Hong Kong is undoubtedly a place in which capitalism is thriving as it has done since the founding of the British colony. As I was exploring Hong Kong on Saturday with one of my friends, you couldn't help but notice it everywhere.
Giant shopping malls (some super expensive and fancy ones too!) in which wide scale consumerism takes place are literally everywhere. You don't even need to try and you'll be able to find one. My friend and I stumbled upon many of the malls in this post. And yes, we saw them all during the same day.
Pacific Place Shopping Mall in Central:
Interior decor store at Pacific Place:
ifc building complex (it's a fancypants shopping mall, hotel and possibly other stuff as well):
(Outside - 1 of 2 towers)
(Inside)
(The picture of the necklace above was also taken in the ifc.)
1881 Heritage (this is more like a collection of shops in a historical building aka the former Marine Police Headquarters):
A gallery store near 1881 Heritage.
Closeup of another tusk (can you imagine anyone putting this in their house?):
The crazy capitalism in HK can also be seen in residential areas where old buildings are constantly being replaced with skyscrapers and new building complexes as real estate is some of the most valuable in the world. Here, you can see a variety of housing (which in turn represents the social stratification here): old shanty houses for low-income tenants (see the lower right corner), medium sized apartments for middle-class tenants and high rise buildings which are fancy condos for rich people (aka the buildings that didn't fit into the picture because they were so tall).
Political parties or policies that belong to the left of the political spectrum are sorely lacking in Hong Kong so labour laws and unions are not as powerful as they are in North America. Good for the entrepreneur and strike-haters, bad for the average Joe or Jane who's being paid about $3.50 (USD) or less an hour passing out flyers on street corners in 30+ degrees (Celsius) weather.
Then again, this doesn't mean that the political left doesn't exist in Hong Kong. In fact, right across from Times Square (aka crazy big shopping mall in Causeway Bay) is a Communist cafe/bookstore, featuring Mao Zedong as their logo.
They serve drinks in jars in this cafe. It was kinda cool. You could also purchase these jars (as well as cups with Mao's face on it) for home.
There were also books on the June 4th, 1989 Tiananmen Massacre and Marxist ideology. It seemed very much like an iconoclastic cafe in many ways.
What an interesting place this is... In any case, my adventures from Saturday continues in the next blog post, coming soon to a browser near you!
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