Hong Kong Project Housing

I took 2 days off and flew to Hong Kong to meet with Mom. It has been ages since we hung out together in Hong Kong. It was a very pleasant memories after I grew up. I hated to go to Hong Kong every summer when I was a kid, those were the time my palates and wallet were not fully developed. Oh well, I wasn't too much of the shopping type (I prefer collecting financial products) but there are still a lot to see. The smell of Thai fragrant rice and steamed fish in the highly dense neighborhood is still one of my fondest childhood memories.

We stayed in the uncle Tomas's flat in LokFu, which is the government housing (project in New York state?). I guess that's the part of Hong Kong tourists won't see. The concentration of human beings living in a unit square feet is amazing. Hong Kong government really did the wonder of the world. Most of the apartment buildings have about 35 floors. Every floor has about 8 units. Every unit is about 500 square feet. Not quite impressive, however, imagine there are around 100 such buildings concentrated around one subway station?

Hong Kong government designs these type of housing with standardised models, models for the wall, models for the door, models for the drainange. Basically each floors were built exactly the same way to save cost. Of course, they are all made in Mainland China, then shipped to Hong Kong for the final assembly. You can easily be lost among these 100 identical buildings with identical smell of food and bleach.

There are shops, restaurants, supermarkets and traditional markets in the bottom floors, which are all interlinked. Of course, the subway station. There are endless people moving about the stair well, lifts, shops... I felt a bit suffocated. The stress of living in such an environment is beyond my imagination.

This flat is owned by uncle Tomas. Flats in this apartment complex were sold in discount to people who used to live in the government rental project. My mom's family (my grandmom, 3 uncles and my mom) used to live in the rental property, 250 square feet with only one sink. The sink is used for veggie washing and teeth brushing. The bathroom is about 16 square feet, it has one squater toilet in the middle. We need to cover it with a wooden board when taking a shower. However, it was such a new and fun idea to do that when visiting my grandmom in Hong Kong when I was a kid.

Although it still sounds terribly stressed, Uncle Tomas' flat now is considered pretty cool in Hong Kong. Of course, most people move out as soon as they can afford a non-government housing.