The stairs in Central Market. Picture: Edmond So
Stairs are staples of a city and Hong Kong is no exception. In fact, the structure may be more common here than in many other metropolises for several reasons.
First of all, we have the most skyscrapers in the world and tall buildings simply never exist without a staircase. The city abounds with outdoor staircases as well, as Hong Kong’s hilly landscape makes them necessities.
Do not forget the staircases on the countless footbridges, there to allow people to cut across roads that run through the city like arteries.
So prevalent are staircases that most of us rarely give them a second thought. But as with many other things, the individual nature of each emerges once you pay close attention. These come not only from their physical characteristics but also the particular contexts of their locations.
Some are unique by design.
Take the concrete spiral staircase in Tai Kwun, for example. It’s not just the spiral shape, but the concrete wall’s staggering thickness and coarse texture that give it its character. Each step up or down offers a fresh angle of the round, coiling structure. The thickness of the concrete wall is revealed when you look up, standing in the middle of what feels like a vortex. Feeling the rough concrete walls with your hands adds a tactile sensation to the mundane act of travelling between floors.
The staircase at the Hong Kong
Arts Centre is also spiral but creates a different ambience. While the
Tai Kwun staircase creates a feeling of being cloistered in an insulated, circular room, the Hong Kong
Arts Centre’s hexagonal staircase – defined by its rigid, strict lines – gives a sense of unhindered openness. This is because the transparent glass walls make all the floors somewhat visible regardless of your location while simultaneously letting warm natural light generously rise up through the whole building.
The two spiral staircases “wow” us with their inherent aesthetics, but not so much with where they take us. Both are situated in art venues, where people come with an expectation of what they will be seeing. So then, another category of staircase in Hong Kong are those that take you somewhere quite unexpected and distinct from where you were previously.
For example, consider the Shantung Street Sitting-out Area staircase in the middle of Mong Kok. The staircase is located in a public outdoor space, equipped with benches and decorated with trees. This sitting-out area looks like it is attached to the Cordis hotel. A first-time visitor might think that going up these stairs and entering the building will lead to the lobby of the five-star hotel. But where you end up once you push through the glass door is far from a slick hotel lobby with a cordial doorman.
Instead, you are suddenly in a space filled with the low buzz of several jumbled up Cantonese conversations, where senior Hongkongers chat while slurping fishball noodles and char siu rice.
It’s the Mong Kok Cooked Food Market in the “Mong Kok Complex” that quite unexpectedly occupies the lower floors of the skyscraper emblazoned with “Cordis” on top. And there is another staircase in Kowloon that transports you to a totally different setting, visually and auditorily. This one, on Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, is adorned with murals of ponds and connects the bustling thoroughfare with Kowloon Park.
The visual contrast between the hustle and bustle of the commercial street and the relative peace of the park is immediate. Nathan Road is packed with people, stores and cars, whereas the park is home to Chinese banyan trees with deep-green leaves and stray cats.
Close your eyes and pay attention to the sounds of both locations that the staircase connects. All kinds of languages float up from Nathan Road – from Cantonese and Mandarin to Korean, Thai, Spanish and Russian.
This is, after all, one of the most popular destinations for tourists visiting Hong Kong who are looking for food and shopping options.
The variety of languages you’ll be able to discern on the street, however, will probably be outnumbered by the various birdsongs that can be heard inside Kowloon Park. Hong Kong is a popular destination for migratory birds and more than 500 bird species – one third of all bird species found in China and a 20th globally – have been recorded in Hong Kong.
Out of these, more than 100 have been recorded in the 13.3 hectares of Kowloon Park, just a flight of stairs away from Nathan Road.
These are just four out of the myriad unusual staircases in
Hong Kong. The next time you run up or down one, consider spending a few moments pondering what might set it apart from others.