Silly Supper: Tong Lau of Hong Kong

After my recent trip to Hong Kong, I found myself reading up a lot on the urbanscape of this bustling metropolis. Called the world's most vertical city, it is not hard to see why. With blocks and block of office towers, commercial centres and residential apartments, this densely populated country has to accommodate 7 million people in a land area of 1104 km sq.

What amazes me is that retail shops and restaurants are usually packed into commercial buildings of 10-15 storeys. Which means, unless the proprietor is ready to spend biiiiggg bucks, they will not be getting maximum exposure and consumer traffic of the ground/street level. One would usually have to snake up a couple flights of escalator before you find a boutique/restaurant/cafe/salon of choice. Which is when I turn to my Angela and ask, always in awe, "Well, how did you find this shop?" To which Ange always replies with a smile "Well, it's a Hong Kong thing"

Buildings densely packed, side by side, blocks after blocks

Hung Hom District - private residential apartments on top of retail centres

Roads have narrow lanes

Ground level retail spaces usually cost the most

Not wasting any space

Further reading touches on the influence of Chinese architecture in Hong Kong, most notably the "tong lau" or Chinese tenement building. With origins from the Guangdong province, "tong lau" emerged in the late 19th century as balcony-type buildings with ground floor as retail shops and upper levels used for residential purposes. The existing urban arrangement in Hong Kong still uses this concept. There are not many "tong lau' left so hopefully in my next trip, I can capture them in photos. Until then, we will just have to make do with these images from Wikipedia