Having arrived in Hong Kong early in the morning, I walked along its slopes, and then remembered that I was in it so attractive. Let me tell you, and for that I am so in love with this city. In short, due to its three-dimensionality. In any other city, this would be the view from any high balcony:
And here, I took a picture of the frame with one of the many terraces that serve as public spaces multi-tier city. Stairs and terraces - there is the unique charm of Hong Kong. Central Hong Kong is the first island. For coastline office skyscrapers can be seen that in the middle of it stands a mountain. This is Victoria Peak.
Early in the morning after a long flight in a luxurious first class (for nothing), I immediately went up to the peak. Its slopes are within a couple of blocks from the beach, and climb up a fairly large angle. Builders in Hong Kong, where a deficit is not confused, and the city built directly on these slopes. Most of the main streets run parallel to the coastline, and the rare that are inside the island look like this:
That's the same street, but with a view from the top down. If you look closely, it is clear that in a quarter, it becomes a pedestrian.
And this is all a joke. It is for these machines perpendicular to the street - a rarity. And for walkers there are many more, because unlike cars, pedestrians are able to walk up the stairs. A ulih-stairs in Hong Kong very much. Some (closer to the water) is quite flat.
More significantly steeper.
In Hong Kong, the central machine to a pedestrian advantage. So I looked for a comparison of how to get from my hotel to the point deeper into the city. Foot (gray dots) six minutes on the line. By car (blue and yellow) seven minutes zigzags.
Here's how it looks in reality. Taxi rides a detour (about Hong Kong taxi wrote separately), and pedestrians are on the ladder upright. City where pedestrians easier and easier to move than a car, it's wonderful!
Hong Kong residents love their stair streets, often resting on them, sometimes right in their steps. The authorities keep the city clean, so here you can sit without fear of staining your clothes. The walls of the streets are decorated with a good street art, but to the level of the New York Bushwick here still have not grown. About Hong Kong street arts, I wrote a separate post.
Benches on that street, too often found in case someone culture does not allow to sit on the ground.
Urbanists argue: the staircase is for the young and strong well. But what about the elderly? Do not worry! In Gonkonke even aged people can easily go to these slopes stairs, because they train all his life. Sitting on the stairs, too, not only for the young. That middle-aged citizen went quietly smoke a strange bamboo plant. The machine looks like a tube that smoking in Vietnam.
On these streets, even public toilets have built a corner properly.
If you walk up the hill on the stairs this is not for you, the Hong Kong authorities have built a unique escalator street. It sounds like something from science fiction books, moving walkways and so on. In fact, it is just a series of above-ground crossings and street escalators that lead from downtown in an expensive area of Mid-Levels.
To save space and money, escalators unilateral. Early in the morning they only work on the descent, and around 10:30 the system changes the direction and the rest of the day rises. They built it in 1993 to reduce the number of cars that are flooding the narrow streets during the day.
As a result, congestion did not disappear, despite the fact that the system carries more than 80,000 people a day. But the city has received a unique, if not the most elegant landmark. Escalators add another layer already tiered metropolis.
So you climb down this street, and on the side there is access to a small green public garden, situated at a height of three floors above the ground. A small corner of shade and tranquility in the midst of urban chaos. Mini-park on the terrace.
Wow, that Hong Kong is full of such places, and they often allow you to see the street from a height. Since the city is on a slope, you can just go to the park on the one hand the quarter, and at the other end to be very high in the air.
Public terraces scattered throughout the city - every time I nabredayu new, turning into the most random alleys. Here for example, I used to be a no. Note on this terrace elevator doors - you can go down into the street, not walking around.
But these inputs need to know, because the street you never know where the lead taken separately elevator.
From these terraces are very nice to look down on Hong Kong stairs.
The involvement of the city also attracts me. Remember as kids we dreamed of medieval castles with their towers, intricate corridors, a maze with secret passages, tunnels and on bridges? Hong Kong embodies all of this on the scale of the whole city!
Climbing higher and higher from the shore is sometimes to look back, because each time the view is better and better.
As a result, on foot or on the escalator, you find yourself in Mid-Levels district. As the name implies, is a level somewhere in the middle of Victoria Peak. There are luxury residential high-rise. They inhabit the rich Hong Kongers and Europeans who have moved to the city for work (mainly in the field of finance). Accommodation here is very expensive.
In the Mid-Levels lot more greenery and terraces here are more like nobility manor.
On the terraces, you can find anything. You want a football field?
Maybe a tennis court? (On the playground and say nothing, all the residents of Mid-Levels family, and various slides and lazalok here is complete.)
Here are some terraces. Although in Mid-Levels are often private, only for the residents of these buildings. But if a certain kind enough to come, being of European appearance, chances are that nobody will stop. We once in 2011 because of Misha climbed a luxury complex. There were so many tennis courts and swimming pools that we think we are in some kind of sport club hit. Only then I realized that it's just a housing for the rich.
In the Mid-Levels sometimes oschyuschaesh yourself in this mountain-city forest. It seems there stairs instead of the mountains, but many trees everywhere that somehow creates the effect of wildlife right between the skyscrapers.
Local trees are way more opportunists. They have literally held back the weight of the steep walls of terraces.
By Mid-Levels cars go a little lighter than the bottom, but here they have to be wound very curly zig-zagi.
To protect sharp turns, everywhere there are traffic mirrors. They are very comfortable selfie shoot.
Such a unique ladder cities like Hong Kong should be a unique system of public transport. Down there the water walk the famous double-decker trams - about them, everyone knows. And here on the slopes of Mid-Levels goes to other vehicles. You know what it is?
This mountain tram stop! In fact, he certainly looks more like a cable car, goes on a rope under a strong inclination. Tram mainly tourism, and carries people to the top of Victoria Peak. But on the way there are many stops here. You can press a button and a passing tram stop you pick. They go every 15 minutes, you just have to wait.
And here he is! In purely Hong Kong style here on the tram rails road runs. Stacked!
Tram runs under the good inclination. Besides the mountain tram in Hong Kong there is a lot of unique types of transport.
For those fans of A) Tram, and B) go on foot, as I have done here Streetcar Path.
It is possible for a large portion of the path to go up the stairs next to the tram rails. This is a good exercise. Walk so every day, and old age in Hong Kong, with its stairs, you are not afraid.
What do you think about the stairs streets? Do you like them as well as me? And the confusion? Lifts? Bridges and terraces? If you do not like, then you should probably look at a very different Hong Kong.
