Hong-Kong Strollology

I like to walk in cities. Citywalker, flaneur, stroller, observer, designer, planner, geographer, sociologue, researcher; dedicated urbanists everywhere. A variety of interesting things to see where I walk: shop windows, flowers, remaining nature, trees, animals. People: dining, drinking, talking, doing something; or the questionable urban attractions of thoughtful graffiti, provocative signs, and the eccentric behavior of certain urban denizens. Architectural details and specialities, cityplanner‘s and urbanist‘s visibly misbehaviour etc. …Hong “Kong Strollology”, or, in other words, how do I deal with the evidently overwhelming task of “Hong Kong in eight days”? Usually I get to know a city by first researching it extensively.

I glean information from books, the Internet, and films. When I get to the city, I begin walking. I move in ever-larger concentric circles, discovering new places further and further away. I hike, I observe, I explore. Working my eye. I hunt and gather on my long, strung-out strolls through the city, building a topology of the prospected domains as I go. During my trip, I document the information, impressions, pictures, or found objects I feel are interesting, transforming them into a digestible record of the city. I lie the maps of Zurich and Hong Kong on top of one another, both at a scale of 1:15 000, mark a few common landmarks, ones which I often visit in Zurich. The parallels between Zurich and Hong Kong become clear. This conflation will serve as a great grid, a working document for my time in this foreign city. I remark that the two cities take up almost the same surface area, the only difference being that Hong Kong has 7 million people, making it about ten times denser than Zurich.