Origami Apartment in New York by Eric Schneider

The bed / living room divider looks a little unwieldy but the result is terrific and there’s even room for guests with plenty of storage space. I especially like the kitchen configuration and lack of visible light fixtures. Checkout this even smaller‘shoebox’ apartment in Manhattan that goes one step further.

Lego Apartment in Barcelona by Christian Schallert

My favourite thing here has to be the way the balcony connects to the rest of the room which all neatly folds away, leaving an empty box. The polished concrete floor complements warmth of the bespoke wooden panelling and looks easy to keep clean. When things are folded out it starts to look cramped.

Transformer Apartment in Hong Kong by Gary Chang

An amazing amount of thinking must have gone into how all the different components in this apartment fit together with such a high-quality finish. The use of floating walls and mirrors to create separate spaces within spaces is especially ingenious. Smart but perhaps a little over-complicated and fiddley.

Modern Hanok House in Seoul by Simone Carena

This modern take by an Italian on a traditional Korean Hanok house captured my imagination since it updates centuries old sensibilities with modern conveniences. An interoir courtyard maintains privacy while still allowing light into the building via huge windows and mirrors. More photos here.

Feng Shui Cube in California by Liu Ming

This “compact mobile dwelling cube” which can be moved around on wheels takes things to a different level with a study, bedroom, and tea room within a tiny box which sits itself within a large loft apartment. Possibly more philosophical than practical but a pretty cool talking point all the same!

‘Kyosho Jutaku’ Micro Houses in Japan

Many people mentioned Japan as a source of inspiration for their compact designs and the video above gives you some idea of the extremes micro houses have been taken to over there – many sit on barely the footprint of a car parking space! While they may have been born out of necessity, demand for ultra-compact homes, known as ‘kyosho jutaku‘, is apparently rising.

The Potential of Emptiness

The Japanese have a unique philosophical take on the sense of space with its ability to take on multiple forms and thus an empty space is seen to have more potential than a cluttered space. Author and art director of MUJI, Kenya Hara, elaborates on the importance of “emptiness” vs “simplicity” in both the visual and philosophical traditions of Japan, and its application to design -

“The concept of simplicity is only a very recent part of human history in the context of creating our environment… What [the Japanese] found pleasing was a concept of emptiness which is different from the simplicity that was later discovered by Modernism… It seems that being constantly exposed and becoming familiar with various cultures, Japan has actually created a sensibility of ultimate plainness that is liberated from all cultural styles…

In the tea ceremony a principle of emptiness is at work. It serves as a resource of ideas that communicate with and ignites any of a vast range of possible situations, either among people or between the person and the object.

Behind MUJI’s thinking is the idea of applying the simplicity of the products as emptiness… Within the MUJI concept is the idea of discovering within simplicity a luxury that rivals meer appearance.

To create is not just to create an object or a phenomenon. Coming up with a question is also creation. In fact, a question that has huge receptive capacity doesn’t even need a definitive answer… Questioning is emptiness… Emptiness is itself the possibility of being filled.”

You can watch the full and fascinating presentation he gave at Google or again at W+K.

MUJI sells a number of prefabricated houses which are designed to be small but function and environmentally friendly. While “prefab” might be a dirty word for some, these seem to be very well thought through and exemplify the Japanese concept of “emptiness”.

DIY?

Philosophical ideals aside, the core theme when designing for a compact space seems to be creating areas of functional overlap. To live comfortably in such a space careful consideration must be given to ensure that everything is meaningful and has a reason to exist. I can’t help but feel we’d all be a lot happier if we simply had less space to fill with meaningless junk.

While most of these projects have been professionally designed by architects I don’t find them outside the realm of something which could be achievable and maybe before too long I’ll start putting some of the ideas in my head down on paper. As for cost, that’s an entirely different matter!

A stunning time-lapse video by Spot On Idea (a production company in Hong Kong). Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I actually live here.

Related posts you might like:

1. Recreating Ghost in Hong Kong
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide
3. Hong Kong Moments V

Arriving late on a Saturday night I headed straight to my accommodation in the Phaya Thai (พญาไท) district and had a quick bite for dinner. The next morning I took the BTS Skytrain (Bangkoks elevated rapid transit system) to Ratchathewi station (ราชเทวี - when pronounced sounds a lot like ratatouille!) in search of the Khlong Saen Saeb canal.

The surrounding neighbourhood here seemed to be a bit run-down but there were some interesting old houses along the canal bank and some particularly cryptic looking graffiti.

An express canal boat service operates on the Saen Saeb, providing fast and inexpensive (if a somewhat smelly) transportation through traffic-congested central Bangkok. I hopped on at Sapan Hua Chang and stayed on till the terminal stop of Panfa Leelard – be sure not to dawdle when boarding/disembarking since these guys don’t hang about!

The service has a checkered reputation, due to the polluted water in the Khlong and the haphazard nature in which the service is operated. The boats are equipped with little curtains to prevent you getting splashed by the dirty water but that doesn’t help the ticket collectors who clamber around on the outside of the boat, ducking at bridges, as it barrels down the canal at full speed!

Check out my short video below to get an idea of what the journey is like:

My intended destination Wat Saket and the Golden Mount (ภูเขาทอง) in Eastern Rattanakosin, a short distance by foot from the canal. This Buddhist temple contains an artificial hill within its compound with nice views over the city.

A spiral staircase of 318 steps leads from the ground to a terrace and shrine-room with a string of bells along the way for pilgrims to sound.

Although there were a fair few people wandering around, the atmosphere was calm and the terrace made for a perfect platform to take in the panoramic view of the city, which is fairly flat and devoid of any huge skyscrapers.

The golden cone on top of the mount is technically called a chedi (เจดีย์) and many can be seen all over the city. They contain Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha (in this case purportedly coming all the way from India).

The view from the other side.

A short distance away between Wat Suthat and the city hall, is the Giant Swing (เสาชิงช้า), a huge red frame that was used in an annual ceremony where teams of young men would try to swing high enough to retrieve a sack of coins that was tied to a pole about 25 metres high in the air. The ceremony has been banned since 1932, as many people got injured or died trying. Shame!

When crossing the road in Bangkok be sure to make sure you’re not in the path of one these three-wheeled devils; a tuk-tuk (ตุ๊กตุ๊ก – pronounced “took-took”) which sounds a lot like its name. More on these in a later post.

Walking around the streets nearby you can find many shops containing religious paraphernalia and various handicrafts. If your legs are feeling tired you might want to take a rest in the nearby Rommaninat Park but be sure not to lie down on the grass or a grumpy police officer might tell you off!

I had lunch in a small cafe/restaurant next to the city hall which was open on one side to the street.

The food wasn’t much to talk about but the Thai ice milk tea (ชาเย็น) was excellent. Similar to Hong Kong it’s made from strongly brewed black tea sweetened with sugar and condensed milk then served chilled.

In the afternoon I headed north to visit Chatuchak Weekend Market (จตุจักร) which sits on an enormous site covering over 35 acres and contains upwards of 8,000 stalls. Unless you like shopping in hot crowded conditions then you might want to give this a miss – a far better bet would be to visit the Talad Rot Fai Train Market nearby that runs during the evening at weekends (see the link for details).

Related posts you might like:

1. Wuzhen – Ancient Canal Town
2. Venice
3. Curse of the Golden Flower

• My laptop is lost, stolen, or the hard drive becomes corrupt thus loosing all my documents, photos and music etc.
• One of my main online accounts (e.g. Gmail or Facebook) becomes compromised and abused by a malicious hacker

Even great utilities like Time Machine, which backup to an external hard drive, don’t cut it these days since it only solves about 25% of the problem. Aside from the usual advice about using strong passwords and backing up frequently, below are six useful tools and services which can provide security for both your files stored offline and your online accounts:

1. FileVault (built into Mac OS X) – encrypts your entire hard drive on-the-fly making your data virtually impossible to access without the correct password (your computer wont even boot without it). Windows has something similar called BitLocker.
2. Backblaze (from $3.95/month) – secure online backup that just works. All your data is encrypted and continuously backed-up remotely so that even if your house burns down (hopefully not) you wont have lost your data. CrashPlan is a good alternative.
3. Truecrypt (free) - create a virtual encrypted disk within a file which can be mounted on your computer as an ordinary disk (like plugging in a USB drive). I use this in conjunction with Dropbox for my most sensitive files (e.g. banking info).
4. Google 2-Step Verification (free) – protects your account even is your password is stolen by requiring a code generated on your phone every time you access your account (similar to online banking). It’s an extra step, but one that significantly improves the security of your Google Account.
5. MyPermissions.org (free) – provides quick links to manage and cleanup which applications have permission to view/use your private information in various social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc.). Sometimes surprising to see just how many random apps you may have approved.
6. 12vpn (from $79/year) – whether you’re using an insecure wifi connection where anyone could be eavesdropping on your activity, or located in a country where internet access is restricted, a VPN (Virtual Private Network) can provide you with a secure and unrestricted tunnel to the internet.

And finally, whenever logging into your favourite sites be sure to make sure you’re using a secure connection which is usually indicated in your browser by a padlock icon next to the address. If not you can try replacing http with https at the beginning of the address to switch to the secure version (doesn’t work for all sites).

While all of the above doesn’t provide a perfect solution it should go some way to making your data and online identity a lot more secure. If you know of any other good services do let me know in the comments below.

Related posts you might like:

1. Storing Sensitive Data In The Cloud
2. Art?
3. Wordle Cloud

Nga Tsin Wai walled village has a history of over 650 years, dating back to the Yuan Dynasty, and the name means “The walled village in front of the yamen” (a Chinese official’s building – the remains of which can be found nearby at Kowloon Walled City). Living in walled villages like this helped safeguard residents against attacks by rival clans, and especially pirates.

The village is organised in a tightly packed grid pattern and is ringed by a number of sleepy shops where the proprietors look almost as old as the village.

A traditional Chinese medicine shop with concoctions of dried plant roots and other strange smelling powders laid out on the table.

An outdoor barbers where you can get the cheapest cut in HK!

The surrounding concrete jungle is not exactly pretty but at least the local residents seem to keep the area in good nick.

Entrance to the Nga Chin Wai is by way of a two-story gatehouse where the chatter of villagers playing mahjong could be heard coming from above.

Straight ahead lies a small Tin Hau temple where outside a board lists the names of donors writing on thin strips of paper.

Ancient looking fire buckets sit patiently in the corner, biding their time.

Sadly the village is imminently scheduled for redevelopment by the Urban Renewal Authority and most of the houses inside have already been demolished by the property developer. Steel girders prop up the remaining buildings.

The dwindling numbers of villagers who remain are gradually being coerced into leaving and once a certain percentage have gone the rest will be evicted.

‘Resumption’ orders are posted on many buildings stating that the government is taking back the land.

The narrow alleyways lie mostly deserted with plant foliage rapidly encroaching every corner.

Another propped up wall awaits the inevitable. Its dark interior gives up few secrets as to its former life.

A penthouse suite which has seen better days perches precariously on top of a crumbling wall.

Many houses lie completely gutted with only their skeletons remaining. Considering the steel beams it can’t have been an original structure.

The entrance to a house lies open, but with no house behind it.

Some rusting gas cylinders.

How much of the village will be kept after the area is redeveloped remains to be seen but if you want to take a look before it’s completely gone it’s round 15 minutes’ walk to the east of Lok Fu or the south of Wong Tai Sin MTR station.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. Pok Fu Lam Village
3. Jeonju Photo Walk – Part 1

Over a yearlong period I visited the area three times and below is the first part of a compilation of what you can find on walk around the local neighbourhoods.

Along one side of Carpenter Road are many side streets packed with small restaurants, many serving Southeast Asian food. Old streets with huge signs hanging the road like this are gradually disappearing in Hong Kong so I often feel compelled to document them before they’re gone forever. The ones with the square hand-painted boards seem to be the oldest.

Near the south entrance to Kowloon Walled City Park lie the few remnants of the City’s original South Gate and its entrance plaques which were discovered after the renegade settlement was demolished in 1993 (check out my previous article for the history).

Although the traditional Chinese-style park is very pleasant, it’s a pity so little of the original structure remains. At its center is a fully restored Yamen (a local bureaucrat’s, or mandarin’s, office) which contains a permanent exhibition about the old walled city.

A lion dance at Chinese New Year in Kowloon City Plaza.

Neon lights burn away into the night, illuminating the street below. Anyone for Taiwan beef noodles?

A small restaurant, typical of thousands in Hong Kong, often serving BBQ meat on rice with some bok choy (Chinese cabbage).

One of around 40,000 7-Eleven convenience stores you can find worldwide, which makes it an even bigger franchise chain than McDonald’s, with a staggering density of 1 shop per 1.16 km² in Hong Kong! I’m surprised they never broke into the UK.

You can find lots of cheap and tasty food in Hong Kong’s wet markets and at the top of the one in Kowloon City can be found some good Thai restaurants.

I tried a place called ‘Chiangrai Thaifood’ which had some great fresh mango ice drinks (my favourite).

Choose your own adventure in spiciness!

Seafood hot-pot – not really my sort of thing but has an interesting visual texture.

Thai green curry with egg fried rice – really good.

And now for something completely different – a random shot of a car mechanic garage door. I found the typography and colours strangely alluring.

As if a park built on the ruins of a lawless city where many a foul crime took place wouldn’t be creepy enough at night, image it filled with a spooky light and sound installation as was the case with Power Plant in February 2011, sponsored by the British Council.

Deep in the garden, as dusk falls, an eerie sonic wonderland comes to life where strange illuminations light up the night and the garden is transformed by magical sounds… check out the video above to get a taste of what it was like. Surreal would be putting it mildly.

Tickets were sold out for the event which was highly disappointing but surprisingly it was relatively easy to find alternate means of entrance…

More about how the exhibition was created in the video below:

Stay tuned for more in Part 2 soon.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 2 – Nga Chin Wai Walled Village
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide
3. Beijing 2008 Part 1: A City Evolves

The star ferry making its way towards Hong Kong Island under a muggy sunset

Along the way I got to know Hong Kong a little better, made a short film, moved house four times (never again), paid my second visit to the US, my sixth to South Korea, built three apps, met some cute pandas, and worked more hours than I care to remember.

The year of the rabbit was one of the best to date.

When was the last time you drew all over your hotel rooms wall?!

“Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.”

The fears, uncertainties, and doubts that come with embracing change are never easy to handle but every time I worry about the impact of doing or not doing something I make myself read the above. Life is short.

The River Chet in Norfolk (UK) nearby where I spent Christmas

Because of my new job I didn’t blog or travel quite as much as I have done in previous years but in 2012 I hope to make better use of my holidays (15 days a year if you can believe it) and already have my eye on trips to Southeast Asia and back to Japan. I still feel my photographic skills have a long way to go so will try and step out of automatic mode a little more often.

The Gardens of Hampton Court Palace in Greater London

Randomwire was viewed about 700,000 times in 2011 (around 8x the capacity of the London Olympic Stadium!) and if you were one of them a big thank you. You’ll notice that the site has a fresh lick of paint for the new year courtesy of the fabulous Duet theme by The Theme Foundry which allows me to display my photos in a far larger format and is fully responsive across desktop, tablet and mobile devices (try resizing your browser window to see what I mean).

It’s a little late to say Happy New Year but I hope you have a good one

“We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future.” – Marshall McLuhan

Related posts you might like:

1. Stereo Future
2. Thinking Backwards
3. Cheung Chau Island

On a recent trip to Wuhan I came across a street containing no-less than eight electronic shops trying to pass themselves off as ‘Apple Stores’ and one in particular which had gone to great lengths to copy Apples signature style.

This shop did an OK job of the brushed aluminium panels, but the “ Have a nice day!” sign above the door gives it away.

Inside the wooden tables and stone flooring look fairly authentic but nothing else seems quite right. Plus points for playing the Jony Ive video on the iMac though!

Further down the street there seems to have been a desperate attempt to slap iPhone logos on every available surface. I especially like the Android logo they’ve sneaked in on the blue one!

I wonder how much credibility these tiny stores get from the Apple brand, especially given that none are authorised resellers, although they do seem to be selling genuine Apple products (where they came from is another matter).

While it might say ‘Apple Store’ on the outside, on the inside it seems to be a China Mobile reseller instead.

A combined HTC & Apple Store? I don’t think so.

As I wandered down the street taking photos I spotted two police officers (or possibly security guards) behind me who seemed to be paying undue attention so I sped up and made my escape. It’ll be interesting to see how Apple tackles this as they expand in China which is expected to become their biggest market in the next few years.

Related posts you might like:

1. Shanghai Apple Store
2. Apple
3. Apple Farm Cafe in Wonju

The biggest change since my previous visit there is that the city is now connected by a number of long-distance high-speed rail services, which have been rapidly covering most of China over the past few years. The 968-kilometre (601 mile) Wuhan-Guangzhou route which I took is currently the world’s fastest train service with trains running up to a maximum in-service speed of 350 km/h (217 mph).

The impressive trains are based on technology developed by Siemens (CRH3) and Kawasaki (CRH2) modified to the standards of China Railway High-speed (CRH) and manufactured in China. Unsurprisingly the CRH2 model train I took looks very similar to a Japanese Shinkansen bullet-train. The journey from Guangzhou to Wuhan takes 3.5 hours with one stop at Changsha.

I didn’t take the photo above since it was late at night but arriving at Wuhan Railway Station you immediately get an overwhelming sense of the immense impact of China’s rapid growth and aspirations in a building worthy of any major world city – at a cost of 14 billion Yuan (US$ 2 billion) you’d hope so!

In the freezing cold of the following morning I set off in search of some local cuisine for breakfast. A friendly taxi driver took me to a great place where you ordered what you wanted from a number of small stalls outside then took it inside to eat.

I’d almost forgotten how much you get stared at when venturing inland – I don’t think this place gets many foreign visitors so it felt good to be trying something authentically local (and so cheap compared to Hong Kong).

Wuhan is famous for a dish called re gan mian (热干面) which literally  means ‘hot dry noodles’ that are served with a mixture of sauces and dried vegetables. Each stall has its own unique variation, but a typical bowl of re gan mian will have soy sauce, sesame paste, pickled vegetables, chopped garlic chives and chili oil.

The noodles are placed into a cone-shaped strainer and dipped briefly into boiling hot water before being swirled and drained. They’re then poured into a paper bowl, with the sauce and dried vegetables being poured on top.

I ordered mine with some hot soy milk and fried dumplings – for about 5 RMB you’ll have yourself a very tasty breakfast.

Feeling better after some food I wandered down to the edge of the Yangtze river and walked along the docks. As with my last trip to Wuhan the skyline was hazy but not unpleasantly so. Because of its hot summer weather, Wuhan is commonly known as one of the Three Furnaces of China, so it’s not necessarily a bad time to visit.

Ancient looking wooden carts piled high with boxes waiting to be dragged to nearby lorries.

Walking across a bridge to the ferry pontoon I noticed that the water was covered by a carpet of something green and organic. At first I thought it must be algae but on closer inspection (not too close mind you) it turned out to be thousands of discarded cabbage heads!

The bottom deck of the ferry was reserved for electric bikes with passengers on the top. You could take a bus across one of the nearby bridges but this seemed a bit more relaxing.

Some industrial sized pulleys with Turtle Hill (Guishan) in the background.

The Wuhan Yangtze River Bridge (武汉长江大桥) was built in 1957 with the assistance from the Soviet Union. Unlike todays high-speed trains, prior to its construction rail cars took an entire day to cross the river by train ferry.

Walking northwards I came across Wuchang Shouyi Culture Park where an old man was practicing his calligraphy on the pavement with a water brush. A girl with bright pink candy floss looked on inquisitively.

He asked if I was American in Chinese, to which I was able to reply that I was actually English (Ying Gou Ren). He proceeded to write in beautiful characters 英国朋友 - meaning “Friend from Britain”.

Opposite the park was a huge paved square (not unlike Tiananmen in Beijing) with an enormous obelisk of a building at the far which I’m still undecided whether to love or hate. It’s use/purpose was unclear.

Below Snake Hill nearby was the Memorial Hall of Wuchang Uprising in 1911 Revolution where Sun Yat-Sen issued his edict to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. I didn’t go inside but it looked like a well maintained museum.

While looking for somewhere to have lunch I came across a bizarre cafe hidden in a street of nondescript shops furnished on multiple-floors with dusty wicker chairs and rows of ancient books in mock-victorian style. Being almost empty and in the middle of nowhere it was verging on being creepy – perfect for filming a cheap horror film.

Someone had painted something in Chinese on the pages of an abandoned newspaper.

After a light lunch I went to the campus of Wuhan University (武汉大学), known to be one of the most beautiful in China, and walked up the heavily wooded Luojia Hill.

A nearby hostel was hosting a live outside music event that evening (Dec 10) and I stayed up to watch the lunar eclipse which was apparently best visible from Asia. Nothing beats sitting around a warm fire on a cold night.

In the morning I had re gan mian noodles again and sampled some of the other food in the area. I love the suspicious look in the eye of this street vendor. Remember, when it comes to street food – the dirtier the better!

Something tells me that small restaurants like this will soon be swept away.

By this point in my trip I was beginning to feel like I was coming down with flu so decided to find a warm cafe to hold up in until my flight back to Shenzhen and then across the border back to Hong Kong. Wuhan is definitely not a must-see destination but it certainly has an interesting side to it.

Related posts you might like:

1. Weekend in Wuhan
2. Return to Beijing
3. Wuhan’s Fake Apple Stores

My first impression of the festival was one of pessimism; with so many installations containing works that would probably be thrown away at the end how could it live up to its ambitions of promoting sustainability?

Luckily I was proven wrong – while the installations were a mixed bag, most of them seemed to have taken the theme seriously and raised some interesting questions about how we contribute to environmental issues as consumers.

Indeed, many works were repurposed from recycled materials themselves, like these lamps made from old taxi light shells by Handsome Co. (俊記) who make simple bags and other products from old discarded Hong Kong taxi parts.

The video above tells the story of how they came into existence.

The real success of DETOUR to me though was its utilisation of the old PMQ premises which is comprised of two parallel accommodation blocks with a large courtyard in the middle (where a stage had been setup at one end for performances).

As with the Victoria Prison and the Central Police Station (which I snuck into earlier in the year), PMQ is another relic of the British Colonial period which had been left to rot while the government endlessly debated what to do with it.

Before it was built in 1889, PMQ was the original home of the former Central School which was the first government school to provide primary and secondary Western education in Hong Kong. After being destroyed by bombing during World War II it was redeveloped as the PMQ in 1948.

While the site had initially been targeted for redevelopment (i.e. bulldozed and turned into a shopping mall / luxury apartment complex), PMQ is now slated to be turned into a ‘landmark‘ hub for creative industries by 2014 where artists and designers can showcase their products to the public.

Judging by Hong Kong’s previous attempts there is a big question mark hanging over how well this will be executed but at least it’s a step in the right direction. Of note, an underground museum will give visitors access to the ruins of the Central School which should be fascinating in itself.

Most of the installations were housed in the identical single-room flats which lined each corridor of the buildings. While they have now been stripped bare of their former inhabitants decorations you can still get a sense of their lives from the markings on the walls and the small balcony / bathroom at the rear of each room.

A broken view through a broken window.

Washing-lines were strung between the walls of the corridors which today feel hauntingly barren.

Kitchen windows bear the marks of years of accumulated oil and dirt on their fading floral facades.

I managed to sneak onto the roof which, as with much of Hong Kong’s skyline, yielded magnificent views of the surrounding neighbourhood. Amid all the dense buildings its hard to imagine that you’re actually on the edge of a small island.

Looking down on the rooftops of nearby buildings you can spy many high-rise gardens being kept by green-fingered tenants.

The roof of PMQ is covered by an elaborate network of pipes, all of which now lie disconnected and rusting.

The building stands as a precursor to the even taller apartment blocks which were to be built around it.

As well as plants you’ll also notice a forest of tv aerials pointing in every direction. I’d love an apartment somewhere like this so I could do BBQ’s on the roof!

Aberdeen street sweeps steeply downhill creating a deep gorge between the buildings on either side.

Look closely and you’ll notice that there are workers clinging onto the bamboo scaffolding, inside the green netting, renovating an adjacent building – not a single safety harness in sight!

North of Hollywood Road you can see the historic Wing Lee Street (永利街), the shooting location for the acclaimed film “Echoes of the Rainbow” (歲月神偷主題曲), that was also recently saved from redevelopment and is now being restored.

The film tells the story of a working family in Hong Kong during the 1960′s whose eldest son, a popular boy and star athlete, becomes ill with leukemia.

In Hong Kong, where land is scarce and expensive, the government profits hugely from real-estate deals and hence the fate of history often comes down to money. It’s a really rather sad state of affairs.

Since most of these historic sites in Hong Kong are usually off-limits, this is one detour I was please to have taken.

Related posts you might like:

1. Lok Fu Part 1 – Kowloon Walled City
2. The Hong Kong Island – Kowloon Divide