Hope you all enjoyed this! This video is meant to be more of a "This is what a tourist thinks of the Hong Kong MTR" rather than a proper RM Transit-style analysis. Check out his video if you want more of a deep dive: th-cam.com/video/EwnJvwrNFwQ/w-d-xo.html - Hong Kong does certainly have traffic, I was just trying to say I didn't encounter it that much. Certainly not as much as I did in Shanghai or Seoul. Seoul in particular had so much traffic everywhere. - In retrospect a shopping centre being quiet at 9 am is probably not that unusual. I was told that's somewhat normal in Hong Kong. Idk maybe I'm too used to my local shopping centres. The next instalment, Shanghai, will be out in about a month. Get hyped!
Tokyo is the only city I can think of that rivals Hong Kong in intelligent infrastructure. Sydney's problem is: they don't have much of a real metro; their lines mostly consist of commuter rail, which is not the same as Metro rail: It is for moving suburbanites into and from the city, which is why the stations are inadequately spaced and the frequencies are sparse. The reason why Sydney's rail is delusionally developed is because the city is unnecessarily sprawled: it is car-centric and comprised of a majority of single-family homes.
trust me, you would not want to ride the mtr every day. i lived there for a couple of years and every time during rush hour the train gets noisy and smelly
So basically, the Kowloon Walled City originated as a small outpost built during the Song Dynasty to manage salt trade, but when China ceded Hong Kong Island to the British in 1842, Qing officials decided to expand the fort in 1847 to discourage any additional British incursions. Then when the Chinese ceded most of Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and leased the New Territories in 1898, that's how Kowloon Walled City effectively became an enclave. During the WWII Japanese occupation, the Japanese tore down the walls and used the stones as material to expand Kai Tak. After WWII, refugees from the Chinese Civil War fled into the Walled City, a fire destroyed the wooden structures, and so it was built anew as the population boomed. Of course, under the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the 1980s, both sides finally agreed to demolish the city. And the double-decker trams are indeed very cool! In the UK, the earliest double-deck trams were horse-drawn. The first electric double-deck trams were those built for the Blackpool Tramway in 1885. The British Hong Kong government first looked into building a tramway in 1882, however they chose to focus on the Peak Tram instead because of business interests. The tramway was finally built in 1904, starting with twenty-six single-deck cars with first-class and third-class sections, however they introduced double-deckers to the fleet in 1912 due to increasing ridership. They began double-tracking in 1924, and the last section of single-track was replaced in 1949, leading to even more ridership.
I agree with you on the mini busses! They are fantastic for connecting up everywhere the MTR doesn't go, and sometimes even saving a 10-15 minute walk. They would be fantastic in Sydney and probably lead to an increase in the train ridership too. I skipped the section of the video about Kowloon Walled City Park, because I want to explore it for myself next time I'm in Hong Kong!
@@acd6835There are variants of the Toyota Coaster (the bus shown) that are equipped with wheelchair lifts. There are also similar low floor minibuses on the market, some of which are even used in Australia (Optare Solo, and the sadly discontinued Hino Poncho)
They're good to get down to Stanley, though with so many tourists that go down to Ocean Park/ Discovery Bay/ Stanley markets they're a bit of a pain being unable to take so many passengers.
I'm from Hong Kong thank you for visiting! When it comes to bus network, I think Hong Kong has the best bus network in the world since not many cities have so many routes and double deckers, which covers almost any location to the other. Also, there are two types of minibuses, green (the one you took) and red. Red minibuses are unique to Hong Kong as a rapid transit service, where routes aren't official but the locals know where to hop on and off, as well as drivers usually driving at the speed of private cars (often speeding but it's quite exciting), I hope you can discover them the next time you visit!
For people outside of HK the segmented number display at the top left-hand corner of the video at 12:01 is for showing the bus' speed (in kph), mandated by law after some buses were speeding (their legal speed limit is 80km/h) & caused several accidents. The display will flash once the speed limit is reached
Hahaha shops in Hong Kong don't open until 11am or 12pm, but they stay open much later than Australian businesses (closing 9pm at the earliest) so that people can visit the shops during their lunch break and after work, and even after dinner.
@@BuildingBeautifully many east asian cities do that too, in fact there are a lot of entertainment that pretty much start after 9 or 10pm... that's why i was so confused when i first time visit sydney, how does all the business close at 5 or 6pm? there is not many places to spend money everyday after work, except bars or casino...
Here in Singapore many shops also open at 11am (& close at 9+pm), probably so that they need only 1 shift of staff to operate them. As for Japan I see that some of their stores close earlier (7.30pm in winter & 8pm at other times)
I love the HK transport system too. I first went there in 2007 and used their octopus card and couldn't understand why we didn't have this set up in Sydney. Fast forward many years and Hooray, our pollies gifted us the Opal card. We take so long to advance sometimes in what is supposed to be an advanced country.
A very cool thing about the MTR is the Disneyland Resort Line, it's a shuttle service between two stations, Sunny Bay and Disneyland Resort. Sunny Bay station has a futuristic theme, while Disneyland Resort station has a Victorian theme. The idea was that the train would act like a time machine, taking people from the future to the fantasy world of Hong Kong Disneyland. The trains themselves are very different from the rest of the MTR network as they have Mickey-shaped windows, Mickey-shaped handles, and bronze statues of Disney characters in glass displays. This line began in 2005, and its trains were the first on the MTR to use automatic train operation during normal operation, followed by the South Island Line in 2016! Kai Tak became an international airport in the 1950s and 1960s, however it first opened as an airport in 1925. Not just the mountains, but because of being on a peninsula and all the apartments, all the aircraft heading to Kai Tak could not fly over the mountains and quickly drop in for a final approach. Instead, aircraft had to fly above Victoria Harbour and Kowloon City, passing north of Mong Kok's Bishop Hill. After passing Bishop Hill, pilots would see a large orange and white checkerboard. Once the pattern was sighted and identified, aircraft made a low-altitude 47-degree right-hand turn, ending with a short final approach and touchdown. This approach could not be flown by aircraft instruments but had to be flown visually because of the right-hand turn required.
If I recall correctly the announcement you hear when going from Disneyland to Sunny Bay went along the lines of “we’re now taking you back to the modern/advanced society of Hong Kong” or something like that. This was back when I was a kid, not sure if they still do it now. They’re really committed to the “Time Machine” theme haha.
One thing people keep on overlooking is that Hong Kong has a lot of freeways, way more than that in Sydney despite having a fraction of Sydney’s vehicle fleet
9:16 You see, the reason why a lot of shops are well integrated with the station is because MTR directly owns the malls. For example, Kowloon station has Elements, stations like Tung Chung, Tsing Yi, Tseung Kwan O, Yuen Long, etc all have shopping malls built on top of the station that are directly owned by MTR. And this is one of the main reasons why MTR is a very profitable company. Also what's insane are the operations of MTR overseas, they not only operate some metro lines within Mainland China like Shenzhen Metro Line 4, multiple lines in Beijing and Hangzhou. But they also operate the Elizabeth Line, some lines in Stockholm, even the Sydney metro rn
@@Pine_Gap_Island I'm not sure actually, I will definitely pay attention to that aspect next time I go to Singapore. Having malls built on top is a pretty strat, but having the malls own by you too is not so common I'd say.
@@Pine_Gap_Island Singapore is different since all public transport assets are owned by the government. SMRT and SBST are contracted by the government to operate the MRT lines. But for Hong Kong all MTR assets are owned by MTR itself, except for East Rail Line and Tuen Ma Line, which are loaned to MTR by KCR (Kowloon Canton Railway), the public operator that used to run the two lines, after merger of operations. This included KCR owned malls and residential estates that are now managed by MTR Properties. It's a model that is prevalent in Japan, especially by the private train operators. However in Japan the properties are developed to help keep train ticket prices low since there's fierce competition in the train business (there can be 3 or 4 operators running services between the same destinations). In Hong Kong MTR is just being a capitalist to the fullest extent since it is the sole operator on the island. Ticket price is least of their concern as it is "monitored" by the government with "a basket of factors".
@@kenchiu1987 To be more precise, it's only recently that the gov't (via the Land Transport Authority) started owning rolling stock; previously they were owned by the operators & I think their operating contracts for the train lines were tied to the rolling stock's lifespan (~40 yrs). Operators don't own buildings near/above their stations but the stations are built with shops that operators can rent out (& non-fare revenue contributes to almost 1/2 of their total revenue). Like MTR our operators have overseas operations too though e.g. SMRT helps to run Dubai Metro, while SBS Transit's parent company (ComfortDelgro) bought London bus operator MetroLine in 2013, & also recently won a bid from MTR to run Stockholm's T-Bana. In exchange Singapore has let foreign operators run some public buses too e.g. Go-Ahead, Tower Transit, & might do so for rail too in the future
@@kenchiu1987 But u forget the largest shareholder of MTR, which is Hong Kong Government, holding 75% by Financial Secretary Incorporated Team. And the Singapore SMRT mostly build in the HDB suburb town centre, which is concept like the Tai Wo Station/Yau Tong Station, the metro exits is the HDB housing. But Singapore government don't use the station development only as a free-market housing project, they also build the public housing next to the station. u can check on google map for the station of SMRT and there have several station build with the HDB complex, stay alone with foot bridges, with suburb centres etc. But SMRT is not have many station that station development integrated built with top of the station, like Hong Kong's MTR depot, Chai Wan Station, Kwai Fong Station, Tsing Yi station etc. The development at the top of the depot is a world pioneer I think.
Wonderful video!! I just started watching your videos after reading an article on you the other day and was surprised to see a video on HK! A place I lived in for most of my childhood 😂
Kai Tek airport. What I recall from first landing in 1985 was not just flying past apartment buildings looking in the windows to see people doing normal things like eating meal but that some apartments seemed to be small factories with people at sewing machines. The people in the windows had no interest in passing plane. Landing in 1997 was not as close as they had apparently extended the runway and while flying past apartments, we were no close enough to be looking in the windows.
Public transportation in Hong Kong is very convenient. I can go almost anywhere without my own car. However, owning a car in Australia is a must. I can’t even go to the supermarket without a car 😢
I miss the convince of Asia. I lived for 3 years in Phoenix City in Zengcheng (just west of Guangzhou) on the 17th floor of an apartment, literally had a full supermarket right downstairs from me, and a Macdonalds for the morning coffee ha! And the community I lived in had shuttle busses to take us into the city & connect straight onto the metro system, including the through train to Hong Kong! I often finished work Friday at 5.30, jump on the shuttle bus then the train & would get to Hung Hom Station in Hong Kong by 11pm for the weekend!
Sharath, as I am Hong Kong citizen, you can try the Bus ride in Hong Kong Island next time if u want to. Route: 1. Once u arrive at Central by any transportation, find the way to Jardine House Bus stop for route 780 (or go to Central ferry Bus Terminus if u take star ferry or get off from MTR's Hong Kong station, bus 780 start here, if u missed the 780 bus, u can go to Jardine House stop if u like to chase it :P) to experience the harbour view from Isandside, don't take 788 unless u want to have some adventure in Siu Sai Wan :P. (780 also have a stop at Exhibition Centre Station / Wan Chai ferry at Hung Hong RD, just off the ferry pier u can see the bus stop to the east) 2. when 780 bus get off the Island corridor, which is the Expressway/motorway of Hong Kong Island, get off the bus next stop, called "A Kung Ngam Road" stop, and interchange route 14 to Stanley 3. Get on Route 14 bus, and have a great Southern Hillside road ride and enjoy the Tai Tam hillside landscapes. (I think it is feel like NE coast in Sydney to New Castle) 4. Get off the route 14 bus at stop "Stanley Villege" and have can some adventure in Stanley, Stanley is a southern town in Hong Kong, due to the development and many western people live here in a long time, here is the most you can feel like in western country suburb in Hong Kong (another one in my mind is Discovery Bay which is very like a Australian feel community in Hong Kong.) 5. depends where u like to go, if u go back to Central can take 260(via Gloucester RD, the 3rd Reclaimed shoreline of Hong Kong Island) or 6X(Via Queensway in backstreet of WanChai, the 1st reclaimed shoreline of Hong Kong Island) back to Wan Chai(for some adventure in Wan Chai) or Central and end the day of advanture. 6. If you want to have more adventure for visit suburb in Southern district like Aberdeen, other southern coast beaches like Repulse Bay, Deep Water Bay, u can take route 73 for them, additionally, Wah Fu Estate is a must go estate if u want to, coz it is going to demolish in next few years and it is the 1st role model of modern public housing Estate in Hong Kong and the New Town Development concept in Hong Kong such as Sha Tin, Tai Po, Yuen Long and so on. 7. If you finished adventure in Aberdeen area, u can take the 70/72/592/37A/37B buses for back to Northern coast of Hong Kong Island, or 170 to Kowloon, MTR u need to take the local ferry to Ap Lei Chau for South Horizen MTR Station. 8. If u take route 73 to the end, where is called Cyberport, u can get the 30X bus back to Admiralty/Central/Kennedy Town as 30X is via west coast, or u can take minibus 58/58M to Kennedy Town, minibus 10 to Casuway Bay. 9. If u take 788 at (1), u can have some advanture in Siu Sai Wan, a nice and peaceful new Town concept development of Hong Kong Island in 1990s, but there is not quite much special to see, mostly a local community with one public housing estate, 5 subsidy estates, a massive, 50 stories-tall apartment with a shopping mall and bus terminus underneath, five high school and one primary school, a 10K seats sport ground with soccer pitch, a waterfront recreation area and there u can see the coastline landscape view of Tseung Kwun O and its new built cross-bay bridge, the bridge will be light-up at night. 10. In Siu Sai Wan, u can get on the bus again without MTR, coz Siu Sai Wan is a few suburbs that without MTR in Hong Kong. But the Bus network there is the strongest one in Hong Kong. U can take again the 788 to CBD of Northern coast of Hong Kong Island, 118 to area along Nathan Road in Kowloon from Yau Ma Tei(DGS school area) to Sham Shui Po area. Additional to say: 2:16, Airport Express also is the 1st airport railway in the world with the passenger down-town check-in service, and it is the fastest to transport in Hong Kong for going airport if u start from location nearby that 3 stations and it is reliable, compare to traffic of North Lantau Island Expresway and the efficiency of drop-off zone at Terminal 1 if u take any cars beside Bus. 3:59, This number changed to landsize =275sqKM(Hong Kong land size ~1100sqKM), around half of urban area of Singapore (their urban area = 65% of their land area(735sqKM x 65% ~ 477 sqKM.), and 40% of land in Hong Kong is for natural reserve, which is named "Country Park" in Hong Kong. 5:03, Due to Hong Kong's linear city development which is urban area built along the coastline of the harbour, the metro can be built in bigger size and have a basic network can served most of urban area people in Hong Kong. In early times, with just 3 urban lines and served 1 Million per day. The early planned metro line from Diamond Hill to Tsim Sha Tsui which is finally completed in 2020, almost 40 years later than the original route open day(1 OCT 1979, Kwun Tong to Shek Kip Mei). 6:35, If u have trip to London and try the Underground deep tube, Hong Kong's MTR totally is a scale up of it, I think MTR's engineer take some experience from Underground's Victoria Line, coz MTR very like a successor of Victoria Line Project. 7:32, Cross Platfrom interchange for Metro is easier to have when government planned several line at the same, in MTR, the 1st stage of the line was also built the reserved part for the new line construction, such as the Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, Prince Edward were fully built the station, just closed the not closed part(Prince Edward was not opened til Tsuen Wan Line open but it is just for interchange, exits open 7 days later), Admiralty and Central were partly built, only Tsuen Wan Line part finished at 1st stage, Island Line part was reserved for further construction.
6:21 you’re right Even at night they keep the service to 4-5 min per train It’s so frequent that during rush hour if the train comes in 3 minute I will be furious lol
11:51 Baggage theft was reported previously from these airport coaches' luggage storage areas (as their owners might be seated a distance away e.g. on the bus' upper deck, while the storage is on the lower deck), so I heard that CCTV has been installed at the storage area. My country probably will never have such coaches between the airport & downtown though for fear of cannibalizing rail ridership between these 2 places (which is cheap but can be crowded with commuters not going to/from the airport). Instead we have a regular commuter bus between these 2 places, though people complain that travellers' luggage take up too much space on-board those buses, which don't have much luggage storage space. Some people in my country even called these travellers stingy & potentially inconsiderate: "If they can afford to fly to our country, surely they can afford a taxi instead of a bus"
If you cross the border to the neighbouring Shenzhen and Guangzhou, their metro systems are equally good at a fraction of the price. Shenzhen has 369 metro stations, 555 km of lines and 2.7 billion passengers per year.
....and technically, you can walk from Lo Hu Station to Coco Park and even further to Chegongmiao (mostly) underground! I worked for a year at King Glory Plaza (on the border) at Guomao Station in Shenzhen, not quite sure how you'd walk, but I think the underground section stats around Grand Theatre or KK Mall area?
9:25 ahaha you walked into CityGate outlets - believe it or not, it is one of the busiest malls on a daily basis! You should come back at 12pm on a weekend... Most stores open from 11am, that's why. Hong Kong opens late, closes late as well! (Unlike sydney)
This most profitable listed railway company loves profitability rather than comfortability, affordability & sustainability. People are jam packed in the most expensive city in the world so they do not want to reproduce. As a result, the real cost is the future.
Dont live on the metro line so can't comment, the line I'm on always has trackwork on weekends and there's some delays on average at least once every couple of weeks
@@DeepThought9999 Unfortunately, 60% of Syd Metro is owned by this most profitable listed railway company in the universe, so as Melbourne Metro. Developers are its best friends. Martin Place has 2 new buildings to be constructed together with the new station to fund the project.
Really interesting video. That unloved park is really fascinating, finding places in cities where no one else ventures is a really fascinating idea to me, there are few places like that in Sydney! I hope your Shanghai video shows trolleybuses, I'll enjoy it regardless.
I live in Hong Kong and for those of you who don’t know, a large portion of the Kai Tak Runway Park was demolished and replaced by the Kai Tak Covid Quarantine Housing Facility during COVID. The Park is still not being restored even after the pandemic. Hopefully, the government would convert the Kai Tai Quarantine Housing facilities into temporary housing for citizens of Hong Kong who were waiting for public housing.
Great video! Another great railway system is Taiwan if you ever get to visit. Interesting geographical constraints in a mix of old, modern lines around the country. Plus the first ever Shinkansen technology to be exported outside of Japan! Maybe next holiday!?
just glad you didn't come to hong kong during the summer, or I could only say "welcome to sauna hell". But yeah as someone who's been around the block quite bit hong kong's MTR system is indeed something we can take pride in...unlike our taxi.
While I find it interesting, as a former Transport Planner, you really can't compare Sydney to Hong Kong, very different layout and obviously Hong Kong is WAY more denser than any Australian city. Generally the public transport will be planned around the demographics and population density, so satellite cities that provide lots of houses will always have public transport that generally runs every 30-60mins depending on the type of route. Our railway system only really exists simply because of the fact that in the late 1800s to early 1900s when the bulk of the railways were built, trains were the most efficient and fastest form of transport, and were able to handle not only passengers, but also goods and materials, all needed for a growing city. The current commuter networks across Australia essentially piggybacked onto these existing routes and are used today, with some adjustments and extensions. The Hong Kong Metro is a custom built and designed closed system, very different to our existing railway system in Australia. Frankly, until Australia densifies further (we only have a total population of around 25mil which is only around the size of one US state, California - ie: Australia is comparatively a small country, with a large landmass), public transport will always be difficult to implement and design and very expensive to implement, and it can only be justified if the returns will make it worthwhile to build. The other thing working against Australia, other than our natural geography, is the distance between cities, in some places, you can travel up to 12-14 hours and still be in the same State! Way different to many other places in the world, even the US (and we all know how terrible the US is when it comes to public transport in general, apart from some cities like New York and Washington DC). As a now disabled person, I'd be concerned with the loading on the Hong Kong Metro, as you need space to move around in a wheelchair in order to not only board and disembark but to also park it while on board, the more packed a train, the more difficult it is to board, to the point that it just simply wouldn't be worth it, on top of that, while it's nice they provide a mini bus, a mini bus does not meet any accessibility requirements, frankly myself and my chair would not be able to board that mini bus, defeating the point of the bus, at least for people like us. The other thing to keep in mind too is people who have certain types of Autism can become very quickly overwhelmed in a dense city like Hong Kong, so we really in general need to consider how we design cities with this in mind in the long run. Also with an aging population, we need to also consider accessibility more seriously, some people who may not have a wheelchair, may still have difficulty transferring platforms or have difficulties with walking the distance and need regular rests along the way. Deaf and blind people also need certain important adjustments to city infrastructure to make it accessible, including allowing assistance dogs to work without the chance of being distracted. Frankly, I'm starting to become more of a fan of local cities, where suburbs are hooked onto a cityhub so to speak, where you can access resources/jobs/shops etc the exact same way as you would if you lived in the original city, like Sydney. Also, I'm a fan of having more work from home set ups, and thus, having improved infrastructure for faster internet speeds, so you only head to the office if absolutely needed. Along with some other minor adjustments like having school start and finish times staggered rather than all at the same time.
Absolutely, Hong Kong will perpetually produce emigrants despite its affluence. It is an utterly unforgiving place for some types of people, and its closed territorial borders mean that people can’t just “move out of town.” It’s great for the wealthy and good enough for the very poor who get very cheap housing and healthcare. For everyone else it’s an absolute rat race in a somewhat shallow, closed-minded, hyper-capitalist culture. And your description of Aussie urban planning also explains why Aussie cities consistently rank well on quality-of-life surveys.
HK is almost 70% mountainous so its population lives on a smaller land area than Sydney, & thus its rail network doesn't have to be as long to serve them, though their trains need to have more capacity (they're mostly 8 cars too but with less seating, though with higher frequency). As for wheelchairs, my country might probably be able to better accommodate them on trains by removing even more seats from them. Hmm
@@brianmhyung My son was born in HK and was diagnosed with Autism at six. He's 26 and doing just fine in HK. He can even take the bus and MTR on his own, took me two weeks to shadow him to build trust. The fact that HK is a very safe city means safety for my son. As for regular activities, he goes to a special school and he does what normal people do, dim sum on Sundays and enjoying a drink at Starbucks. I don't understand why a person with autism would not be suited to live in HK when I see many kids with autism doing just fine.
Do you know the first Sydney Metro Line is an oversea project for HK MTR? This Empty R has lots of scandals locally, all new built MTR Lines were completed late with a higher price than 1st approved.
What an amazing system the MTR is. If only Sydney was like this...😞 Also thanks about the Kowloon Walled City. Heard about it before but never seen it until now.
The old airport turns up as a backdrop in several movies where the planes provide a dramatic backdrop for some scenes. Also I would like not to land in a plane that is sideways on the runway thank you very much so not missing the old airport.
You stayed at the same Hong Kong hotel as I did in last March. This hotel was formerly medium density units (with no lifts) for residents. Back then they were called 唐樓 Tong Lau (Wikipedia). They installed lifts for this hotel when it commenced it's services there. My hotel room was so small, like you said 11 m². Toilet and shower separated by a thin wall and a door for privacy. You can hear guests talking next door.
If you take the airport express to the airport from either hong kong or kowloon station, you can physically check-in early with your bags at your airline's ticket counters at the station, and then explore the city more before going to the airport (bag free!)
Fascinating seeing how other countries manage these same issues and figuring out what lessons we can learn from them to bring back to Aus 😊 Also, am curious: With your talk of how everything moves so fast with both the trains and the stations, did you happen to notice accessibility considerations at all? Even just noticing if many elderly folks tended to take the trains. Speed and crowds can be problematic for those with mobility issues, especially those unsteady on their feet, so would love to know if you noticed any precautions put in place to help those in that position!
The place he live is not far from Airport Express Kowloon Station at all. Short ride by Taxi & pre-checkin baggages can make them empty hand to walk around all day.
You got to visit Taiwan if you haven't. The integration of their transport system is amazing. I would suggest you catch the mrt to the high speed rail and then the mrt again in the city you arrive in. I used to travel door to door a total of about 360km in around 2hr 45min. With minimal waiting time in between changing systems (less than 15min in all). I think Sydney is slowly getting there too, certainly in terms of light rail to trains. Would just be great to have highspeed rail here, I've always believed between Sydney and Canberra would be more suitable than Sydney to Newcastle. Imagine living in Goulburn and commuting to Sydney to work. I would certainly be on for that. Save 1m or more on a house and have the beautiful environment down there. Or even live at Mittagong would be great.
Ohhh, you make me homesick, Hong Kong was my 2nd home when I lived in China for a decade! Australia is absolutely NOTHING like this! You should check out the actual history of building the (new) airport, the airport express and all the politics around it- fascinating! I love the MTR, I lived in Shenzhen for a year so visited HK every couple of weekends just zipping though immigration and hitting IFC in Central for banking & shopping! Oh and Guangzhou- you should check out their metro system as well. There's a interchange at Tiyu Xilu (Tianhe Sports Centre West) which is massive, but instead of getting off a train & walking around the long way & up escalators etc, 2 trains from opposite directions stop at the same time on parallel platforms, and you just walk straight through to get *3 platforms over* and it's the biggest boss move if you know where you're going! Oh, and Shenzhen's subway (2 lines, BTW, are owned by Hong Kong MTR) - 5 lines opened all within a week of each other the week before I loved there in 2011! Here in Brisbane we wait 100 bloody years just for the Redcliffe Peninsula line. So many memories......
When I rode the MTR in Hong Kong, back in 2015, it felt filthy and overcrowded. When I visited Singapore a few years later in 2018, I think I've decided the Singapore MRT is much better. True it too can also get overcrowded but its really clean and efficient. Although Hong Kong does win over Singapore when it comes to Airport - City Rail connections. In HK it is one express train whereas in Singapore, it requires a transfer between a regular train and a shuttle service.
At some stations, during peak hours, by the time you see the tail lights of the departing train, you can already see the headlights of the next arriving train. Regarding Checkerboard Hill and Kai Tak Runway Park, those are some fairly out-of-the-way destinations. Unless you're specifically interested in the history, most locals will find it quite bothersome to actually go on a regular basis. There are much better places to go to be outdoorsy. That said, as Kai Tak's redevelopments gradually become reality, the local population will increase and the park will probably reopen.
An interesting fact: the fare of rail service from the airport to central in HK is only 5 AUD more expensive than in Sydney, while the quality of airport services in the two cities is completely different. Btw, I am not sure if you have tried maglev after landing in Shanghai, but it is not that attractive now because the maximum speed has been reduced a lot since the pandemic, maybe next year we will have another option to leave Pudong when the airport link opens
MTR's secret to success is that the government at the time allowed them to get into property development and building shopping malls and housing along stations. It was also necessary at the time because how expensive it was to build the first 3 lines. Also some bigger stations served as transport interchange for both double decker buses and mini-buses. I guess comparisons are inevitable but in Sydney we have heavy rail and while there are draw backs with double deck trains, e.g. longer dwell times at station, there's a much greater chance of getting a seat compared to a single deck MTR or metro type of train. The length of the lines are generally shorter compared to Sydney, so standing is a lot more tolerable than say standing all the way from Central to Penrith or Campbelltown or Sutherland or Hornsby etc. You'll see quite a lot of MTR-style influence in chinese mainland train stations e.g. overall design, signage, ambience, platform screen doors, announcements etc. The reliability of the MTR system used to be really good, there have been a few incidents in recent years. I'm a little bit surprised you didn't mention about the Octopus card system!!
My favourite fact about Kowloon is that there were disproportionally many dentists there, as Chinese dentistry licenses weren't valid in Hong Kong, so Kowloon was the only place Chinese dentists could work in if they went to Hong Kong.
there is a reason for Less cars in HK than in SG or Sydney. only people who could afford car in HK are rich people who can afford to pay annual tax of price of the car that one have purchased when it was a new car, if you ve got a Kia Niro, price in HK is about 368,000HKD, your annual tax each year would be the same. so you need to pay 368,000HKD annually per year for the car you drive on daily or weekly basis. which doesn't include environment tax, other miscellaneous taxs following annual car holding tax. thats why there is no car in HK. unlike Singapore it doesnt have COE, but it taxes you to a hell on annual basis. whereas in Seoul. South Korea is the cheapest country in OECD to buy and run a car. low tax, inexpensive tolls does contribute traffic jam in Seoul. it is usual in Seoul for families have two cars, despite excellent public transit system. because cars are cheap.
Syd Trains with Intercity Lines have far more seats (always more seats than passengers) than the Metro style trains in HK, Tokyo, Seoul & Singapore. Though reliability is low but service hours are long & the price is cheap in the complicated AUD50 weekly Opal Cap which also covers Light Rail, some Ferries & Buses. Sydney Metro will widen the gap of unaffordability because expensive apartments along the line are on the way.
The reason for the lack of traffic is the time of year you went to HK. HK definitely has more traffic but you went at a quiet time of year. Would be far worse without the MTR though.
Hong Kong's dense nature correlates to this level of convenience you can say, and I would argue it's how this image of efficiency that the MTR operates on. Obviously the Metro in Sydney is trying to emulate that, well in fact the Metro is operated by Hong Kong MTR as well I believe. Now back to the convenience side of things; from what I read last time, the entire system if you want to call it that, is why sort of why I guess only 25% is developed. The government essentially creates this land scarcity but also maintains this high demand and also maintaining a denser living life style. If you think about how this entire MTR and Government relationship works, it's basically a monopoly. The government sells/gives/leases the land to the MTR company, they in turn sell it onto developers, but also I believe they end up owning a lot of retail space directly on the station areas. But one thing is the government owns about 70% of the MTR company. I read somewhere that this is also why the MTR company has run so efficiently as well, any delays imposes a penalty of about $1m HKD that the government takes in.
Different countries have different ticket arrangements with respect that some have a ticket collector/ guard at every station. And some rely on the honesty system. With roaming guards checking randomly. Saving on not manning platforms and loosing cashflow is a strategy Maybe they have a counter and compared number of tickets sold.
Actually there are more cross-platform exchanges in Sydney than Chatswood and Glenfield, at least to some extent, such as Westmead, Revesby and Town Hall. And there would have been more at St James and North Sydney, if the originally proposed lines had been built. What Sydney doesn't have is a sequence of stations where different line combinations provide a linear set of cross platform exchanges. Instead we tend to have something like Central where it's all done in one place, with some cross-platforming, but mostly with walks between several. I know what you mean by trying to get your head around Hong Kong. One of my 'lives' was in fire protection, (firefighting and the engineering side), and for a few years with an Association that (inter alia) ran regular conferences, with lots of international speakers. The big revelation from Hong Kong speakers for me was that they use high rise buildings for everything; not just residences and offices, but for things like 'full on' manufacturing industries. It works, but certainly stretches the philosophy behind building codes.
Indeed, the cross-platform interchange at Town Hall platform 5-6 is a good one, changing between the city circle and eastern suburbs line is cross-platform
One great thing that the Hong Kong government is regretting it implimented, is that all residents over 60 can ride to any station on the MTR line for HK$2 or 40 Austalian cents. But that's for all transport, including buses, trams, ferries, minibuses. The government reimburses the operator for the rest of each and every fare All the MTR lines were built separately over the past 50 years as more areas were opened up for housing, but they are well integrated. People don't mind standing, as that is the most effecient way to move lots of people, and the longest rides most people take are probably about 45 minutes. You mmust have missed the biggest interchange station, Admiralty. You would have been very impressed otherwise.
@@BuildingBeautifullywhy you not bias towards amsterdam like other 😂... Joke aside I am glad that you did not follow this people, who allergic to Asian countries.
Hong Kong is what many politicians aspire Sydney to become with hundreds of thousands of units to be built to accommodate the ever increasing population growth that has no limit.
Maybe you should compare to Paris or Barcelona or London first Sydney isn't even a fraction the size and density of Paris. Sydney will never match HK density even if it grows to 20 million.
I went to Bangkok and the train system is incredible and they also have elevated walkways so that you don't have to contend with crossing the road in a country not known for having top of the line, most of this stuff was built after 1990. Meanwhile in Sydney the Parramatta Light Rail has been sitting at 99% completion for over 2 years
6:37 the first time i went there, i spent 20 minutes trying to find the actual station until i realised there was a exit closer to my hotel and the station is right below
@5:15 I'll never understand why the MTR map removed the intuitive indications of cross-platform interchanges it used to have. It's also interesting that like Singapore, if you look away for a bit and then see the map again, it's different with new lines and new connections. So turns out I was last in HK in 2014 and it's nuts how much the MTR map has changed. Totally agree with you that the Airport buses are a great network. As for areas not covered by the MTR - that's where the buses and ferries come in (particularly for the south side of Hong Kong Island, for Lantau and for the other islands) so lots more to explore in HK - plus the integrated Light Rail in the New Territories is pretty decent. Oh - also love that the MTR exit signs now have a QR code - they always had excellent info online but looking at the QR code it brings up a great guide to all the exits, the station map and area map and if you tap on points of interest it opens Google Maps directions from the exit to the POI. These things just quietly make life better.
I was interested in your mention of cross platform transfers. We have more of these in the Sydney network than you mentioned. I often travel to Newtown from Wahroonga. There is an easy cross platform transfer to the inner west line at Townhall. Puzzlingly the Transport info app suggests making the change at Wynyard were there is a time consuming walk to change levels.
5:00 "access to almost all of the countrt" Winnie the Pooh would like a word with you Issues with HK's public transport in general: 1) All public transports are privately owned and operated. The actual ticket is pretty high for the locals until the government subsidise it a few years ago. 2) There's no transfer discount across various modes of public transport except for certain routes. The MTR and the buses are competitors. Heck even the 2 franchise bus companies are rivals. 3) There's a mechanism to adjust ticket prices up and down according to "a basket of factors", but it has only gone up in the last decade. 4) MTR has always been joked locally as a property developer and running rail service as a side business. In reality it is indeed one of the largest property owner in the island, owning many malls and residental estates on or near MTR stations. 5) The government always favour MTR over buses. One explanation is that the HK government is a major share holder of MTR. When a new line is operational, bus services would be cancelled on a large scale, giving the impression that the government is pushing people to take MTR so as to guarantee revenue for the new line.
Hope you all enjoyed this! This video is meant to be more of a "This is what a tourist thinks of the Hong Kong MTR" rather than a proper RM Transit-style analysis. Check out his video if you want more of a deep dive: th-cam.com/video/EwnJvwrNFwQ/w-d-xo.html
- Hong Kong does certainly have traffic, I was just trying to say I didn't encounter it that much. Certainly not as much as I did in Shanghai or Seoul. Seoul in particular had so much traffic everywhere.
- In retrospect a shopping centre being quiet at 9 am is probably not that unusual. I was told that's somewhat normal in Hong Kong. Idk maybe I'm too used to my local shopping centres.
The next instalment, Shanghai, will be out in about a month. Get hyped!
Tokyo is the only city I can think of that rivals Hong Kong in intelligent infrastructure.
Sydney's problem is: they don't have much of a real metro; their lines mostly consist of commuter rail, which is not the same as Metro rail: It is for moving suburbanites into and from the city, which is why the stations are inadequately spaced and the frequencies are sparse. The reason why Sydney's rail is delusionally developed is because the city is unnecessarily sprawled: it is car-centric and comprised of a majority of single-family homes.
trust me, you would not want to ride the mtr every day. i lived there for a couple of years and every time during rush hour the train gets noisy and smelly
Buddy.. the walled city and the old airport has been gone for ages
As a person from Hong Kong, I can tell you you DO NOT need a car to get around the public transport is rlly good enough
So basically, the Kowloon Walled City originated as a small outpost built during the Song Dynasty to manage salt trade, but when China ceded Hong Kong Island to the British in 1842, Qing officials decided to expand the fort in 1847 to discourage any additional British incursions. Then when the Chinese ceded most of Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 and leased the New Territories in 1898, that's how Kowloon Walled City effectively became an enclave. During the WWII Japanese occupation, the Japanese tore down the walls and used the stones as material to expand Kai Tak. After WWII, refugees from the Chinese Civil War fled into the Walled City, a fire destroyed the wooden structures, and so it was built anew as the population boomed. Of course, under the Sino-British Joint Declaration in the 1980s, both sides finally agreed to demolish the city.
And the double-decker trams are indeed very cool! In the UK, the earliest double-deck trams were horse-drawn. The first electric double-deck trams were those built for the Blackpool Tramway in 1885. The British Hong Kong government first looked into building a tramway in 1882, however they chose to focus on the Peak Tram instead because of business interests. The tramway was finally built in 1904, starting with twenty-six single-deck cars with first-class and third-class sections, however they introduced double-deckers to the fleet in 1912 due to increasing ridership. They began double-tracking in 1924, and the last section of single-track was replaced in 1949, leading to even more ridership.
Thank you for your detailed explanation! The Kowloon Walled City does have a very complex history indeed; I've been fascinated with it for years.
Interestingly the trams are even narrower than buses, with 2+1 instead of 2+2 transverse seating
I agree with you on the mini busses! They are fantastic for connecting up everywhere the MTR doesn't go, and sometimes even saving a 10-15 minute walk. They would be fantastic in Sydney and probably lead to an increase in the train ridership too. I skipped the section of the video about Kowloon Walled City Park, because I want to explore it for myself next time I'm in Hong Kong!
Not really, Mini Buses, like the one shown in the video, can't take wheelchairs, so disabled people are left out.
They are or were trialling the mini bus things in Sydney but they were on demand and only in some areas
@@acd6835There are variants of the Toyota Coaster (the bus shown) that are equipped with wheelchair lifts. There are also similar low floor minibuses on the market, some of which are even used in Australia (Optare Solo, and the sadly discontinued Hino Poncho)
You're in for a real treat!
They're good to get down to Stanley, though with so many tourists that go down to Ocean Park/ Discovery Bay/ Stanley markets they're a bit of a pain being unable to take so many passengers.
I'm from Hong Kong thank you for visiting! When it comes to bus network, I think Hong Kong has the best bus network in the world since not many cities have so many routes and double deckers, which covers almost any location to the other. Also, there are two types of minibuses, green (the one you took) and red. Red minibuses are unique to Hong Kong as a rapid transit service, where routes aren't official but the locals know where to hop on and off, as well as drivers usually driving at the speed of private cars (often speeding but it's quite exciting), I hope you can discover them the next time you visit!
For people outside of HK the segmented number display at the top left-hand corner of the video at 12:01 is for showing the bus' speed (in kph), mandated by law after some buses were speeding (their legal speed limit is 80km/h) & caused several accidents. The display will flash once the speed limit is reached
@@lzh4950 yeah but the drivers don't care about the beeping when they speed
Hahaha shops in Hong Kong don't open until 11am or 12pm, but they stay open much later than Australian businesses (closing 9pm at the earliest) so that people can visit the shops during their lunch break and after work, and even after dinner.
Less and less shops open that late here now, it’s been like that since Covid.
Yeah it's probably not that unusual that it's quiet at 9 am in Hong Kong! I guess being a Sydneysider I just found it interesting.
@@BuildingBeautifully many east asian cities do that too, in fact there are a lot of entertainment that pretty much start after 9 or 10pm...
that's why i was so confused when i first time visit sydney, how does all the business close at 5 or 6pm? there is not many places to spend money everyday after work, except bars or casino...
Was the same in Tokyo hmm 🧐
Here in Singapore many shops also open at 11am (& close at 9+pm), probably so that they need only 1 shift of staff to operate them. As for Japan I see that some of their stores close earlier (7.30pm in winter & 8pm at other times)
I love the HK transport system too. I first went there in 2007 and used their octopus card and couldn't understand why we didn't have this set up in Sydney. Fast forward many years and Hooray, our pollies gifted us the Opal card. We take so long to advance sometimes in what is supposed to be an advanced country.
9:20 - Hong Kong shops generally don't open until around 10:30 to 11:00 am 😂Usually it's only food outlets that are open at that time.
A very cool thing about the MTR is the Disneyland Resort Line, it's a shuttle service between two stations, Sunny Bay and Disneyland Resort. Sunny Bay station has a futuristic theme, while Disneyland Resort station has a Victorian theme. The idea was that the train would act like a time machine, taking people from the future to the fantasy world of Hong Kong Disneyland. The trains themselves are very different from the rest of the MTR network as they have Mickey-shaped windows, Mickey-shaped handles, and bronze statues of Disney characters in glass displays. This line began in 2005, and its trains were the first on the MTR to use automatic train operation during normal operation, followed by the South Island Line in 2016!
Kai Tak became an international airport in the 1950s and 1960s, however it first opened as an airport in 1925. Not just the mountains, but because of being on a peninsula and all the apartments, all the aircraft heading to Kai Tak could not fly over the mountains and quickly drop in for a final approach. Instead, aircraft had to fly above Victoria Harbour and Kowloon City, passing north of Mong Kok's Bishop Hill. After passing Bishop Hill, pilots would see a large orange and white checkerboard. Once the pattern was sighted and identified, aircraft made a low-altitude 47-degree right-hand turn, ending with a short final approach and touchdown. This approach could not be flown by aircraft instruments but had to be flown visually because of the right-hand turn required.
Wow, thank you for that detailed background into the Disneyland Resort Line! I had no idea there was all that attention to detail with the trains.
If I recall correctly the announcement you hear when going from Disneyland to Sunny Bay went along the lines of “we’re now taking you back to the modern/advanced society of Hong Kong” or something like that.
This was back when I was a kid, not sure if they still do it now. They’re really committed to the “Time Machine” theme haha.
@@kaihang4685 They still do it. I went there 2 days ago
One thing people keep on overlooking is that Hong Kong has a lot of freeways, way more than that in Sydney despite having a fraction of Sydney’s vehicle fleet
Love those pics of you and Amy! Glad you both had a wonderful time there
Thank you!
I feel like the Walled City had a certain beauty of its own. Very organic.
Oh for sure it did. A very indescribable beauty.
9:16
You see, the reason why a lot of shops are well integrated with the station is because MTR directly owns the malls. For example, Kowloon station has Elements, stations like Tung Chung, Tsing Yi, Tseung Kwan O, Yuen Long, etc all have shopping malls built on top of the station that are directly owned by MTR. And this is one of the main reasons why MTR is a very profitable company.
Also what's insane are the operations of MTR overseas, they not only operate some metro lines within Mainland China like Shenzhen Metro Line 4, multiple lines in Beijing and Hangzhou. But they also operate the Elizabeth Line, some lines in Stockholm, even the Sydney metro rn
Isn't Singapore like this too? Or am I mistaken?
@@Pine_Gap_Island I'm not sure actually, I will definitely pay attention to that aspect next time I go to Singapore.
Having malls built on top is a pretty strat, but having the malls own by you too is not so common I'd say.
@@Pine_Gap_Island Singapore is different since all public transport assets are owned by the government. SMRT and SBST are contracted by the government to operate the MRT lines.
But for Hong Kong all MTR assets are owned by MTR itself, except for East Rail Line and Tuen Ma Line, which are loaned to MTR by KCR (Kowloon Canton Railway), the public operator that used to run the two lines, after merger of operations. This included KCR owned malls and residential estates that are now managed by MTR Properties.
It's a model that is prevalent in Japan, especially by the private train operators. However in Japan the properties are developed to help keep train ticket prices low since there's fierce competition in the train business (there can be 3 or 4 operators running services between the same destinations). In Hong Kong MTR is just being a capitalist to the fullest extent since it is the sole operator on the island. Ticket price is least of their concern as it is "monitored" by the government with "a basket of factors".
@@kenchiu1987 To be more precise, it's only recently that the gov't (via the Land Transport Authority) started owning rolling stock; previously they were owned by the operators & I think their operating contracts for the train lines were tied to the rolling stock's lifespan (~40 yrs). Operators don't own buildings near/above their stations but the stations are built with shops that operators can rent out (& non-fare revenue contributes to almost 1/2 of their total revenue). Like MTR our operators have overseas operations too though e.g. SMRT helps to run Dubai Metro, while SBS Transit's parent company (ComfortDelgro) bought London bus operator MetroLine in 2013, & also recently won a bid from MTR to run Stockholm's T-Bana. In exchange Singapore has let foreign operators run some public buses too e.g. Go-Ahead, Tower Transit, & might do so for rail too in the future
@@kenchiu1987 But u forget the largest shareholder of MTR, which is Hong Kong Government, holding 75% by Financial Secretary Incorporated Team.
And the Singapore SMRT mostly build in the HDB suburb town centre, which is concept like the Tai Wo Station/Yau Tong Station, the metro exits is the HDB housing.
But Singapore government don't use the station development only as a free-market housing project, they also build the public housing next to the station. u can check on google map for the station of SMRT and there have several station build with the HDB complex, stay alone with foot bridges, with suburb centres etc.
But SMRT is not have many station that station development integrated built with top of the station, like Hong Kong's MTR depot, Chai Wan Station, Kwai Fong Station, Tsing Yi station etc. The development at the top of the depot is a world pioneer I think.
I have been to Hong Kong about a dozen times over the years. I usually travel there during the cooler months. My favourite city in East Asia.
It really is a special city
Wonderful video!! I just started watching your videos after reading an article on you the other day and was surprised to see a video on HK! A place I lived in for most of my childhood 😂
Thank you!!
Kai Tek airport. What I recall from first landing in 1985 was not just flying past apartment buildings looking in the windows to see people doing normal things like eating meal but that some apartments seemed to be small factories with people at sewing machines. The people in the windows had no interest in passing plane. Landing in 1997 was not as close as they had apparently extended the runway and while flying past apartments, we were no close enough to be looking in the windows.
Public transportation in Hong Kong is very convenient. I can go almost anywhere without my own car. However, owning a car in Australia is a must. I can’t even go to the supermarket without a car 😢
Hopefully Australia gets better with continued public transport investment.
I miss the convince of Asia. I lived for 3 years in Phoenix City in Zengcheng (just west of Guangzhou) on the 17th floor of an apartment, literally had a full supermarket right downstairs from me, and a Macdonalds for the morning coffee ha! And the community I lived in had shuttle busses to take us into the city & connect straight onto the metro system, including the through train to Hong Kong! I often finished work Friday at 5.30, jump on the shuttle bus then the train & would get to Hung Hom Station in Hong Kong by 11pm for the weekend!
have a privater car in Hong Kong is a nightmare,
Not have a car in other part of the world is a nightmare. 😂
I love the inconvenience in Australia & do not miss the convenient in Asia.
I think most of the supermarkets in Australia has bus stops & train stations but taking stuff from shops to home in HK by train is nightmare.
Sharath, as I am Hong Kong citizen, you can try the Bus ride in Hong Kong Island next time if u want to.
Route:
1. Once u arrive at Central by any transportation, find the way to Jardine House Bus stop for route 780 (or go to Central ferry Bus Terminus if u take star ferry or get off from MTR's Hong Kong station, bus 780 start here, if u missed the 780 bus, u can go to Jardine House stop if u like to chase it :P) to experience the harbour view from Isandside, don't take 788 unless u want to have some adventure in Siu Sai Wan :P.
(780 also have a stop at Exhibition Centre Station / Wan Chai ferry at Hung Hong RD, just off the ferry pier u can see the bus stop to the east)
2. when 780 bus get off the Island corridor, which is the Expressway/motorway of Hong Kong Island, get off the bus next stop, called "A Kung Ngam Road" stop, and interchange route 14 to Stanley
3. Get on Route 14 bus, and have a great Southern Hillside road ride and enjoy the Tai Tam hillside landscapes. (I think it is feel like NE coast in Sydney to New Castle)
4. Get off the route 14 bus at stop "Stanley Villege" and have can some adventure in Stanley, Stanley is a southern town in Hong Kong, due to the development and many western people live here in a long time, here is the most you can feel like in western country suburb in Hong Kong (another one in my mind is Discovery Bay which is very like a Australian feel community in Hong Kong.)
5. depends where u like to go, if u go back to Central can take 260(via Gloucester RD, the 3rd Reclaimed shoreline of Hong Kong Island) or 6X(Via Queensway in backstreet of WanChai, the 1st reclaimed shoreline of Hong Kong Island) back to Wan Chai(for some adventure in Wan Chai) or Central and end the day of advanture.
6. If you want to have more adventure for visit suburb in Southern district like Aberdeen, other southern coast beaches like Repulse Bay, Deep Water Bay, u can take route 73 for them, additionally, Wah Fu Estate is a must go estate if u want to, coz it is going to demolish in next few years and it is the 1st role model of modern public housing Estate in Hong Kong and the New Town Development concept in Hong Kong such as Sha Tin, Tai Po, Yuen Long and so on.
7. If you finished adventure in Aberdeen area, u can take the 70/72/592/37A/37B buses for back to Northern coast of Hong Kong Island, or 170 to Kowloon, MTR u need to take the local ferry to Ap Lei Chau for South Horizen MTR Station.
8. If u take route 73 to the end, where is called Cyberport, u can get the 30X bus back to Admiralty/Central/Kennedy Town as 30X is via west coast, or u can take minibus 58/58M to Kennedy Town, minibus 10 to Casuway Bay.
9. If u take 788 at (1), u can have some advanture in Siu Sai Wan, a nice and peaceful new Town concept development of Hong Kong Island in 1990s, but there is not quite much special to see, mostly a local community with one public housing estate, 5 subsidy estates, a massive, 50 stories-tall apartment with a shopping mall and bus terminus underneath, five high school and one primary school, a 10K seats sport ground with soccer pitch, a waterfront recreation area and there u can see the coastline landscape view of Tseung Kwun O and its new built cross-bay bridge, the bridge will be light-up at night.
10. In Siu Sai Wan, u can get on the bus again without MTR, coz Siu Sai Wan is a few suburbs that without MTR in Hong Kong. But the Bus network there is the strongest one in Hong Kong. U can take again the 788 to CBD of Northern coast of Hong Kong Island, 118 to area along Nathan Road in Kowloon from Yau Ma Tei(DGS school area) to Sham Shui Po area.
Additional to say:
2:16, Airport Express also is the 1st airport railway in the world with the passenger down-town check-in service, and it is the fastest to transport in Hong Kong for going airport if u start from location nearby that 3 stations and it is reliable, compare to traffic of North Lantau Island Expresway and the efficiency of drop-off zone at Terminal 1 if u take any cars beside Bus.
3:59, This number changed to landsize =275sqKM(Hong Kong land size ~1100sqKM), around half of urban area of Singapore (their urban area = 65% of their land area(735sqKM x 65% ~ 477 sqKM.), and 40% of land in Hong Kong is for natural reserve, which is named "Country Park" in Hong Kong.
5:03, Due to Hong Kong's linear city development which is urban area built along the coastline of the harbour, the metro can be built in bigger size and have a basic network can served most of urban area people in Hong Kong. In early times, with just 3 urban lines and served 1 Million per day. The early planned metro line from Diamond Hill to Tsim Sha Tsui which is finally completed in 2020, almost 40 years later than the original route open day(1 OCT 1979, Kwun Tong to Shek Kip Mei).
6:35, If u have trip to London and try the Underground deep tube, Hong Kong's MTR totally is a scale up of it, I think MTR's engineer take some experience from Underground's Victoria Line, coz MTR very like a successor of Victoria Line Project.
7:32, Cross Platfrom interchange for Metro is easier to have when government planned several line at the same, in MTR, the 1st stage of the line was also built the reserved part for the new line construction, such as the Yau Ma Tei, Mong Kok, Prince Edward were fully built the station, just closed the not closed part(Prince Edward was not opened til Tsuen Wan Line open but it is just for interchange, exits open 7 days later), Admiralty and Central were partly built, only Tsuen Wan Line part finished at 1st stage, Island Line part was reserved for further construction.
Didn't expect a video about HK, nice vid
There is also the efficient light rail system in the Northwest of Hong Kong which is based off the Melbourne’s tram system
6:21 you’re right
Even at night they keep the service to 4-5 min per train
It’s so frequent that during rush hour if the train comes in 3 minute I will be furious lol
11:51 Baggage theft was reported previously from these airport coaches' luggage storage areas (as their owners might be seated a distance away e.g. on the bus' upper deck, while the storage is on the lower deck), so I heard that CCTV has been installed at the storage area. My country probably will never have such coaches between the airport & downtown though for fear of cannibalizing rail ridership between these 2 places (which is cheap but can be crowded with commuters not going to/from the airport). Instead we have a regular commuter bus between these 2 places, though people complain that travellers' luggage take up too much space on-board those buses, which don't have much luggage storage space. Some people in my country even called these travellers stingy & potentially inconsiderate: "If they can afford to fly to our country, surely they can afford a taxi instead of a bus"
Great video! Looking forward to the next one ❤
Thank you! I'm looking forward to our next Dominos run 😉
If you cross the border to the neighbouring Shenzhen and Guangzhou, their metro systems are equally good at a fraction of the price. Shenzhen has 369 metro stations, 555 km of lines and 2.7 billion passengers per year.
....and technically, you can walk from Lo Hu Station to Coco Park and even further to Chegongmiao (mostly) underground! I worked for a year at King Glory Plaza (on the border) at Guomao Station in Shenzhen, not quite sure how you'd walk, but I think the underground section stats around Grand Theatre or KK Mall area?
9:25 ahaha you walked into CityGate outlets - believe it or not, it is one of the busiest malls on a daily basis! You should come back at 12pm on a weekend... Most stores open from 11am, that's why. Hong Kong opens late, closes late as well! (Unlike sydney)
I’m from Hong Kong and I’m proud of our MTR
This most profitable listed railway company loves profitability rather than comfortability, affordability & sustainability. People are jam packed in the most expensive city in the world so they do not want to reproduce. As a result, the real cost is the future.
@@yesbeautyflybro shut up
All those iPhone dings were throwing me off all video...
The vine booms are perfect though, 10/10
i live in Hong Kong, and i appreciate you making a video about us!
Lived in HK for 12 years as an expat. Totally agree with your points on how efficient the MTR is, and all we have in Sydney in S*ittyrail...
What do you think the new Metro lines are, then? They are Sydney’s version of the MTR. Our new Metro train systems use technology from the MTR.
Dont live on the metro line so can't comment, the line I'm on always has trackwork on weekends and there's some delays on average at least once every couple of weeks
@@DeepThought9999
Unfortunately, 60% of Syd Metro is owned by this most profitable listed railway company in the universe, so as Melbourne Metro. Developers are its best friends. Martin Place has 2 new buildings to be constructed together with the new station to fund the project.
Really interesting video. That unloved park is really fascinating, finding places in cities where no one else ventures is a really fascinating idea to me, there are few places like that in Sydney! I hope your Shanghai video shows trolleybuses, I'll enjoy it regardless.
I live in Hong Kong and for those of you who don’t know, a large portion of the Kai Tak Runway Park was demolished and replaced by the Kai Tak Covid Quarantine Housing Facility during COVID. The Park is still not being restored even after the pandemic. Hopefully, the government would convert the Kai Tai Quarantine Housing facilities into temporary housing for citizens of Hong Kong who were waiting for public housing.
But GOV just use the Lawn in the park for the COVID camp, other part still there but not in good maintenance.
Great video! Another great railway system is Taiwan if you ever get to visit. Interesting geographical constraints in a mix of old, modern lines around the country. Plus the first ever Shinkansen technology to be exported outside of Japan!
Maybe next holiday!?
I didn't get to go to Taiwan, maybe another time!
just glad you didn't come to hong kong during the summer, or I could only say "welcome to sauna hell". But yeah as someone who's been around the block quite bit hong kong's MTR system is indeed something we can take pride in...unlike our taxi.
its so hawt in heree
While I find it interesting, as a former Transport Planner, you really can't compare Sydney to Hong Kong, very different layout and obviously Hong Kong is WAY more denser than any Australian city. Generally the public transport will be planned around the demographics and population density, so satellite cities that provide lots of houses will always have public transport that generally runs every 30-60mins depending on the type of route. Our railway system only really exists simply because of the fact that in the late 1800s to early 1900s when the bulk of the railways were built, trains were the most efficient and fastest form of transport, and were able to handle not only passengers, but also goods and materials, all needed for a growing city. The current commuter networks across Australia essentially piggybacked onto these existing routes and are used today, with some adjustments and extensions. The Hong Kong Metro is a custom built and designed closed system, very different to our existing railway system in Australia.
Frankly, until Australia densifies further (we only have a total population of around 25mil which is only around the size of one US state, California - ie: Australia is comparatively a small country, with a large landmass), public transport will always be difficult to implement and design and very expensive to implement, and it can only be justified if the returns will make it worthwhile to build. The other thing working against Australia, other than our natural geography, is the distance between cities, in some places, you can travel up to 12-14 hours and still be in the same State! Way different to many other places in the world, even the US (and we all know how terrible the US is when it comes to public transport in general, apart from some cities like New York and Washington DC).
As a now disabled person, I'd be concerned with the loading on the Hong Kong Metro, as you need space to move around in a wheelchair in order to not only board and disembark but to also park it while on board, the more packed a train, the more difficult it is to board, to the point that it just simply wouldn't be worth it, on top of that, while it's nice they provide a mini bus, a mini bus does not meet any accessibility requirements, frankly myself and my chair would not be able to board that mini bus, defeating the point of the bus, at least for people like us.
The other thing to keep in mind too is people who have certain types of Autism can become very quickly overwhelmed in a dense city like Hong Kong, so we really in general need to consider how we design cities with this in mind in the long run. Also with an aging population, we need to also consider accessibility more seriously, some people who may not have a wheelchair, may still have difficulty transferring platforms or have difficulties with walking the distance and need regular rests along the way. Deaf and blind people also need certain important adjustments to city infrastructure to make it accessible, including allowing assistance dogs to work without the chance of being distracted.
Frankly, I'm starting to become more of a fan of local cities, where suburbs are hooked onto a cityhub so to speak, where you can access resources/jobs/shops etc the exact same way as you would if you lived in the original city, like Sydney. Also, I'm a fan of having more work from home set ups, and thus, having improved infrastructure for faster internet speeds, so you only head to the office if absolutely needed. Along with some other minor adjustments like having school start and finish times staggered rather than all at the same time.
about the autism part, 200% accurate, Hong Kong was and is never built to let the kids on the spectrum feel safe and respected.
Absolutely, Hong Kong will perpetually produce emigrants despite its affluence. It is an utterly unforgiving place for some types of people, and its closed territorial borders mean that people can’t just “move out of town.” It’s great for the wealthy and good enough for the very poor who get very cheap housing and healthcare. For everyone else it’s an absolute rat race in a somewhat shallow, closed-minded, hyper-capitalist culture.
And your description of Aussie urban planning also explains why Aussie cities consistently rank well on quality-of-life surveys.
HK is almost 70% mountainous so its population lives on a smaller land area than Sydney, & thus its rail network doesn't have to be as long to serve them, though their trains need to have more capacity (they're mostly 8 cars too but with less seating, though with higher frequency). As for wheelchairs, my country might probably be able to better accommodate them on trains by removing even more seats from them. Hmm
@@brianmhyung My son was born in HK and was diagnosed with Autism at six. He's 26 and doing just fine in HK. He can even take the bus and MTR on his own, took me two weeks to shadow him to build trust. The fact that HK is a very safe city means safety for my son. As for regular activities, he goes to a special school and he does what normal people do, dim sum on Sundays and enjoying a drink at Starbucks. I don't understand why a person with autism would not be suited to live in HK when I see many kids with autism doing just fine.
Do you know the first Sydney Metro Line is an oversea project for HK MTR? This Empty R has lots of scandals locally, all new built MTR Lines were completed late with a higher price than 1st approved.
Shops in shopping centers don't open until 10 or 10:30am. So it makes sense the shops are closed.
What an amazing system the MTR is. If only Sydney was like this...😞
Also thanks about the Kowloon Walled City. Heard about it before but never seen it until now.
The old airport turns up as a backdrop in several movies where the planes provide a dramatic backdrop for some scenes. Also I would like not to land in a plane that is sideways on the runway thank you very much so not missing the old airport.
You stayed at the same Hong Kong hotel as I did in last March. This hotel was formerly medium density units (with no lifts) for residents. Back then they were called 唐樓 Tong Lau (Wikipedia). They installed lifts for this hotel when it commenced it's services there. My hotel room was so small, like you said 11 m². Toilet and shower separated by a thin wall and a door for privacy. You can hear guests talking next door.
Kai tak landings where amazing to watch as a kid and so scary actually on the planes
If you take the airport express to the airport from either hong kong or kowloon station, you can physically check-in early with your bags at your airline's ticket counters at the station, and then explore the city more before going to the airport (bag free!)
Can you imagine Sydney Rail's 19th century signal infrastructure managing the complexity of Cross Platform Interchanges?? HAHAHAHAHA!!!
Umm what? The frequency is high it’s basically suburban rail similar to Swiss lines
Fascinating seeing how other countries manage these same issues and figuring out what lessons we can learn from them to bring back to Aus 😊
Also, am curious: With your talk of how everything moves so fast with both the trains and the stations, did you happen to notice accessibility considerations at all? Even just noticing if many elderly folks tended to take the trains. Speed and crowds can be problematic for those with mobility issues, especially those unsteady on their feet, so would love to know if you noticed any precautions put in place to help those in that position!
Kai Tac and the Walled City were something that just can't be described.
The place he live is not far from Airport Express Kowloon Station at all. Short ride by Taxi & pre-checkin baggages can make them empty hand to walk around all day.
When are you going to Tokyo?
You got to visit Taiwan if you haven't. The integration of their transport system is amazing. I would suggest you catch the mrt to the high speed rail and then the mrt again in the city you arrive in. I used to travel door to door a total of about 360km in around 2hr 45min. With minimal waiting time in between changing systems (less than 15min in all). I think Sydney is slowly getting there too, certainly in terms of light rail to trains. Would just be great to have highspeed rail here, I've always believed between Sydney and Canberra would be more suitable than Sydney to Newcastle. Imagine living in Goulburn and commuting to Sydney to work. I would certainly be on for that. Save 1m or more on a house and have the beautiful environment down there. Or even live at Mittagong would be great.
Ohhh, you make me homesick, Hong Kong was my 2nd home when I lived in China for a decade! Australia is absolutely NOTHING like this! You should check out the actual history of building the (new) airport, the airport express and all the politics around it- fascinating! I love the MTR, I lived in Shenzhen for a year so visited HK every couple of weekends just zipping though immigration and hitting IFC in Central for banking & shopping! Oh and Guangzhou- you should check out their metro system as well. There's a interchange at Tiyu Xilu (Tianhe Sports Centre West) which is massive, but instead of getting off a train & walking around the long way & up escalators etc, 2 trains from opposite directions stop at the same time on parallel platforms, and you just walk straight through to get *3 platforms over* and it's the biggest boss move if you know where you're going! Oh, and Shenzhen's subway (2 lines, BTW, are owned by Hong Kong MTR) - 5 lines opened all within a week of each other the week before I loved there in 2011! Here in Brisbane we wait 100 bloody years just for the Redcliffe Peninsula line. So many memories......
When I rode the MTR in Hong Kong, back in 2015, it felt filthy and overcrowded. When I visited Singapore a few years later in 2018, I think I've decided the Singapore MRT is much better. True it too can also get overcrowded but its really clean and efficient. Although Hong Kong does win over Singapore when it comes to Airport - City Rail connections. In HK it is one express train whereas in Singapore, it requires a transfer between a regular train and a shuttle service.
At some stations, during peak hours, by the time you see the tail lights of the departing train, you can already see the headlights of the next arriving train.
Regarding Checkerboard Hill and Kai Tak Runway Park, those are some fairly out-of-the-way destinations. Unless you're specifically interested in the history, most locals will find it quite bothersome to actually go on a regular basis. There are much better places to go to be outdoorsy. That said, as Kai Tak's redevelopments gradually become reality, the local population will increase and the park will probably reopen.
Shops don't open at 9am. Most open just before lunch and open longer hours after work hours. Practical
My mum loved this video! She lived in Hong Kong for 12 yrs as a child! 😂
I'm happy she enjoyed it!
Many metro trains are like horizontal lifts.
The doors open you step in, and the doors open at your destination.
An interesting fact: the fare of rail service from the airport to central in HK is only 5 AUD more expensive than in Sydney, while the quality of airport services in the two cities is completely different.
Btw, I am not sure if you have tried maglev after landing in Shanghai, but it is not that attractive now because the maximum speed has been reduced a lot since the pandemic, maybe next year we will have another option to leave Pudong when the airport link opens
MTR's secret to success is that the government at the time allowed them to get into property development and building shopping malls and housing along stations. It was also necessary at the time because how expensive it was to build the first 3 lines. Also some bigger stations served as transport interchange for both double decker buses and mini-buses.
I guess comparisons are inevitable but in Sydney we have heavy rail and while there are draw backs with double deck trains, e.g. longer dwell times at station, there's a much greater chance of getting a seat compared to a single deck MTR or metro type of train. The length of the lines are generally shorter compared to Sydney, so standing is a lot more tolerable than say standing all the way from Central to Penrith or Campbelltown or Sutherland or Hornsby etc.
You'll see quite a lot of MTR-style influence in chinese mainland train stations e.g. overall design, signage, ambience, platform screen doors, announcements etc.
The reliability of the MTR system used to be really good, there have been a few incidents in recent years.
I'm a little bit surprised you didn't mention about the Octopus card system!!
He did mention the octopus card
Residential areas in New Territories are much better planned and people do have decent amount of communal open spaces.
Why did he say trim she thuay it’s chui but tsui
My favourite fact about Kowloon is that there were disproportionally many dentists there, as Chinese dentistry licenses weren't valid in Hong Kong, so Kowloon was the only place Chinese dentists could work in if they went to Hong Kong.
there is a reason for Less cars in HK than in SG or Sydney. only people who could afford car in HK are rich people who can afford to pay annual tax of price of the car that one have purchased when it was a new car, if you ve got a Kia Niro, price in HK is about 368,000HKD, your annual tax each year would be the same. so you need to pay 368,000HKD annually per year for the car you drive on daily or weekly basis. which doesn't include environment tax, other miscellaneous taxs following annual car holding tax. thats why there is no car in HK. unlike Singapore it doesnt have COE, but it taxes you to a hell on annual basis. whereas in Seoul. South Korea is the cheapest country in OECD to buy and run a car. low tax, inexpensive tolls does contribute traffic jam in Seoul. it is usual in Seoul for families have two cars, despite excellent public transit system. because cars are cheap.
HK, Japan, South Korea and Singapore are still ahead of Sydney train but Sydney Metro is closing the gap.
Syd Trains with Intercity Lines have far more seats (always more seats than passengers) than the Metro style trains in HK, Tokyo, Seoul & Singapore. Though reliability is low but service hours are long & the price is cheap in the complicated AUD50 weekly Opal Cap which also covers Light Rail, some Ferries & Buses. Sydney Metro will widen the gap of unaffordability because expensive apartments along the line are on the way.
The reason for the lack of traffic is the time of year you went to HK. HK definitely has more traffic but you went at a quiet time of year.
Would be far worse without the MTR though.
It’s deeply saddening how poor (slow, backward, obsolete) Sydney’s trains are relative to their neighbors in Asia
But how luxury, high tech and good it is compared to across the ditch
Hong Kong's dense nature correlates to this level of convenience you can say, and I would argue it's how this image of efficiency that the MTR operates on. Obviously the Metro in Sydney is trying to emulate that, well in fact the Metro is operated by Hong Kong MTR as well I believe.
Now back to the convenience side of things; from what I read last time, the entire system if you want to call it that, is why sort of why I guess only 25% is developed. The government essentially creates this land scarcity but also maintains this high demand and also maintaining a denser living life style. If you think about how this entire MTR and Government relationship works, it's basically a monopoly. The government sells/gives/leases the land to the MTR company, they in turn sell it onto developers, but also I believe they end up owning a lot of retail space directly on the station areas. But one thing is the government owns about 70% of the MTR company. I read somewhere that this is also why the MTR company has run so efficiently as well, any delays imposes a penalty of about $1m HKD that the government takes in.
ride the Bangkok BTS system its also great
Different countries have different ticket arrangements with respect that some have a ticket collector/ guard at every station.
And some rely on the honesty system. With roaming guards checking randomly.
Saving on not manning platforms and loosing cashflow is a strategy
Maybe they have a counter and compared number of tickets sold.
next time you have amy on a video could you have her explain what the names hong kong and those of its airports mean please.
Actually there are more cross-platform exchanges in Sydney than Chatswood and Glenfield, at least to some extent, such as Westmead, Revesby and Town Hall. And there would have been more at St James and North Sydney, if the originally proposed lines had been built. What Sydney doesn't have is a sequence of stations where different line combinations provide a linear set of cross platform exchanges. Instead we tend to have something like Central where it's all done in one place, with some cross-platforming, but mostly with walks between several.
I know what you mean by trying to get your head around Hong Kong. One of my 'lives' was in fire protection, (firefighting and the engineering side), and for a few years with an Association that (inter alia) ran regular conferences, with lots of international speakers. The big revelation from Hong Kong speakers for me was that they use high rise buildings for everything; not just residences and offices, but for things like 'full on' manufacturing industries. It works, but certainly stretches the philosophy behind building codes.
Indeed, the cross-platform interchange at Town Hall platform 5-6 is a good one, changing between the city circle and eastern suburbs line is cross-platform
One great thing that the Hong Kong government is regretting it implimented, is that all residents over 60 can ride to any station on the MTR line for HK$2 or 40 Austalian cents.
But that's for all transport, including buses, trams, ferries, minibuses. The government reimburses the operator for the rest of each and every fare
All the MTR lines were built separately over the past 50 years as more areas were opened up for housing, but they are well integrated.
People don't mind standing, as that is the most effecient way to move lots of people, and the longest rides most people take are probably about 45 minutes.
You mmust have missed the biggest interchange station, Admiralty. You would have been very impressed otherwise.
18:22 Pog face.
patty taxxon in bg :catjam:
Best video everrr!!
Since when was HK a country? nice vid
Never in history it was
Thanks!
Yes but basically evening else about living there is dystopian unless you're the upper upper class
So how does the MTR and TOD compare to your last trip to Singapore?
Oh it's probably on par with Singapore! I'm biased towards Singapore however as it feels much more homely for me given how many times I've visited.
@@BuildingBeautifullywhy you not bias towards amsterdam like other 😂...
Joke aside I am glad that you did not follow this people, who allergic to Asian countries.
Mate the HK MTR could be 1 minute per train on peak hour and people complain “train delay” for 5 minutes
5:00 all of the what…? 👀
Again 8:11
YES
Tsim Sha 'Sui'
Sydney's MTR Metro is Hong Kong MTR's baby brother.
i saw you in a nsw transport official video
9:37 probably opens at 10:00 AM
Most likely open around 10:30 a.m. and close much later around 9:30 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Hong Kong is what many politicians aspire Sydney to become with hundreds of thousands of units to be built to accommodate the ever increasing population growth that has no limit.
Maybe you should compare to Paris or Barcelona or London first Sydney isn't even a fraction the size and density of Paris.
Sydney will never match HK density even if it grows to 20 million.
wait until you hit tokyo big boy
The MTR is great, but MTR isn't
Sing the MTR song!
For Amy and I ==> For Amy and me.
You wouldn't say "for I".
When did he say any of those things?
I was half expecting the comments to be filled with Chinese nationalists saying that Hong Kong isn't it's own country.
Just a friendly correction, HK is not a country.
You are correct it's 💩
5:00 you are banned from HK forever.
Nobody goes shopping in HK at 9am lol. That mall at 9:30 is Citygate Outlet in Tung Chung, it is actually very popular with tourists
There also is a Nyong Ping 360 cable car
I went to Bangkok and the train system is incredible and they also have elevated walkways so that you don't have to contend with crossing the road in a country not known for having top of the line, most of this stuff was built after 1990. Meanwhile in Sydney the Parramatta Light Rail has been sitting at 99% completion for over 2 years
Yeah I really want the PLR to open.....
6:37 the first time i went there, i spent 20 minutes trying to find the actual station until i realised there was a exit closer to my hotel and the station is right below
Big rail networks like Hong Kong can be confusing at first!
U will lost if u go every large station in Tokyo, harder than 10 time than Hong Kong's Tsim Sha Tsui - East Tsim Sha Tsui station. XD
@5:15 I'll never understand why the MTR map removed the intuitive indications of cross-platform interchanges it used to have. It's also interesting that like Singapore, if you look away for a bit and then see the map again, it's different with new lines and new connections. So turns out I was last in HK in 2014 and it's nuts how much the MTR map has changed. Totally agree with you that the Airport buses are a great network. As for areas not covered by the MTR - that's where the buses and ferries come in (particularly for the south side of Hong Kong Island, for Lantau and for the other islands) so lots more to explore in HK - plus the integrated Light Rail in the New Territories is pretty decent.
Oh - also love that the MTR exit signs now have a QR code - they always had excellent info online but looking at the QR code it brings up a great guide to all the exits, the station map and area map and if you tap on points of interest it opens Google Maps directions from the exit to the POI. These things just quietly make life better.
I was interested in your mention of cross platform transfers. We have more of these in the Sydney network than you mentioned. I often travel to Newtown from Wahroonga. There is an easy cross platform transfer to the inner west line at Townhall. Puzzlingly the Transport info app suggests making the change at Wynyard were there is a time consuming walk to change levels.
4:59 - LOL did you just refer to Hong Kong as a “country”…..Hope the Chinese government is watching you channel 😅😅😅
5:00 "access to almost all of the countrt"
Winnie the Pooh would like a word with you
Issues with HK's public transport in general:
1) All public transports are privately owned and operated. The actual ticket is pretty high for the locals until the government subsidise it a few years ago.
2) There's no transfer discount across various modes of public transport except for certain routes. The MTR and the buses are competitors. Heck even the 2 franchise bus companies are rivals.
3) There's a mechanism to adjust ticket prices up and down according to "a basket of factors", but it has only gone up in the last decade.
4) MTR has always been joked locally as a property developer and running rail service as a side business. In reality it is indeed one of the largest property owner in the island, owning many malls and residental estates on or near MTR stations.
5) The government always favour MTR over buses. One explanation is that the HK government is a major share holder of MTR. When a new line is operational, bus services would be cancelled on a large scale, giving the impression that the government is pushing people to take MTR so as to guarantee revenue for the new line.
I think you are being a little unfair about interchanges in Sydney - they exist, especially at Central and Town Hall...