Kowloon City

The 1st part if this post is in the Mong Kok section of Kowloon. The 2nd part is the other side of the tracks, literally and figuratively.
Mong Kok is an active commercial and touristy neighborhood. Hong Kong has long been a center for fish: 1st as a sleepy fishing village and later for tropical fish. The 1st picture is one of scores of shops selling everything you could want for your aquarium. Even tropical fish harvested elsewhere are shipped through here.
In the 2nd picture, the turtle to the left is the golden coin turtle. I'm told this species is the extinct in the wild due to traditional beliefs about healing powers of eating this. So I understand that they aren't supposed to be sold. It is also ridiculously expensive. I'm told that turtle is worth $25,000.
The next 2 pictures are are in the large flower market. There is a long tradition of flower marketing here. This market is located where the land of the colonial British met the land of the Chin Dynasty. The reason for the flower market had to do with colonials being mostly male intersecting with the world's oldest profession. In order to engage a prostitute, the client had to give flowers. If they were accepted, the deal got done. I can imagine a comedian making hay out of that history as it might relate to modern giving of flowers.
The 5th and 6th pictures are in the bird market. There are both song birds and various parrots. Like many things here, having birds is traditional.
The last 3 pictures are the other side of the tracks. This is a darker side of HK. Housing is a serious problem and very expensive. At the begining of communist rule on the mainland, so many people moved here that the population quintupled in 5 years. The city couldn't absorb that.
The 7th picture looks at the history of housing in response to the population explosion. To the right are older buildings, some as tall as 10 stories without an elevator that were thrown up quickly. To the left is a modern building built to new codes that are 30 stories and more.
It's the older buildings that I want to mention. Rents are so expensive in HK that apartments are subdivided into 100 sf units. That's only 10X10 or a very small bedroom in the US. The last 2 pictures are in one of these. These tiny apartments rent for more than the median income. So to rent one of these, you need to be earning more than what 1/2 the people earn.
You will notice the cage in the 8th picture. That's actually a rental subunit that costs about 2/3 of the minimum wage.
It was terribly hard to see, but this is the reality for most people here in what is by far the most expensive housing market in the world relative to local income.Read more