I used to -- and still do, to some effect -- fetishize living in a highrise. I was a suburban kid who grew up in a boring (and, in retrospect, wonderful) house surrounded by other boring houses -- I watched Seinfeld and Frasier, and loved the idea of living in an apartment complex, where prospective friends and plotlines were only yards and floors away.<p>Looking at Michael's pictures, I'm struck with a particular sense of envy -- I realize, knowing what I know about median Hong Kong quality of living, that its likely unpleasant to live in these conditions. And yet, the sheer mathematics of it -- twenty thousand tenants divided by sixty floors is around three hundred per floor -- makes me smile at so many imaginary hallway interactions.
There is a fortunate side effect to living in such tiny spaces. Having spent a couple of years living in what could be considered submariner sized dwellings, I found that the only thing I used the spaces for was sleeping. When one lives in a tiny, depressing hole, one tends to maximise the time spent out in the world doing things and socializing. With all of that activity I lost weight too.<p>There is a tendency to beautify and manicure our dwellings as if they were tombs in which to be eternally housed, sometimes with the result us of not wanting to leave them.
Having lived in several buildings identical to the ones in a couple of the photos for nearly a decade I can assure you there is nothing very nice about living in them. The lifts and the hallways have no air conditioning. The flats themselves are really really really small, you can fit a queen size bed into the larger bedroom, but you're left with enough room to ease into the room sideways. The worst is during Jan to early March when you get 6-8 weeks of cold weather. It's only down around 10C but the buildings aren't insulated and everything is made of tile, so the wind slices through the walls and the tiles suck the heat out of your body. A lot of these housing blocks are built on top of enormous shopping malls, or train stations or both. And getting to and from work every day means pushing your way through what my Chinese wife used to call "a sea of people" which people in the West would only see if you went into a city for fourth of july, or new years eve fireworks.... And the pace of life there makes NYC feel like a backwater village. There truly is no place like Hong Kong on the planet.<p>That said, my time in Hong Kong was perhaps the happiest of my entire life. And you get used to living on top of everyone else. I'm headed there next month, which is only a 1.5 hour flight from Phnom Penh. I can't wait. There is a little noodle shop in Dai Wai that I've been dreaming about for two months now....
One of the reasons for such high housing costs is the influx of investment money. For example, this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hills" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hills</a> apartment complex is mostly empty. Most of the houses bought up by rich mainlanders looking to park their money somewhere that would still grow their investment.<p>Secondly, there are cheaper alternatives. Living in teh New Territories can be tremendously more cash efficient. I live in the hills in a house, 2 floors, 3 bedroom, with a garden, and pay less than $2500 USD per month.
"In Hong Kong, Rich Live In Mountain Mansions And Poor Live In Cages"<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-rich-live-in-mansions-and-poor-live-in-cages-2013-2" rel="nofollow">http://www.businessinsider.com/hong-kong-rich-live-in-mansio...</a><p>I think it wouldn't be too far out to guess that the eventual end of planet earth is to be covered with structures like in the article posted and people living in it along the lines of the one linked here.<p>How many people could you cram in like that?<p>Hope you like to eat fish.
Up to 60 floors / 20,000 people in an apartment building? I didn't realize that existed. I don't think you'd find an apartment building in the US that has even a fraction of that. The largest hotel in New York is the Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It has 49 floors / 1,949 rooms, which I don't think comes close to 20,000 people; I couldn't find the exact occupancy.
Also, let's face it. It's very difficult to reason about the interior of a building from pictures of its exterior. Who knows how nice these apartments are? I grant that many of them are not probably up to the standards Americans are used to, but the mildew from the tropical climate and various other factors conspire to make things look worse than they are, I bet.
Price for Flat and Rental by income average are highest of anywhere on earth. And NO, New Territories aren't cheap either. Heck even flat in Out Skirt Island are expensive.<p>Business Monopoly by a few companies. Not necessarily a bad thing since South Korea are the same too. Except Samsung manage to feed to poor and give back to the country. Even with so much evil going on with them they still have some decency to their own country. And yet these companies in Hong Kong are much more about extracting all they can from Hong Kongers while not making contribution.<p>Government has zero direction on where to go, no leadership what so ever. No idea where the problems are. And unwilling to solve it.