Double Stacked – City and Transportation
Kind of like the cookies...
Since Asian cities are so densely populated, the city starts to be built upwards. People are stacked on top of the other, creating a multi-layered society - one with an intricate underground, bustling street level and winding above-ground level.
Since Hong Kong is built on a small mountainous island, the city is virtually built into the side of it, with roads breaching around, winding up and curving down. Huge 40 story tall buildings can be seen at mid-level eye-to-eye with people within. An outdoor escalator (covered of course) even runs up the mid-levels in Central.
Hong Kong has a history of stacking things. One notable trait, much like San Francisco’s street cars is Hong Kong’s double-decker trams. Hong Kong has kept most of this classic mode of transportation running through the city as a cheap, but a bit slow and crammed option. At 2$HKD less than 25cents a trip, short rides across town are easy.
Quickly modernizing HK has developed numerous modes of transportation to move its high population around the city. The newly developed MTR subway system (about 10yrs old compared to North America where many systems are over 40 years old) is highly efficient and technologically advanced, the red taxis (decent at price), the mini buses (developed apparently because of regular transportation strikes) that run through hard to get to areas around the mountain or in Kowloon, and the modern re-interpretation of the double-decker trans – the double-decker buses.
These buses, however, are not regular buses. They are large roaring dual-level coach buses that run on complicated routes and schedules all around town. These beasts barge through town at high speeds looking as if it could mow down everyone in its path, leaving survivors in its dusty/smoggy path. It was a bit strange to see such a phenomenon (and in such numbers) in a tight inner city. They are however, highly functional and efficient. Just watch out when standing on the side of the road. They leave in an unpleasant breeze.
to come:
The Octapus card. super handy invention and payment system. Transportation systems are always interesting..
[this was an unposted post returned to from the earlier half of my trip – too much to say – not enough time to write.]
Since Asian cities are so densely populated, the city starts to be built upwards. People are stacked on top of the other, creating a multi-layered society - one with an intricate underground, bustling street level and winding above-ground level.
Since Hong Kong is built on a small mountainous island, the city is virtually built into the side of it, with roads breaching around, winding up and curving down. Huge 40 story tall buildings can be seen at mid-level eye-to-eye with people within. An outdoor escalator (covered of course) even runs up the mid-levels in Central.
Hong Kong has a history of stacking things. One notable trait, much like San Francisco’s street cars is Hong Kong’s double-decker trams. Hong Kong has kept most of this classic mode of transportation running through the city as a cheap, but a bit slow and crammed option. At 2$HKD less than 25cents a trip, short rides across town are easy.
Quickly modernizing HK has developed numerous modes of transportation to move its high population around the city. The newly developed MTR subway system (about 10yrs old compared to North America where many systems are over 40 years old) is highly efficient and technologically advanced, the red taxis (decent at price), the mini buses (developed apparently because of regular transportation strikes) that run through hard to get to areas around the mountain or in Kowloon, and the modern re-interpretation of the double-decker trans – the double-decker buses.
These buses, however, are not regular buses. They are large roaring dual-level coach buses that run on complicated routes and schedules all around town. These beasts barge through town at high speeds looking as if it could mow down everyone in its path, leaving survivors in its dusty/smoggy path. It was a bit strange to see such a phenomenon (and in such numbers) in a tight inner city. They are however, highly functional and efficient. Just watch out when standing on the side of the road. They leave in an unpleasant breeze.
to come:
The Octapus card. super handy invention and payment system. Transportation systems are always interesting..
[this was an unposted post returned to from the earlier half of my trip – too much to say – not enough time to write.]
posted by elle est chiNoise at 5:02 AM
1 Comments:
(hey, you're becoming part of my daily web-drifting. Everything is good to postpone real work...)
Bangkok is a pure exemple of double (multiple)stacked-city where the phenomenon is quite new and so flagrant. Crowded polluted traffic-jamed ground with street food, cheap places, sad mangy-dogs; first-fifth floors with classy shopping mall, above is the flying ultra-modern train (skytrain), 15 meters over the ground some expensive high-way are scaring the downtown and from this jungle emerge the top-companies building.
The contrast is just beautiful.
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