(Tung Lo Wan, HKG) - Since the age of 11 I’ve been living in Hong Kong and in all my travels, never once would I have the desire to live anywhere else in the world. My home is situated in a tight little community that happens to be just around the corner from my warehouse, which is also around the corner from my business, 8FIVE2 SHOP. Across the street from my store is my favorite canteen, Tsui Wah, a place I have spent countless hours eating great food with my close friends.

Causeway Bay (known by its Chinese name, Tung Lo Wan) is located on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island. If you have ever visited Hong Kong, then you would know that my particular neighborhood is easily the best place to find everything and anything you need within walking distance, with a sundry assortment of businesses open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Causeway Bay adequately represents the true spirit of Hong Kong! I have to admit that living in this bustling community has rather spoiled me. This neighborhood is surely the epitome of convenience and on a number of trips to Canada, I admittedly pine for my home when I’m in a situation where every local business closes down by the time I venture on my night prowls.

However idyllic a picture I paint of Hong Kong, it is a city riddled with problems very much like other booming metropolises. For one there is a serious issue here with overcrowding. With a population of around 6.94 million this city has overreached maximum capacity. In my experience, I seriously believe that 50% of that population gravitates to Causeway Bay in enormous groups. Well equipped with their handheld PSP’s, text messaging is their main form of communication. When news travels at such lightening quick responses, the locals and tourists can quickly find themselves entangled in a giant mass of people, where the slightest hesitation of direction can have you trampled underfoot by the human traffic jam.

Being new to the neighborhood, will have you overstimulated after a leisurely stroll around the block. There is a plethora of colorful, neoned restaurants, ranging from cheap cultural Dai Pai Dong spots to more expensive trendy establishments, cinema theatres, department stores, stylish boutiques, street stalls selling anything from “Victor Lee” to “George Gong”, towering multistory apartment buildings, and a 24-hour supermarket just in case you need to grocery shop at 4am. It’s like a masterfully layered José Parlá piece. With this area being ranked as one of the most expensive in the world similar to New York’s Fifth Avenue, the explosion of billboards and mini micro shops are crammed in every which way enticing overindulgence and never turning away a customer even at midnight. I oftentimes pause and wonder if people that live here have real jobs or if their professional job is simply over-consumption: shopping and dining. Just when you thought they couldn’t fit anything else into this cramped neighborhood, they managed to squeeze in an IKEA smack in the middle of the major downtown shopping street.

Sometimes my neighborhood may seem like a superficial shopping paradise, but there is a lot of beauty that exists just around the corner. My favorite local spots are actually an unexpected park, where you can survey by day a tai chi practice, a community soccer game, toy boat sailing, cultural exhibitions, and music concerts. This is also the place where I hold many skateboarding events and meet up with our Forever31 skateboard crew for our ardent nightly sessions. Across the street from the park is my second favorite spot, the Hong Kong Central library, a massive 12-storey building right across from the park. It is a beautiful structure that has a large arched entrance, representing the “Gate to Knowledge.”

My favorite time to walk around Causeway Bay is at 4am when it actually feels like Hong Kong is sleeping for a brief moment; the hustle and bustle simmers into a quiet repose. Its like a completely different place. While it may be a welcome sight because the overpopulation, crowds, and chaos may be overwhelming; changing this aspect of my neighborhood, would be to alter the very essence of Hong Kong’s culture. Here everything happens at once, every corner has its own multitudes of memories and every curb has been skated on a hundred times over!

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8FIVE2 SHOP: http://www.8five2.com/
Photo Credit: WZA (thumbnail image by DougieVision)

via Brian Julius Siswojo, 22 September 2008 2:00 am | 5 |