I was in Hong Kong recently. My girlfriend is doing a postdoc there, so I expect to be there frequently. Two things struck me.
1. China just opened one of the largest bridges in the world, the Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau bridge. This bridge cuts what used to be 4 hour journey from Hong Kong to mainland China, to 45 minutes.
2. While I was in Hong Kong, there was a disruption in the subway service. Instead of trains running every 3-4 minutes, they were running every 6-8 minutes. Some people experienced delays of up to 15(!) minutes. From the news coverage, you'd think this was a 9/11-level catastrophe. It was the top story all day, and it continues as the company responsible is still offering public apologies and reduced fares to make up for the disruption. It was absolutely inconceivable that the train should ever be late.
Meanwhile, back in DC where I live, we count ourselves lucky if the train shows up at all and is not on fire.
So leaders can go on about "determined political action" but the bottom line is, China is getting shit done and building things that people can actually use to make their lives better. (Human rights are another story of course).
The US and much of the western world seems to have lost any ability to build large-scale infrastructure project, and the infrastructure we do have is crumbling due to neglect. When was the last time something like the Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau bridge was built in the US? Maybe Robert Moses building highways through Manhattan in the 60s and 70s?
It is well known outside of America that the American trains are bad. I suppose Americans just go by car or airplane, so it doesn't matter much.
I really disliked the article, too. So Hongkong airport is impressive. Hm, maybe some dictatorship has shelled out serious money to make an impression? Somehow it reminds me of the dot com boom - the companies who spent the most were to first to go bankrupt...
I'm from the US but I have spent time in HK and in mainland China (mostly Dongguan and Beijing). I can say, as many others in this thread that nothing in the US is close to HK's MTR, or Beijing's Subway.
Hong Kong's problem isn't infrastructure, though, it's a combination of unimaginative bureaucracy and taxi companies with influential backers. It's the same reason HK taxis are still effectively cash-only, consistently refuse "inconvenient" fares with no real consequences, and are just generally irritating to deal with.
Hong Kong is significantly smaller than even Manhattan and still employs distance-based fares quite successfully.
I can go from my local station to the CBD (2 stops, around 5 minutes) and it costs roughly US$0.60; another 5 stops on the same line to get to my favorite restaurant bumps the journey to about 12 minutes and costs me ~$0.90. Crossing the harbor from Hong Kong island to the Kowloon peninsula takes less time but actually costs more (almost $1.50) thanks to tunnel fees.
On a side note, public transit timing is one thing that has been irrevocably ruined for me by living in HK. On my usual travel routes the train frequency is typically 2-3 minutes and during rush hour it’s on the order of 30 seconds - the next train often enters the platform just as the last car of the previous train leaves. Granted it does shut for a few hours each night, but even the other top Asian metro systems can't match it.
When I used to spend a lot of time in NYC (before moving to Asia) I had no problem with the subways; now it’s a significant consideration for me when thinking about moving.
So the whole/average of the US infrastructure is superior to that of HongKong? Sorry, I don't buy that. Unless they are counting personal cars?
Here are a few things Hong Kong is superior: Cashless payments, extensive metro/train network, efficient/big airport, high speed internet.
New York is not even as good/efficient as Hong Kong. Now the case can be made that you make more money working in New York than in HK but the comparison is about infrastructure.
The NY subway is one of the shittiest I have tried (and it seems like it breaks often).
Hong Kong was my home base for the last year and a half; I just missed these protests. It is really a shock to see the main streets filled with people; streets I used to walk or ride buses through nearly every day.
Hong Kong is a hugely underrated, beautiful, vibrant city with extraordinarily friendly people, almost no crime, and one of the best transportation systems in the world. There's almost no place you can stand within Hong Kong that doesn't have an incredible view of something. It's also becoming a major hub for technology businesses this decade.
I wish them the best of luck; it would truly be a shame if China is able to exert more major control and turn HK into yet another unlivable Chinese megacity.
Hong Kong is an odd example of a big, dense city with excellent public transit where access to a car can still be a major quality of life improvement, just because of climate and topography. The government’s resistance to ridesharing is incredibly annoying.
I haven't been there but I've heard Hong Kong is a bit like this. In a YouTube video, some people were championing that it's been 3 weeks since the touched the ground.
I travel to Hong Kong every few years to visit family. Each time, there are more MTR stations--and on some occasions, entirely new lines. The MTR is just as complex as BART, if not moreso. I think it's worth considering why some places can build things like a metro fast, but others can't.
Well, think most people were taking the ferry between the two cities (~1 hour ride). In addition, it appears there's a low daily cap in terms of the number of cars from HK that can enter Macau? Also has Macau developed into something other than a gambling destination? I wasn't initially doubting the cost-benefit (though at first blush I am starting to wonder), but the engineering challenges of this incredible project.
Everyone should really be copying Hong Kong, where subways are the main method of transportation for most people, not just poor people and they’re phenomenal.
Have you been to Hong Kong? (Not trying to be snarky) It's a got a great transportation system, very walkable, and you're never more than 30 minutes (by public transport) from over 100 miles of lush mountain hiking through the interior or the seashore. The density means that it is profitable to have stores like bakeries that are cheap enough that you walk by and think, I'd love a danta for US$1, while in the US you might make a special trip and get one for $4 + tax but it's not going to be an impulse buy. It even has something like four major universities. It's a travesty that China flagrantly broke their treaty, Hong Kong is what I think of when I think of an amazing city.
Hong Kong was always going to be over. It's just yet another relatively small Chinese city, dwarfed in importance by its nearby larger neighbor, Guangzhou. (You remember Guangzhou, we used to call it 'Canton' as in 'Cantonese' the dialect of Chinese they speak in Hong Kong.)
As one of a very few doorways to China by the West, Hong Kong once had some importance. But in today's world the West can reach China by hundreds of 'doorway cities' now. So what's so special about Hong Kong?
1. China just opened one of the largest bridges in the world, the Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau bridge. This bridge cuts what used to be 4 hour journey from Hong Kong to mainland China, to 45 minutes.
2. While I was in Hong Kong, there was a disruption in the subway service. Instead of trains running every 3-4 minutes, they were running every 6-8 minutes. Some people experienced delays of up to 15(!) minutes. From the news coverage, you'd think this was a 9/11-level catastrophe. It was the top story all day, and it continues as the company responsible is still offering public apologies and reduced fares to make up for the disruption. It was absolutely inconceivable that the train should ever be late.
Meanwhile, back in DC where I live, we count ourselves lucky if the train shows up at all and is not on fire.
So leaders can go on about "determined political action" but the bottom line is, China is getting shit done and building things that people can actually use to make their lives better. (Human rights are another story of course).
The US and much of the western world seems to have lost any ability to build large-scale infrastructure project, and the infrastructure we do have is crumbling due to neglect. When was the last time something like the Hong Kong-Zuhai-Macau bridge was built in the US? Maybe Robert Moses building highways through Manhattan in the 60s and 70s?
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