Macau & Hong Kong

[loud]

Just returned from a trip to Macau & Hong Kong...

Macau is a very strange place in terms of development as it is being driven by a very different type of boom - a gambling boom! It is apparently the only place in all of China and its SAR's where gambling is legal, so every hour of the day the Chinese come over and spend up big on the tables...

I could not get over the number of casino & hotel complexes currently under construction, and the fact that they are being worked on 24/7... The other amusing element is how they still use bamboo for scaffolding - quite strange seeing a 40 storey building wrapped up in wood with workers welding, drilling, sawing, etc...

The building designs are very imaginative and the finishes throughout are top notch - I have attached a few photos...

Hong Kong is just a big, modern city, nothing more to it than that... one of its best elements has to be its public transport system, MTR. The trains appear to be hundreds of metres long (no idea exactly how long cos they move so quickly) and they come about every 5 minutes. Also, when you catch the airport express, they have all of the airline check in desks at the train station, so you give them your baggage and collect your boarding passes and you dont have to worry about it at the airport - sooo good!

The skyline at night is really cool, have attached some photos of that too...

PS... I am shit-house at uploading stuff so have put the photos together as pdf documents

[Norman]

Thanks mate for the photos & rundown. I hope to visit some of those places in the future

[Howie]

Sweet.. thanks for the pics.. i'll be heading that way in a few months, never been to HK before so should be a real treat for me.

[AG]

Just returned from a trip to Macau & Hong Kong...

Macau is a very strange place in terms of development as it is being driven by a very different type of boom - a gambling boom! It is apparently the only place in all of China and its SAR's where gambling is legal, so every hour of the day the Chinese come over and spend up big on the tables...

I could not get over the number of casino & hotel complexes currently under construction, and the fact that they are being worked on 24/7... The other amusing element is how they still use bamboo for scaffolding - quite strange seeing a 40 storey building wrapped up in wood with workers welding, drilling, sawing, etc...

The building designs are very imaginative and the finishes throughout are top notch - I have attached a few photos...

Apparently neighbouring Guandong Province is now posing restrictions on how often people can cross the border into Macau. Once every 3 months is what is proposed as far as I remember. But the plans for Macau are absolutely enormous. The reclaimed land they've used increased Macau's total land area by about a third, just for the entire Cotai Strip.

Hong Kong is just a big, modern city, nothing more to it than that... one of its best elements has to be its public transport system, MTR. The trains appear to be hundreds of metres long (no idea exactly how long cos they move so quickly) and they come about every 5 minutes. Also, when you catch the airport express, they have all of the airline check in desks at the train station, so you give them your baggage and collect your boarding passes and you dont have to worry about it at the airport - sooo good!

To say that Hong Kong is just a large, modern city is bit of a shallow way of looking at the city. It's buildings in the main urban area might be modern, but if one ventures into the New Territories or islands lying just outside the city, there are still some districts like fishing villages that have changed little since Hong Kong grew rapidly after WWII. The way of life of Hong Kong people also has its roots in history, this is clearly evident at street level, particularly in districts such as Sheung Wan and areas to the west and south of Central. The glitzy areas that most people see are Causeway Bay and/or Tsim Sha Tsui.

[omada]

Cool pics Loud, very "Bladerunner" love all the Neon signage..

[loud]

Just returned from a trip to Macau & Hong Kong...

Macau is a very strange place in terms of development as it is being driven by a very different type of boom - a gambling boom! It is apparently the only place in all of China and its SAR's where gambling is legal, so every hour of the day the Chinese come over and spend up big on the tables...

I could not get over the number of casino & hotel complexes currently under construction, and the fact that they are being worked on 24/7... The other amusing element is how they still use bamboo for scaffolding - quite strange seeing a 40 storey building wrapped up in wood with workers welding, drilling, sawing, etc...

The building designs are very imaginative and the finishes throughout are top notch - I have attached a few photos...

Apparently neighbouring Guandong Province is now posing restrictions on how often people can cross the border into Macau. Once every 3 months is what is proposed as far as I remember. But the plans for Macau are absolutely enormous. The reclaimed land they've used increased Macau's total land area by about a third, just for the entire Cotai Strip.

Hong Kong is just a big, modern city, nothing more to it than that... one of its best elements has to be its public transport system, MTR. The trains appear to be hundreds of metres long (no idea exactly how long cos they move so quickly) and they come about every 5 minutes. Also, when you catch the airport express, they have all of the airline check in desks at the train station, so you give them your baggage and collect your boarding passes and you dont have to worry about it at the airport - sooo good!

To say that Hong Kong is just a large, modern city is bit of a shallow way of looking at the city. It's buildings in the main urban area might be modern, but if one ventures into the New Territories or islands lying just outside the city, there are still some districts like fishing villages that have changed little since Hong Kong grew rapidly after WWII. The way of life of Hong Kong people also has its roots in history, this is clearly evident at street level, particularly in districts such as Sheung Wan and areas to the west and south of Central. The glitzy areas that most people see are Causeway Bay and/or Tsim Sha Tsui.

Yea, Cotai is phenomenal! That was my favourite area - so much happening... i am spewing i didn't get a good photo of all the buildings going up

The government has placed a lot of restrictions since the olympics and I understand they haven't been lifted... they have also put a stop to any new casino's in Macau... I have a white paper comparing Macau to Vegas that I will have to try and remember to upload when I can...

Yes, my HK comment was shallow, but I was short of time and was looking for a 3 word description I was fortunate enough to know a local that took me around urban areas, in particular the new territories... was my favourite part of the trip - so much culture and history (and the local food was amazing!) I stayed right in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, so that really made the biggest impression on me...