Hong Kong Rising

The approach into Hong Kong is as breathtaking as any I've ever experienced. You start with Foster's soaring airport design on that vast man-made island, then the highway courses along the water's edge, mountains on one side and gleaming 60-story residential buildings -- strangely built in groupings of three or four identical structures -- on the other. (These are apartments buildings the scale of which you would only see in the densest blocks of Manhattan, and yet they're geographically located in the equivalent of Queens.) Then, underneath the sharp white lines of the Tsing Ma Bridge, you get a hint of the real city approaching, as your view cranes around the natural protection of the harbor. Then, a million multicolor shipping containers in the industrial harbor, and then suddenly the skyline, pressed up improbably against the water's edge by the sharply rising land behind it.

All I could think driving in was this: if you took a space alien on that drive and then had him take the trip into Manhattan from JFK, and asked him which of the two was the economic capital of the most powerful and wealthy country on the planet, he'd say Hong Kong in a second. It wouldn't even be close.

Comments

[Rangachari Anand]

I have had exactly this experience when have picked up relatives (first-time visitors to the US) from India at JFK in New York. As we drive through the Queens, I have frequently encountered a sense of let-down "So this is the US?"

[John Dowdell]

I happened across a Discovery Channel presentation on the construction of Hong Kong airport, the bridge, subway system -- was fascinating, worth setting up for a recording if it shows again.

Here's the website for this section of their Extreme Engineering show:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/engineering/airport/interactive/interactive.html

[almost witty]

I'm about to spend one night in Hong Kong. (Wish it was longer)

Are we talking about the train from the airport into Hong Kong? or the bus? or the taxi? Or is it from Hong Kong into the airport?

[alba]

Coming into HK never gets old. Whether it's by the train or in a car. I love coming into that city at night, the skyline and the lights make for a very dramatic first impression.

I get the same feeling when I'm driving into San Francisco from Oakland on the Bay Bridge. Just as you emerge from the tunnel on Treasure Island, the city, the bay and the Golden Gate bridge suddenly appear in a beautiful panoramic. Best seen at sunset.

[france]

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