Sunday, August 29, 2010

Borneo 14: Hong Kong




Hong Kong makes Vancouver seem rural. Central Hong Kong, on Hong Kong Island is an incredibly busy place. The video above was taken early in the morning before things really started to get busy.

Still, Hong Kong is a mix of the new and the old.
What surprised me, in a city renowned for selling the latest in electronics, was the widespread use of bamboo, even as scaffolding material. Alfred Wallace noted the myriad of applications for bamboo when travelling through the Malay Archipelago back in the 1850s. He wrote of it frequently. I doubt he would be surprised to find it still in use over 150 years later in a much more technologically advanced world.
The scaffolding running twenty or so stories up, shown above, is entirely bamboo.

Bamboo stacked for additional scaffolding.

Photo Credits: Me

1 comment:

MsHo said...

Hello. I stumbled upon your blog and find it amusing when you mention durian. Most Sarawakians love durians. By the way, Sarawak is one of the states in Malaysia. I am glad you and your colleagues came to my part of the world. Sarawak is half the world away from Canada and that is very, very, very far away. As for the ants, my office table is visited by some tiny ants recently and just today the pesticide controller came. Well, happy travelling to you and your friends.