x-quer: Hong Kong - World's most crowded space?

Hello everyone,

A street in Mong Kok on a lazy Sunday morning.

I'm living a few minutes walking from the area called Mong Kok. A place, if you believe the Guiness Book of World Records, that is the most crowded place on our planet (130 000 people per km²). Before I was able to move into my appartment I had a two-day stay in a hotel over there. And yes, it is a crazy place for sure.

However, it would be unfair to Hong Kong to only think about its crowdiness. Overall the city is very densely populated, that's true. Yet, there are many places, which are not settled at all, because -- frankly -- you can't settle them!

Hong Kong: A big or a small place?

Hong Kong lies in a very hilly area. Many hills are so steep, that you can't build on them. This results in many green islands inside that ocean of people, traffic, and business. And as Hong Kong is not very big spatially you can reach those hills very, very quickly. I personally think that's a really good balance: You have all that buzzing live and crazyness contained on a rather small area. Directly neighbouring it, however, you have beautiful nature and hiking paths to follow to take a deep breath and relax.

Big trees and big houses are close neighbours in HK.

Furthermore there is the north of Hong Kong, which is suppossed to be very rural. I have yet to discover these areas, so I cannot say much about them at this time.

One of the Hong Kong film studios. In the past they produced icons Bruce Lee (grown up in Kowloon) and Jacki Chan (born in Hong Kong). Since then several more came to Hong Kong to do their martial arts flicks, like Jet Li. The studios are still up and running today and Hong Kong remains to be a big producer of Chinese movies.

For the quick "refreshment" Hong Kong features a variety of parks, gardens, playgrounds and planted rooftops, which you can visit for free. Just avoid those on a Sunday. Why that? On Sunday the house-maidens in Hong Kong have their free day. And they love to go out there and crowd these places. They bring picknicks, tambourines, music-boxes, bingo, card-games,... and they dance, cheer, celebrate birthdays, suit up as Santa, sing, eat, and foremost: chit-chat away like a big flock of canary birds. It is fun to watch and definitely something you should experience when being in Hong Kong. However, it is not relaxing ;)

All of the above three are from Kowloon Park.

The pictures in this article are from a hike in the north-eastern hills (about 40 minutes by metro), a stroll through Kowloon Park (5 minutes from my house-door), and the botanical and zoological garden (on Hong Kong Island, about 30 minutes by metro).