48 little of the (casino) income trickles down. And so, Macau’s streets are dominated by Scooters and Roll’s Royce.

: And again, this is Macau. For most of the time, Macau feels much more European than Chinese. And with 500 years of Portuguese history on it’s back, Macau lives up to that feeling, with fine European cuisine and about every street sign in Portuguese and English.

: This is Macau: Owned by “the King of Gambling” and billionaire Stanley Ho, the Casino Lisboa is one of Macau’s most famos casinos. This picture shows the Grand Lisboa, a 400 room, 1000 slot machine classic of 261m. Macau generates about half of its income from gambling and with 10 billion US$ per year more than Las Vegas.

: Hong Kong has one of the most efficient road systems in the world. Although roughly only 400,000 private cars exist in the city with 7 million inhabitants, roads are often packed with buses, taxis and commercial trucks.

: The Bank of China building (357m) with its knife-like design is believed to disrupt the Freng Shui of the area and faced widespread opposition when construction started in 1985. As evil spirits can only go in straight lines, Hong Kong architects often carefully design structures to be as smooth as possible. The Bank of China is a PRC-government owned commercial bank, but together with HSBC and Standard Charterded has banknote issuing authority.

: Mong Kok is the place with the highest population density in the world. 130,000 people live on 1 km². The district is home to many cheap malls like the collector’s mall (lego, action figures, mangas,…), the RC mall, the gun mall, and also great street food, many arcades and tons of cheap food.

: In China during holiday season, people dont queue up to sit in the lap of Santa Claus, but rather queue to sit next to an astronaut Hello Kitty that operates, well, a Hello Kitty time machine.

: Buddha and his magic blue lion. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

: Up the stairs from the Sha Tin suburb is the “Ten Thousand Buddahs Monastery”. Despite actually being a temple, it features well over 10,000 Buddhas of all sizes and shapes.

: On the site of today’s Kowloon Walled City Park stood until 1994 the Walled City. It had a population density of an unbelievable 1 million people per km² and was completely outside the rule of HK law. It housed schools, textile and food factories, hundreds of illegal dentists and maybe thousands of triads. The Anarchist’s Nirvana was torn down because the Walled City had become a huge fire hazard and the HK government wanted to finally be able to raise taxes on the income of its residents.

: In Hong Kong, we uphold the tradition of merging the three world religions (Santa-Klaus-Christianity, Judaism and Harry Potter) into one giant winter celebration! It’s Chrismukkah, you muggles!

: Yes, I’ve said it many times: Mao (毛澤東) is the cutest mass murderer that we know of, and putting lipstick on his lips and a ribbon in his hair does not make him look more dangerous. Political graffiti on Ladder Street, Sheung Wan

: Mystical dogs, lions or wolves scratching their neck in front of the T. T. Tsui building at HKU. If anyone knows what they are or what they do, please comment!

: A Rhesus Macaque baby (Macaca Mulatta) on a tree in Lion’s Rock Country Park. Hong Kong has a growing problem as monkeys become expectant of hikers to feed them, leading to aggression against humans and other monkeys.

: The Hai Kun Ferry operated by Zhuhai High Speed Passenger Ferries passing ICC on her way to the Hong Kong Macau Ferry terminal in Sheung Wan.

: 鳳凰木 Delonix Regia, also known as Flame of the Forest, was brought by the British from India to Hong Kong and can be found around the campus of HKU. This one is right in front of the Main Building.

: Delay No More is a registered trademark by the Hong Kong fashion label 住好o的 Goods of Desire and if pronounced right in Cantonese turns out be extraordinarily offensive.

: Two Hydrofoils approaching Hong Kong near Belcher’s Bay. In front is a Universal MK Austal by Turbojet coming from Macao, behind is another Austal by New World First Ferries.

: Heavy rain at Belcher’s Bay.

: A beautiful Nissan Skyline GT-R from around 1973 parked on Aberdeen Street. LF 2101

: The largest Quidditch Stadium in Hong Kong is situated in Sheung Wan. It hosts about 500 enthusiasts and is the second largest Quidditch Stadium in the world.

: The Hong Kong – Macao helicopter approaching the Shun Tak Heliport.

: Banyan trees originally come from India and were brought to Hong Kong by the British.

: Flash floods occur quite often and can easily top the 70mm of water per hour mark, in which case the black rainstorm signal is hoisted.

: IFC 2 (left) and ICC form, when seen from the right perspective, a majestic gate into Victoria Harbor.

: The Lamma Power Station was built in 1982 and has a combined power of 3,755MW

: Full Moon shining above Central, as seen from a ferry coming from the West.

: Hong Kong has its own very unique version of Bauhaus, which is also very much shaped by the balconies that were later covered up as real estate prices rose.

: North Point as seen from the ice skating ring inside Megabox in Kowloon Bay. It is Hong Kong’s largest.

: Exchange Tower in Kowloon Bay shows the trend to compensate the lack of green areas in the city with clever vertical parks.

: KMB #680 to Leeon 利安, a real estate development near 馬鞍山 Ma On Shan in the New Territories. It is followed by 8 various franchised buses on 英皇道King’s Road near Fortress Hill MTR. What a colorful sight!

: A Citybus doing a hilarious illegal U-turn on Finance Street next to IFC Mall in Central.

: Every night the hawkers at Ladies Market have to clear all the space and store their merchandise in the buildings nearby.

: The Cheung Chau boat city. Many people still live on these boats. The Cheung Chau boat city. Many people still live on these boats.

: The initial version of the Toyota Comfort from 1995. It was quickly followed by a face lift and is more rare than the Nissan Cedric or the Toyota Noah, both of which are also used as taxis.

: The Public Light Bus, also called Minibus or Maxicab, was created as a system in 1967 during the riots to reduce the bargaining power of the public bus drivers who were on strike. Today, with their light regulation and intense competition, they contribute heavily to Hong Kong’s cheap and efficient public transportation system.

: A small noodle factory in Macau.

: Macau was for a long time a quite violent place. The story of the unusual high number of break-ins is still told by the many cages residents put around their balconies to protect themselves.

: Staged or not? Photographers and a praying woman inside Saint Lawrence’s Church in Macau.

: The newest shopping mall of Hong Kong and tallest building in Causeway Bay, Hysan Place also offers this great lookout on the 5th floor. It’s a public area and open until around midnight.

: Balloons being lifted above Causeway Bay.

: Bird’s View of Yun Ping Road behind Hysan Place.

: 30 stories of bamboo scaffolding. Bamboo has many advantages over steel, it is lighter, more flexible and yet more stable. The reason why it is rarely used in Western countries is not it’s unavailability, but rather that it’s difficult to find workers skilled with bamboo.

: The skies over Kowloon. The glow in the righthand background comes from the harbor.

: The Flamingos at Kowloon Park in Tsim Sha Tsui at night.

: A colorful estate in Kennedy Town.

: 天水圍 Tin Shui Wai, the City of Sorrow. This government housing estate, developed in 1987 is home to over 270,000 low-income individuals. It lies exactly opposite of 深圳 Shenzhen in Mainland China and about 1 hour bus ride away from Central.