Chinatown

TODAY in HONG KONG I went to look at apartments to buy. We are trying to get two apartments side-by-side that we can combine and knock down the joining wall to make an almost big enough space.

The first place (two places) had kitchens not much bigger than what I have now. At least they were big enough for two people to stand in. But the counter space was almost non-existent. There was a low-lying bench that was about knee-high. I can imagine how my back would feel after chopping on that. And then there was an electric burner on a normal height counter that left room for maybe one cutting board next to it. I am not even sure there was a sink. The bathroom was next to the kitchen and it was the size of a bathtub, but included sink, toilet, and shower.

The spaces were actually studio apartments, but had been made into two bedroom apartments! the bedrooms, like usual, were about 5x5'

This is Hong Kong living.

The next place we went to had already combined two apartments to make a rather huge-feeling place. And this place patios that they enclosed to make a bigger living area.

It was SO Chinese.

You walk into the living room and there is heavy wood Chinese furniture crowding the place. And one leather massage chair.

The walls were covered with glass cases full of Chinese knick-knacks: interesting wood growths, auspicious fungus, porcelain dieties, and an ancestral altar. And of course there was a huge screen TV that all that furniture was facing.

Then we passed through to the enclosed patio. Here they had collected more ugly furniture; think shellacked tree stump tables in the form of chairs and coffee table.
Actually, they weren't shellacked, and they weren't redwood. They were some sort of blond wood and the chairs looked like something a fairy king would sit on- sort of like a live-looking tree still growing. But very tacky (that is why I got the image of the shellacked redrood stump)

Anyway, they also have a ping pong table with an office chair pulled up to it in this inside/outside area and a few other odds and ends of furniture.

The thing I liked best was that they had made the corner of the patio into a fish pond. and there was a slate backwall that had a fountain that sort of drooled out.

The former patio also had a corner made into a bedroom. Next to that was another bedroom- they shared the original outside window so that there was a window between the two beds. And then there was another bedroom. There was also a bedroom in the space of what used to be the hallway between the two apartments. Hello Kitty and a piano. The rooms basically consisted of a custom-built bed (so that it was short enough) and a desk for homework. not much space for anything else.
The parents' bedroom had a huge poster of their wedding photo. I had seen one above the ping pong table as well.

Chinese houses need to be able to house 3 generations- grandma was here and the small bedrooms with desks are obviously for the kids. They also love to have their beautiful photos of themselves up- hence wedding photos or other professionally shot posters with professionally done hair and make-up.

Besides bedrooms for all the people, in Hong Kong, you need to have a room for the maid. This place also had a maid's quarters, with a bed the size of a cot and door.

They did have what seemed like a really big shower and another enclosed patio.
On this patio there was a chair swing, an old fashioned treadmill- like the one I once tried in China that is basically a rubber runner on two wheels that has no resistance and no speeds.

This patio leads back to the living room, where grandma was waiting, and the kitchen, which is also rather small for the place.

The whole place was bizarre. I think the thing that makes it bizarre is that the orignal stairwell is still in the middle of the two apartments. So basically you have to go through the patios to get to the bedrooms because the elevator and stairs for the rest of the building are still in the middle of the house! So it seems really big, but a huge part of it is the middle part that is not part of the house!

But, we liked it. I liked the view from the second patio. The building is smack dab in the middle of a wet market so I can see fruit sellers selling their bright oranges and bananas under flourescent lights. Also, just behind the building is a small park where elderly people come to sit and chat and wile away the time. Probably they do tai chi in the mornings.

A glimpse into how locals live.