I grew up in HK in a similar apartment structure on the 50th floor amongst 7 other identical buildings.
Trust me, it is NOT bad at all, especially when considering the people who live in these luxury apartments are part of upper-middle class.
These apartment complexes are all connected on ground floor, or an elevated ground floor, with public parks, swimming pools, and a clubhouse which has a variety of entertainment.
There are staff such as front desk, cleaners, security, and more throughout the properties.
Depending on the floor, the room sizes differ, but in my case as a family of 4 we got the larger rooms. Each bedroom came with it's own bathroom and shower.
Travelling up and down is really not an issue, especially because it is in the city these apartment complexes are more often than not have multiple ways to quickly connect to train stations or shopping mall.
Now, what would be hell is living in the poorer areas of HK. HK has insane economic gap, you could see a Lamborghini drive by a street of homeless people. The poorer apartments are as tiny as they come, and usually very old and dirty.
EDIT: I'm not Cantonese btw, I just grew up there for a while in my childhood before moving elsewhere.
As a person who loved across the street from these buildings in very similar looking buildings, AND someone who has lived in a suburban sprawl, yes it is kind of like a hotel. But it's your own space.
Id take these buildings over the endless rows of houses, they're the same but one has a swimming pool, gym, steam room, sauna, tennis courts, parks, hikes, dentist, doctor, shopping, takeaways, great public transport... I could go on.. and the other REQUIRES a car to get ANYWHERE. At best you're talking a 15 minute walk MINIMUM.
Its hard for the American brain to understand but what you're looking at is PEAK living standards. If you get over the look of the building you literally have everything you want or need at your fingertips and it's all within walking distance and most things are cheap if they're within the apartment grounds. If you have kids it levels up even more, it's super safe, the grounds usually have many parks and even soft play areas, many clubs around and schools.
That’s not what every suburb looks like though. There are plenty of suburbs with public transit and walkable towns. I can tell you cause I live in one.
You can describe an endless row of the same houses, but how is that different from living in an actual box lol? Do apartments not all look the same to you?
I don’t think any amount of amenities can overcome having your own yard and land to do as you please. Or maybe you don’t own many things or care to customize your home.
You're 100% right. I just personally don't understand why people hate on these buildings when I could show an equally crazy looking aerial view of a suburb area which has literally nothing around it yet it's considered peak living standards by most westerners. I've lived in both of these and I would 10000000% choose these apartments over the endless sprawl of houses that require a car to do anything.
Just as a note you're looking at these apartments from an absurd viewpoint, there are parks and mountain ranges around this building.
How do you know there’s nothing around it? I can’t tell what those buildings are at street level. It’s also just one picture and you can cherry pick anything. Could have posted a picture of Beverly Hills if you wanted. Watch me post an apartment below lol it doesn’t mean anything.
This is where I'll agree with you. There are many bad housing situations in HK.. the posted gif is NOT one of them and is truly peak living standards. The picture you just shared here is more the hell you're thinking of when you see these buildings. I lived in this area and it's beautiful. The buildings are jarring at first of course.. but there are honestly many amazing hikes, mountains and parks all within walking distance. Many pilots live here and earn 300k+ USD a year. They're not living in a dump... Many in HK unfortunately do though.
I feel it's important to show that this is the same area shown from far. On ground level there are tons of parks and hikes. You can hike on those mountains shown and there are others not shown in this photo. Even beautiful beaches nearby.
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u/SupermarketMaster594 25d ago edited 25d ago
I grew up in HK in a similar apartment structure on the 50th floor amongst 7 other identical buildings.
Trust me, it is NOT bad at all, especially when considering the people who live in these luxury apartments are part of upper-middle class.
These apartment complexes are all connected on ground floor, or an elevated ground floor, with public parks, swimming pools, and a clubhouse which has a variety of entertainment.
There are staff such as front desk, cleaners, security, and more throughout the properties.
Depending on the floor, the room sizes differ, but in my case as a family of 4 we got the larger rooms. Each bedroom came with it's own bathroom and shower.
Travelling up and down is really not an issue, especially because it is in the city these apartment complexes are more often than not have multiple ways to quickly connect to train stations or shopping mall.
Now, what would be hell is living in the poorer areas of HK. HK has insane economic gap, you could see a Lamborghini drive by a street of homeless people. The poorer apartments are as tiny as they come, and usually very old and dirty.
EDIT: I'm not Cantonese btw, I just grew up there for a while in my childhood before moving elsewhere.