Central District, Hong Kong

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There are not as many signs of British presence in Hong Kong as I expected.

Of course it’s easy to find a house, a church, a garden with colonial style, but less than expected, and discreetly hidden in the cement and glass “forest”.

One of the best exceptions is the Legislative Assembly, with a small garden “protecting” it, and throwing the modern giants to the background.

Skyscrapers are the dominant look of Hong Kong, most of them becoming anonymous in the competitive forest of steel, cement and glass.

The Bank of China, with its distinctive size and forms, glows in the whole.

With its 315 meters, the Bank of China Tower was the first building outside USA to break the 1,000 feet (300 m) mark, and the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia, in the beginning of the nineties.

Art collectors may spend hours in this road, as the shops are side by side, and the announced prices are inviting.

The others, like us (thanks God, Fernanda only collects shoes and bags), do have nothing special to see, just a quick look in the way to or from Man Mo temple.

Concrete and tarmac leave not much space in Central district, but where it is available, space is carefully treated.

Exchange square is one of the examples, a small area with lakes and statues but with the absence of something green.

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Soaring at 369 metres high, it is one of the defining landmarks of Hong Kong. Again & again, many critics have called I.M. Pei's creation a masterpiece. It was meant to bring aspirations to the Chinese people, but at the same time bring goodwill to the people of the former British Colony. The building itself was inspired by the patterns of bamboo. The tower itself actually uses less steel than conventional towers of that magnitude.

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Described as the longest escalator in the world, with its 800 meters of total length, this may be useful for locals, but not much for tourists: if you go up to the top, since they are one way only, and mid-levels a residential area, you will end facing the problem of how to get out of there.

We used it only for a couple of sections and left, allowing us to find the way to Man Mo temple, descending instead of climbing, wit a short and easy look at Hollywood Rd. Not bad!

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One of my personal favourite buildings - particularly by night - is the HSBC building, designed by Norman Foster.

Built between 1979 and 1985, it has 47 floors and towers over the old Legislative Building. It contains (of its time) some extremely forward thinking concepts - sea water is used for the a/c, natural sunlight the major source of lighting.

But its at night that the building comes into its own - although the lighting display was not part of Foster's original design. This was added in 2003 by the HK Tourism Board, who developed 'A Symphony of Lights' incorporating a number of the high rise office buildings on HK Island. Whilst as a whole best seen from the Kowloon side of the harbour, standing immediately below the HSBC building at ground level is quite extraordinary.

In a so dense forest of concrete it's nice to find a place with a traditional look and small proportions.

This square is not a big one, the statue is not impressive, but upon arriving we feel, at last, free to breed.

A break in the massive soil occupation.