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Is there such a job as "exterior decorator"? How about "building designer"? I'd hate to think that these design choices were being left to architects. I want to see buildings like this in downtown L.A.
This is a street in Tsim Sha Tsui (we'll get to the pronunciation of that in just a moment) which is part of Hong Kong on the China mainland. According to my guidebook it's pronounced "chim saa choy" which makes me wonder, why don't they just spell it that way (in English) in the first place? But if you listen closely to the Cantonese pronunciation (you'll hear it on the subway when the stop is announced) the 'ch' sound seems to be sort of halfway between 'ch' and 'ts', and 's' is somewhere in between 's' and 'sh'. Anyway, maybe keeping the English speakers a bit confused will prevent corruption of the name, a fate which befell "cantonese" in the first place, and the place we pronounce "canton" but which is spelled "Guangzhou" on the map.
Some people entering and exiting the MTR (Mass Transit Rail) station. MTR is Hong Kong's efficient subway system, which will take you wherever you want to go. Although to get to Tsim Sha Tsui we usually took the more scenic route of a ferry from HK island to the mainland, the subway tunnels across as well and you won't even know that you crossed a large body of water to get there.
Where did all these people come from? The MTR is quite crowded, but trains are frequent and everything runs smoothly. To move everyone in a diagonal fashion a bit faster, all of the escalators in the MTR system run at, I would estimate, 150% of the speed of normal escalators. I think all escalators should go at at least that speed; less safe, maybe, but we'll trade safety for efficiency any day.
Maybe I ought to quit standing in the same spot taking pictures and find something more interesting to look at? Tsim Sha Tsui is the "marketplace" of Hong Kong, where most shops don't post their prices (in the interests of bargaining) and where you can buy "Rollex" watches on just about every street for a few dollars.
Such as... the other side of the entrance to the MTR station? The mix of shops consisted of, in order of decreasing frequency, places to buy cameras, jewelry, clothes, followed by legitimate big-name-brand items (Vuitton, DKNY, etc.). "DKNY", for those who aren't yet aware, is pronounced "donkey".
Mmm, lunch. Is that apparently dead fish real?
Some people move so fast that it's difficult to see them with the naked eye. Even when captured on film, they appear a blur.
The cars may drive on the left, but the escalators drive on the right. This inconsistency has probably caused auto accidents in which a driver became confused, thought he was riding on an escalator, and started driving on the right side of the road. Another tough question: which side of the escalator is for standing, and which is for passing (by people in a real hurry, such as the above Ms. Blur)?
The train should be here any minute now. Sherlock Holmes would be able to look at this photograph and deduce precisely in how many seconds the train would be arriving in the station...
Here we are at our destination station, near the city outskirts.
You'd be surprised at how many times people kept trying to hand me flyers printed entirely in Chinese. That's non-discrimination for you. Signs referred to this as "hawking" and there were "no hawking" signs posted in some places. I guess Stephen will have to hand out pamphlets about his theories on black holes and the nature of time elsewhere...