Burb Lovers

It would seem like we have an affinity for the suburbs. In Toronto, we lived at Finch and Yonge which is near the northern most point of Toronto. In Hong Kong, we live in Tung Chung, the western most point of the HK MTR (Mass Transit System) map. It takes about 45 minutes to get to HK island (e.g. Tsim Sha Tsui, Causeway Bay) which is like a lifetime for most native HKers as they are all used to short commutes. It's a real lesson in geographic density and mixed zoning because most HKers like living on top of malls, wet markets (like farmers' markets but with seafood and meats), MTR stations, and other places like that. Since most HKers don't have cars, they want everything to be in walking distance or one or two MTR stops.

We live in a huge condo tower on the 48th floor, there are 60 floors (but no 4th or 44th floor as 4 in Cantonese sounds like the word "death"). This huge condo tower is next to 19 other huge condo towers facing mountains on one side and the water on the other. The other day J and I rented some bikes for HK$15 each (about CDN$2) and toured all around where we live. If these 20 towers didn't block the view of the mountains, the view would have been pretty bloody spectacular. I wonder if there was opposition in building these towers.

There are a few clubhouses that these condos share - what we call "amenities or facilities" in Canadian speak. Swimming pools for kiddies and adults, indoor and outdoor playgrounds, bowling alleys, billiards room, exercise room, internet room, ping pong room (very popular with the Chinese), tennis courts, sauna and the like. We mostly use the playgrounds and that's where Bella sees her friends and that's where we realize that she isn't making them up.

Our neighbours are on the whole Asian (although mainly Chinese) but there is a considerable number of international couples and families. Sometimes I just feel like we are back in Thornhill or Markham where there is a big Chinese population in a typically non-Chinese city. And our stroller, the Phil & Ted's double decker stroller barely warrants a second glance in Tung Chung and Discovery Bay (where we lived the first month - also a western mecca) but in Kowloon and on HK island, we count at least 10 comments PER outing. People actually stop and block other people's (and sometimes our) way to look and comment on the stroller. We were amused and slightly flattered at first but now it's just a hassle. We are thinking of printing out the webpage with the specs and giving it out to people who ogle at it. (Phil & Ted should pay us for this kind of advertising! LOL). Anyways, that really is another post.

A 5 minute walk away is this huge outlet mall. I have to walk through this mall to get to the MTR. You can find all the designers you could ever want (e.g. Burberry, Diane Von Furstenberg, Kate Spade) but at the end of the day, I just want to go home.

Overall, it's good living here. Life in HK proper would just be too hectic for us and besides, you get value for money here in Tung Chung. Living closer to HK island is like double the price. So living here in HK is like us living in Toronto. We don't really go "downtown" unless we have to.

* The picture is the view from our living room window.