And so to Hong Kong! What an amazing, buzzing, warm experience (after October in Europe heading for winter), with thronging humanity in all 3-dimensions. I was anticipating taking wonderful photos from the plane of the stunning scenery, but the pollution was so bad that we were almost on the ground before I saw anything other than haze.
My contact Hoi Wai had organized several activities for me the next day, the first being attending one of the events of the Hong Kong Social Forum under way while I was there. Called “Community Documentation”, it was a walking tour of the Kwun Tong District of Kowloon, where massive urban renewal is planned for the next few years. It is a rundown but vibrant and diverse area of Hon
g Kong, developed on reclaimed land in the 1950s and 60s to house factory workers, with a high proportion of unemployed and aged people, a low median income, and 55% of people living in public housing with another 13% in subsidized housing. I followed the group into several existing buildings as they talked with long-time occupants of the district, including a Tao Temple and an owner of racing pigeons. The gist of the conversation as far as I could make out was that people knew that upgrading was needed but could not see where they would fit into the new scheme.I was then taken to lunch to meet members of the Hong Kong People’s Council for Sustainable Development, a high powered group of individuals from backgrounds such as sewage treatment and CO2 computer modeling, rehabilitation of disabled people, Oxfam, the Hong Kong Civic Party, and Director of environmental investments in China for a private investment company. It was good to hear that awareness and initiatives around sustainability were also under way here in this most urban of cities.
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