This was my first view of Hong Kong, from the eastern approach. It’s a nice encapsulation of what the place is like. Many people are surprised to discover that Hong Kong is mostly green hillside as seen here, not one big concrete pile. Nevertheless there is a large built-up urban area, and the air pollution is every bit as bad as it looks here.

In 1992 this was Hong Kong’s airport, Kai Tak. This photo is taken from a hillside; an actual approach by plane would take you surprisingly close to the buildings you see, enough so that you could distinguish individual bits of laundry hanging outside windows. Despite the inherent danger of this the airport had a good safety record and many people missed it when the new one opened at Chek Lap Kok.

This is the sort of shot people expect to see of Hong Kong; tall skyscrapers and bright lights. I took this from the peak, around 1998. (This is an 800x600 wallpaper image).

Here’s another stereotypical view, in the middle of Central looking at the surrounding towers.

On one of the green hillsides above Shatin, in the New Territories, sits the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas. The name refers to this shrine, which has row upon row of small Buddha figures lining the walls. The Chinese tend to use “ten thousand” the same way westerners would say “a zillion” , so I was skeptical that there were actually that many here. However a quick estimate from counting rows and Buddhas per row told me there were probably about 13,000.

This is what Central’s streets look like every Sunday, a very radical change from the other six days of the week when they are crammed with people going about their business. Why? Hong Kong has over a hundred thousand imported domestic helpers (maids, nannies, and so on), mostly from the Philippines. Sunday is the only day most have off and many employers don’t let them meet their friends at home so they all collect together wherever they can. That means just about everywhere - in every park, on aerial walkways, in every McDonald’s - but most of all on the streets and around the buildings in Central.

Inside the Man Mo temple. There are a lot of temples scattered around, to various gods. They’re a mix of Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian elements. Some are quite picturesque, as here. This photo turned out better than I had any right to expect, since tripods aren’t allowed inside.

They have less formal sorts of worship, too. From the picture I guess this is some sort of ancestral shrine, a fixture in Hong Kong apartments - however it’s rare to see one outdoors like this.

The small village on the coast is Rennie’s Mill, which for many years was a famous settlement of old Kuomintang refugees from Communist China - as you can perhaps tell from the very large Republican flag hanging off one of the buildings. Around 1995 the Hong Kong government began filling in Junk Bay, behind the village, to make room for a major new housing development. Rennie’s Mill was torn down and its inhabitants dispersed. Is it a coincidence this happened just before the PRC took over in 1997? You can decide for yourself. In other less-accessible parts of Hong Kong, republican flags could also be seen flying. After 1997 they gradually disappeared from sight.

Graves in China tend to be placed on hillsides with good views. This is one of several large graveyards in Hong Kong, tucked away on the back side of a hill overlooking the sea. Each grave is a small shrine, usually with a photo engraved into a stone tablet.

Squatter camps like this were common in Hong Kong at one time. Most have disappeared as people moved into public housing, but there are still a few hanging off hillsides. This one is near Wan Chai.

Got some spare space? Put up a sign in it! In the major tourist and shopping areas most streets look like this, with signs hanging everywhere.

On Sundays some people come up to Kowloon Pass to fly their gliders. The view faces west, with Kowloon in the background at the base of the hills.

In the hills above Kowloon there’s a fairly large colony of feral monkeys. Feeding them was a popular thing to do on weekends but it caused lots of problems; during the week there weren’t bored crowds of people around so the monkeys got hungry, and by Friday could get to be quite aggressive. The government dispersed them at one point, so now smaller groups can be found scattered around on trails. Every now and then one comes into town, and at least once a monkey hitched a ride on a ferry and made it all the way to Central.

Everybody knows Hong Kong is crowded, and from there it’s a short leap to realizing people must live in small places. Still, many people are surprised to see just how small those places can be. This is a room I rented when I returned in 1997, at a time when money was tight. It’s about 1.5 metres wide and 4 metres long, and almost all of it is visible in this photo; all that’s left out is a little nook with a space for a hot plate, and a shower cubicle. That cost about $350 US per month. It was an improvement over a lot of places there, though, being newly renovated and clean - and I didn’t have to share it with anybody else, unlike some Hong Kong people who live in even more crowded conditions.

A sign at a local beach. Nets are put up during the summer to prevent shark attacks. This could have been worded better!

The Star Ferry costs about 25 cents US to ride across the harbour, which considering the view makes it one of the best transport deals in the world. This is the pier in Central, with the Bank of China tower in the background.

Bamboo scaffolding is used routinely in building projects. This is a small renovation in Kowloon, where buildings were for a long time limited to 17 stories in height because of their proximity to the old airport. On Hong Kong Island an apartment tower might be 50 stories tall and they'll still surround it with bamboo scaffolding.

Lamma Island, where we lived last. There are about 200 outlying islands in Hong Kong, and some of them are quite developed. Lamma is one of the closest to Hong Kong island itself, and tends to attract a lot of foreigners because it is convenient, relatively cheap, and no cars are allowed so it’s quiet. The residents travel in by ferry every day for work or school. The town has one main street, lined by restaurants, most of which have outdoor seating overlooking the harbour.

Sunset on Lamma. The picture shows the pier, and in the foreground is the small harbour with some fishing and dragon boats.