The other half

Hong Kong is a city of great contrasts - very rich and very poor, exceedingly clean and then some areas quite squalid, impressive modern architecture and also neglected old buildings with dubious wiring tacked on the outside...this is true of most major cities in the world.

Today I spent walking around the Central District photographing the amazing new buildings, skyscrapers designed by the world's leading architects, each one as impressive as the next. From Norman Foster's HSBC headquarters designed with his characteristic exterior steel frame to I.M Pei's Bank of China Tower - which violates the principles of feng shui, tsk, tsk...I wish I could have blipped them all.

Instead I decided to show you how the other half live - more likely the other 80% of the population - behind the Central District, as it starts to rise up the peak, we find the lower sections leading up to the Mid Level. Here we find the ramshackle buildings, informal street stalls, some interesting shops (not the bland mass of expensive designer stuff) and people going about their daily lives who are not dressed in Armani with Christian Laboutin killer heels on. To get there Hong Kong has a unique and wonderful escalator system, starting at the bottom from the ferries, one can walk and then escalate (in the true sense!) to the top of the Mid Levels. One can hop off at various points to join the streets crossing the escalator system. Such fun!

Oh, and while I was taking this photo my husband told me he saw two rats scurrying across the street under the stalls!