This flat was was advertised in the window of a local estate agent for quite some time before I popped in and asked whether it was still available. Ten thousand HK Dollar for a thousand square feet did sound too good to be true, so I thought it was one of these 'bait' advertisings that estate agents use to get people to come in. Quod non - it was still available and when I asked what was wrong with it the agent said it had 'horrible decoration'. Images of fake marble and cheap glass chandeliers jumped to mind, but it turned out that the place was a) filty and b) sub-divided with plywood panels. When I say filthy I mean just that: everything was covered in a layer of caked on dust, and the kitchen walls were yellow-ish brown as a result of years of deep frying without and exhaust fan. The landlord does not care much about what happened with the place as long as rent is paid in time so I saw the potential. Took me a few hours to remove all the plywood as it was only screwed into the concrete beams and into the floor, and so I ended up with a large open space. Cleaning took quite a bit longer. I had to scrape the grease off the walls and use a steam cleaner to get the dust off the floors. It took time, but I got it done and I now live in a large studio flat with a rather industrial look and I absolutely love it.
The rest of the building, however, is not that nice. Without exception all the flats are subdivided into small rooms, most of them occupied by more than one person. If you want to get an idea of what we are talking about here check out the pictures in this link: http://hk-magazine.com/city-living/article/coffin-homes-subdivided-flats-and-partitioned-rooms-hong-kong The vast majority of people I know in Europe or the States would not ever get confronted with these sort of living conditions. It is cramped, uncomfortable and often unhygienic but this is the reality for hundreds of thousands of people in this ultra rich city. Wealth is spread in an extremely uneven way here and seeing these sort of scenes while the latest Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces whizz by outside makes me realise how incredibly well off people in Belgium (and most of Europe) are. Yes, there are poor people there too but not to the same extend.
More on this later, for sure.
Image from the SOCO/Publicis series. Check out the link higher up in my post for more pictures and background info.
