During a stopover in Hong Kong in the summer of 2023, I found myself with a free day. With nothing planned, I wandered aimlessly around Hong Kong Island beneath the blazing sun, using my camera to record my brief and inevitably partial impressions of life on its streets.

Heat · Wave

In summer, Hong Kong lies beneath a furnace-like heat, with temperatures reaching 35 degrees Celsius. The sun beats down without mercy, dissolving streets, vehicles, buildings, and people into the shimmering air.

The heat feels particularly intense in Hong Kong. Hot air from air conditioners and vehicle exhaust has nowhere to escape from the sealed-in urban forest, while sunlight reflected from enormous glass façades adds to the blaze. The air seems to congeal into invisible flames, and every breath feels like inhaling fire.

The heat produces an intriguing sight on Hong Kong’s streets: many labourers work stripped to the waist.

More striking still, the streets are full of bare-chested porters, while office workers in suits are rarely seen. White-collar employees remain inside air-conditioned towers; the nature of blue-collar work leaves labourers with no choice but to stay outdoors. The heat wave draws a stark line between the two classes.

Speaking of class, Hong Kong’s restaurants have their own distinct hierarchy. Visitors from elsewhere tend to choose indoor establishments, elegantly decorated and refined, where they can also escape the heat outside.

Local residents, meanwhile, would rather eat beneath the blazing sun at a dai pai dong, an open-air food stall—not only because it is quick and inexpensive, but above all for the authentic local flavours.

Ordinary · People

In such oppressive weather, most of those lingering on the streets are ordinary people compelled to earn their living outdoors, or tourists visiting the city.

Now and then, I would spot a middle-aged or elderly man immaculately dressed in a suit. A Cantonese expression describes someone like this as looking every inch the proper gentleman, an apt reflection of the city’s British cultural legacy. Even when simply trying to make a living, one must remain neat and presentable.

As a multicultural, international metropolis, Hong Kong brings people of different faiths and ethnicities, dressed in many different ways, onto the same streets.

There are faces from many different countries as well.

In the brief lull before the lunchtime rush, many cooks can be found sitting by the roadside in the back alleys, taking a short break.

Without exception, every one of them is absorbed in a phone.

Life moves quickly in Hong Kong; everywhere on the streets, people hurry past.

Disorder · Order

Disorder in Hong Kong can be understood on several levels and from different angles. I also happened to be here in 2018, when I witnessed another form of disorder firsthand.

In everyday life, the most immediate disorder is the crowded, hectic traffic.

Hong Kong has too many vehicles for its narrow roads, along with a profusion of road signs and traffic lights. It can be genuinely disorienting when you first arrive.

The back alleys are another realm of disorder. Between two buildings there is often a narrow passage: the back alley. It is generally where utility meters and pipes are installed, as well as the exhaust and ventilation systems for restaurant kitchens.

The late German photographer Michael Wolf, who once lived in Hong Kong, devoted a series to the city’s back alleys. During this wander around Hong Kong Island, I spent most of my time in those same alleys—a small tribute to Michael.

Michael spent half his life photographing Hong Kong’s back alleys; I had little more than half a day. My expectations were modest, but I still came away with some interesting images—too many to show here. Although the alleys are cluttered, they are cleaner than one might imagine. Most of what accumulates there is the debris of everyday life, but occasionally something unexpectedly artistic appears. I photographed, for example, two pictures hung outdoors that imitated Chinese artist Yue Minjun’s laughing faces. Their already absurd style, set among the mundane clutter of the alley, made the absurdity of reality all the more apparent. More absurd still, the two photographs failed the review process and could not be shown on the Meipian platform. Words will have to suffice.

Architectural disorder, meanwhile, is everywhere. There was a time when the advertising signs crowding the streets formed one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive sights.

Disorder and order are opposing ideas, yet they coexist. Even the busiest traffic, after all, moves according to a set of rules.

Look carefully beneath the appearance of chaos, and patterns always emerge.

Somewhere, there is always a glimpse of harmony.

Disorder only makes the importance of order more apparent.

Even chaotic architecture has an order of its own.

Bird · Cage

Hong Kong’s tightly packed towers may be almost unparalleled anywhere in the world. The sight of them can feel suffocating, as though the people inside were birds living in cages. Hong Kong even has a particular form of housing known as a cage home.

In a densely populated city with limited land, living space is desperately scarce.

Residential districts are consequently packed with buildings, their high-rises stacked one behind another across the skyline. Many apartment blocks contain vast numbers of small, cramped units, forcing residents to live within severely confined spaces.

Such dense housing brings other problems as well, including noise and air pollution, traffic congestion, and pressure on healthcare and education.

On this trip through Hong Kong, I had planned to photograph several popular locations known for the city’s densely packed architecture. The heat proved too much, and in the end I visited only this one. Located in Quarry Bay, it became famous after appearing in the fourth Transformers film and acquired the nickname “Monster Building.” The complex consists of five connected buildings, with 2,243 units housing nearly ten thousand people.

Passing through a back alley, I noticed these two written characters and took a photograph. Everyone may interpret them differently. What I saw was the symbol of money and the shape of a birdcage, which stripped the characters of their original meaning.

Despite its extreme residential density, Hong Kong has some beautiful parks and wetlands. Kowloon Park and its birdlife are particularly memorable.

Kowloon Park, in the heart of the Kowloon district, is an urban oasis much loved by Hong Kong residents.

The park contains a bird sanctuary that attracts many rare species. Visitors can see flamingos, peacocks, red-billed blue magpies, yellow-billed gulls, and many other birds. They make their homes freely within the park, giving people a chance to draw closer to nature.

Hong Kong is a curious place: people live inside cages, while birds live beyond them.

Beyond a few breadcrumbs, birds want for nothing. With so few desires, they have few restraints and can fly free…

Sunset · Sunrise

After a day spent wandering through Hong Kong’s neighbourhood streets, I returned to my hotel in Sai Wan. I had passed through back alleys under the searing summer sun, brushing shoulders with countless bare-chested labourers; visited Hong Kong apartment blocks packed together like cages; and envied the birds soaring freely above them.

Outside my window, the view was beautiful. The sun was slowly setting, and boats moved back and forth across Victoria Harbour. It suddenly struck me that Hong Kong today resembled this sunset: a sun sinking in the west, its energy gradually fading. I could only hope that after the night had passed, the sun would rise again as always.

Street-Level Hong Kong, 2023

Heat · Wave

Ordinary · People

Disorder · Order

Bird · Cage

Sunset · Sunrise

Continue Reading

More in This Category

More posts

Day Seven: A Whirlwind Tour of Athens

Day Five: Rhodes, City of the Knights

Day Six: Christmas—Taking Gains and Losses as They Come

Day Four: Ephesus, After the Sea Receded