Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Cities Can Be A Pain In The Neck

I remember when I first went to New York, the start of my trip was dominated by looking up, and consequently getting a stiff neck. Coming from the UK where much is built at ground level, or a few stories up, the WOW factor of the skyscrapers of Manhattan wove its spell around me. The same thing has just happened as I travelled from Melbourne which is a huge city geographically, but built at a low level, to Hong Kong which is compact but with a massive amount of high rise buildings. In fact, there is little space left in Hong Kong to build, so expansion pretty much has to happen upwards or underground. The high rise blocks are situated right next to each other, and there really is little space. If you're a couple of blocks from the harbour, it's doubtful you'll see anything of it unless you're on the 30th floor of a building. The down side of this is a terrible pollution problem, and when we were there, we both suffered  little from the poor air quality. The up side is the amazing architecture which constantly amazes tourists like Caroline and myself. Here's some pictures of some of those buildings which took our breath away, that is when the smog had left us any!

Standing below The Centre in the heart of Hong Kong

Kowloon restaurant shaped like a ship. Skyscrapers int he background

The clock tower by the Star Ferry terminal

A smoggy view of Hong Kong Island from Kowloon

The amazing Central Government Building behind Admiralty Train Station
A helicopter takes off from the exclusive Peninsula Hotel

The Peak Tower

Day view from the Peak

Night view from the Peak (a little blurred, but it was on my phone!)

Hong Kong Island, without smog, but overcast!

No comments:

Post a Comment