# Is Hong Kong trying to imitate New York?



## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Hong Kong is a city that is common with New York, it has it's own skyscrapers, parks, culture, etc. The lifestyle in HK is very similar to NY or better! Do you think HK is trying to imitate NY in many ways such as skyline, urban planning, way of life, etc?


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## ailiton (Apr 26, 2003)

HK's lifestyle is NOT similar to NY.

There's not much similarities between the two cities.


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## Skybean (Jun 16, 2004)

^^ My thoughts exactly. Besides being both globally important cities (financial centres) and having tonnes of highrises there aren't too many things similar in my opinion. Both have Pros and Cons.


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

In lifestyle, both are fast paced cities, people are on the go, business minded and are open to new ideas. Also, both cities have that international feel.

Lets first start with skyscrapers. Central Plaza in HK and Empire State Building in NY. Any resemblance?

Central Plaza









Empire State Building


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## ailiton (Apr 26, 2003)

Just because there are similarities doesn't mean one is imitating the other.


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## shibuya_suki (Apr 24, 2005)

central plaza is exactly post-modernversion of ESB,i guess central plaza designer might copy og ret idea of designing this building... (joking) 

actually ,hk is a it that rising up with history accident.....the world never will have second hongkong forever,this is a very unique city in world history....

hk skyscraper is totally detemine by lack of land and great property market,it has bit similar with manhattan island,but whole hk city suffer land problem,ny never.......

the lifestyle is very completely different,hker is actually verey very chinese in many behaviour,,good or bad behaviour,although it is more eduacted by mainlander......the cosompoliatn atmosphere is vey impressive in tokyo and nyc,while nyc muticultural just beat hk miles away....
hk ,on the otherhand,it just like a chinese village community with modern city surface,except some teenage....they dont have their own pround of their culture,dont have concentration atmosphere in society,and it just the mixture of many sub-culture from over world.....ipeople like fowloow the trendy,amd lack of soul,no feature ,image,yc people are encourage their own style,dont follow trendy so much,and more soul ,more critical thinking...

after handover,i find that hk stsrted to copy the idea of manhattan,especially government policy,real estste promotion policy....its very day dreaming rather than actual things....from government want hk to be asia nyc(it might blow tokyo out),and asia manhattan,knowledge based-economy,techonlogy port,all are only day dreaming by stupid government.....copy cat is not a good thing,it already make many people laugh :bash:

i am not saying hk is bad city,but i just tell the fact of this perfect skyscrer city which is though by many people there....


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## scorpion (Sep 14, 2002)

i believe HK is rather young in the world's setting, and with more time and growth and integration (inevitable) with mainland in next several years and decades, could very well *rival* nyc in many interesting and thought-provoking ways~~~


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Actually Hong Kong is not young! It is established as a world city and has great influence worldwide!

Hong Kong is not "Chinese" but "Asian". We have remember that it is a multicultural city as every culture is represented there!

Anyway, here's part two, Causeway Bay and Times Square


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## vvill (Sep 20, 2002)

shibuya_suki said:


> hk ,on the otherhand,it just like a chinese village community with modern city surface,except some teenage....they dont have their own pround of their culture,dont have concentration atmosphere in society,and it just the mixture of many sub-culture from over world.....ipeople like fowloow the trendy,amd lack of soul,no feature ,image,yc people are encourage their own style,dont follow trendy so much,and more soul ,more critical thinking...
> 
> after handover,i find that hk stsrted to copy the idea of manhattan,especially government policy,real estste promotion policy....its very day dreaming rather than actual things....from government want hk to be asia nyc(it might blow tokyo out),and asia manhattan,knowledge based-economy,techonlogy port,all are only day dreaming by stupid government.....copy cat is not a good thing,it already make many people laugh :bash:


sorry i can hardly agree with what you said here.

i do not understand your intention and assumptions for saying hong kong being one of the biggest copy-cats in the world. hong kong has achieved excellence in many many aspects. i'm particularly annoyed by you saying hong kong is lack of culture. 

there're tonnes i can say about hong kong's culture but i'll start off talking about hong kong's eating experience. hong kong people love food and 'eating-out' is like a daily habit of most kongers. even for myself, i'll go out for meals everyday either for lunch or dinner or sometimes for both meals. that's why you find malls in hong kong populated with restaurants serving different cuisines from around the world. 

hong kong food is internationally renowned. in fact, most food you find in chinatowns no matter in NY or London or Manchester are hong kong/cantonese food. i guess most of you have heard of or have tried the 'dim sum's (like spanish tapas) or 'char siu' (roasted pork) or the very famous 'sweet and sour chicken' before. they're all originated from the guangdong province. 

if i were asked about the speciality dishes from london or new york... eh hem... it seems very hard to think of any. yet, there're tonnes from hong kong.


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## samsonyuen (Sep 23, 2003)

No, these similarities could be between any two cities. HK is more frenetic. And the physical similarities end off Manhattan Island.


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

I don't think they are very similar. They have superficial similarities such as skyscrapers and being surrounded by water but even the scrapers look different - the streets even more so. New York's wide grid streets are quite different in feeling from Hong Kong's more cramped streetscape which is often following random geographical contours. New York also has a more earthy feel with far more brick and stone than Hong Kong which is either dilapidated concrete or fresh new glass and steel. It has been mentioned that both are "international" but there is a difference in magnitude here. New York is certainly more multicultural than Hong Kong. Now I know that Hong Kong has large numbers of Filipina and Indonesian maids, an Indian community in Kowloon, recently supllemented by a small African community, as well as a sprinkling of western ex-pats. However it doesn't seriously compare to New York on this score. I also think the cultural outlook and day-to-day experiences of, say, Jamaican or Puerto Rican New Yorkers, is likely to be quite different from anyone's lifestyle in Hong Kong. Though it's wrong to attack Hong Kong for being a cultural desert - it hosts a prolific and increasingly high quality film industry and thriving pop music scene - its' offering nonetheless looks somewhat thin compared to New York's serious high culture and multicultural variety. Also parks: I know Hong Kong has them but they don't offer the flat wide open recreational spaces of, say, Central Park in Manhattan. On the other hand New York cannot offer the rugged walking trails on steep mountains clad in lush tropical vegeation that Hong Kong can offer.


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

vvill said:


> if i were asked about the speciality dishes from london or new york... eh hem... it seems very hard to think of any. yet, there're tonnes from hong kong.


But Dim Sum and Char Sui weren't invented in Hong Kong were they? They come from the Guangdong (Canton) province and it's normal that such food should be served in Cantonense Hong Kong. Similarly London didn't "invent" traditional English dishes such as Sunday Roast but they are, naturally enough, served in London too. Both cities are just serving the cuisine of the local region. What's the difference?


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Hong Kong does have huge parks like Victoria Park and Kowloon Park


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## United-States-of-America (Jul 19, 2005)

Not very similar. HK is mostly rural (I have proof if you don't believe me).


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## Tubeman (Sep 12, 2002)

Nothing like each other


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

WANCH said:


> Hong Kong does have huge parks like Victoria Park and Kowloon Park


They're not huge and they don't feel like, say, Central Park in New York - they don't have the large flat wide open recreational spaces of New York parks.


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## vvill (Sep 20, 2002)

Monkey said:


> But Dim Sum and Char Sui weren't invented in Hong Kong were they? They come from the Guangdong (Canton) province and it's normal that such food should be served in Cantonense Hong Kong. Similarly London didn't "invent" traditional English dishes such as Sunday Roast but they are, naturally enough, served in London too. Both cities are just serving the cuisine of the local region. What's the difference?


hehe. obviosuly dim sum has a far longer history, way before hong kong has grown famous internationally. but in the past, the variety of dim sum was very limited but now there are like 40-50 different kinds of dim sums which many are invented in hong kong. it was also through hong kong which has made dim sum famous therefore many would relate dim sum as a hong kong/cantonese speciality dish.

sunday roast can hardly compare to dim sum. you won't really have a restaurant only serving sunday roast, not like spanish tapas restaurant or chinese dim sum restaurant. it's more like just a roast dish served in pubs on sunday and probably 'fish and chips' is a far more popular comparison in such case.


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## vvill (Sep 20, 2002)

Monkey said:


> They're not huge and they don't feel like, say, Central Park in New York - they don't have the large flat wide open recreational spaces of New York parks.


obviously you can't find park as big as NY's central park in hong kong because flat land is so limited due to the rugged landscape of the city. rather than having one huge park which would have already occupied most of the kowloon peninsula, the government has assigned areas surrounding the main built-up area as country park as an alternative.


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## [email protected] (Aug 19, 2005)

true hongkong does not have the cultural diversity of new york I mean come on NY is the entry point of the world's largest melting pot,.... but then hong kong is an international city of it's own.... In my opinion and this is my opinion only Hongkong is like a mix of LA and NY.... It has a similar skyline and metropolitan feel that new york has as well as being the economic powerhouse of southeast asia....., but then it is also similar to LA... with its strong international movie industry and think Beverly hills= the peak,...


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## dubaiflo (Jan 3, 2005)

stupid thread imo


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## Accura4Matalan (Jan 7, 2004)

Just because they both have a large waterfront skyline doesnt mean they are copies of each other. HK is totally different to NY.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

Hong Kong was patterned out after London. The city layout doesn't resemble New York at all. Skyscrapers aren't being built to triumph over New York. If they had that ambition in mind, then 2 IFC would have been much taller. Rather, if you look at the details, such as the markings on the roads, double decker buses, and the traffic lights, you'll notice a very British tone. 

Multiculturalism is not the only gauge of culture. Hong Kong is a predominantely Chinese city, yet the people live a very Western lifestyle amidst Chinese values. People are far more internationally-oriented. A lot of the next generation is being educated overseas, including most of the HK forumers on this board (with residences in North America, Europe, and Australia). Locals keep track of regional culture, in addition to the local scene. You don't get this type of cultural assimilation in New York. How many New Yorkers listen to French pop artists at the rate Hong Kongers listen to J-pop on a regular basis? Currently, HK is seeing a craze in Korean soap operas and music. This is yet another sign of the openness of HK's international culture.


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## shibuya_suki (Apr 24, 2005)

> A lot of the next generation is being educated overseas, including most of the HK forumers on this board (with residences in North America, Europe, and Australia). Locals keep track of regional culture, in addition to the local scene


this is some hker (or hk oversea student)cutural exchange with outside,while new york is the destination and melting point of diffenent people,such as oversea student from hk,etc....,hk never do like this

well,when i lived in sydney,i have many shaghai,guangzhou,shenzhen,oversea student friend,does this city consider the great international city??



> How many New Yorkers listen to French pop artists at the rate Hong Kongers listen to J-pop on a regular basis? Currently, HK is seeing a craze in Korean soap operas and music. This is yet another sign of the openness of HK's international culture.


why there are many people listen j pop for over 10 years,and k-pop for recent years??
how many people in whole society ,get concern of hk music??


> People are far more internationally-oriented


yes,of course,why people are more international oriented??just look at the case of hk music,you may see people are not care of their own culture and product 
amd the USA music market might the lsrgest in the world,many european go to there to develop their music career as well....the USA music is already their own world of music..


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## live69 (Sep 6, 2005)

I think all modern large cities imitate NY.


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## hkskyline (Sep 13, 2002)

shibuya_suki said:


> this is some hker (or hk oversea student)cutural exchange with outside,while new york is the destination and melting point of diffenent people,such as oversea student from hk,etc....,hk never do like this
> 
> well,when i lived in sydney,i have many shaghai,guangzhou,shenzhen,oversea student friend,does this city consider the great international city??


An international city will draw an international attention. This not just includes visitors, but also immigrants or visa students. After all, why would anyone want to fly so far and settle in a myopic place that is shut out from the rest of the world?

Hong Kong is a major international city. Historically it has been an attractive draw for foreigners, beginning with the British when they set up the Crown Colony, then mainland refugees fleeing war and communism. Vietnamese boat people who wanted a better life also fled to Hong Kong until the 1980s. Today, Hong Kong is a major destination for Filipino, Thai, and Indonesian housemaids, while mainlanders are once again coming to town to do business, travel, and to study. Multinational firms are setting up regional headquarters in Hong Kong to do business with China and across the region.

An increasing number of mainland students are now studying in Hong Kong because the education system is internationally recognized and offers a different perspective from schools back home.



shibuya_suki said:


> why there are many people listen j pop for over 10 years,and k-pop for recent years??
> how many people in whole society ,get concern of hk music??


Hong Kongers do not just listen to foreign music alone. It is a mix of both local and foreign talent. People are aware of Japanese and Korean pop culture, yet the local Hong Kong Cantopop scene is still alive and well. In fact, signs of interaction are showing with more co-operative works among neighboring countries. There have been many movies with participation from stars across the three regions, and a lot of the music industry events now incorporate talent from the mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. All this collaboration is giving Cantopop more international exposure, while the locals are outward-looking enough to step out and see what the rest of the region has to offer, and not merely look inward and only at the local scene. That doesn't mean they have lost their roots.

There isn't as much interaction of cultures in the US, despite the appearance of a multicultural society on the surface. The English world is quite exclusive in its own pop culture. What is the likelihood that Americans vastly adopt the pop culture of non-English-speaking nations the way Hong Kongers embrace a different language regional culture along with celebrating its own?


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## Monkey (Oct 1, 2002)

vvill said:


> hehe. obviosuly dim sum has a far longer history, way before hong kong has grown famous internationally. but in the past, the variety of dim sum was very limited but now there are like 40-50 different kinds of dim sums which many are invented in hong kong. it was also through hong kong which has made dim sum famous therefore many would relate dim sum as a hong kong/cantonese speciality dish.


Fair enough.


vvill said:


> sunday roast can hardly compare to dim sum. you won't really have a restaurant only serving sunday roast, not like spanish tapas restaurant or chinese dim sum restaurant. it's more like just a roast dish served in pubs on sunday and probably 'fish and chips' is a far more popular comparison in such case.


You do have restaurants serving only roasts - they're called carveries. You can get all the different meats and accompaniments there. Fish and Chips is only for a cheap takeaway. No one serves it at home. Sunday Roast is the real traditional cuisine. Traditional English Breakfasts too.


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## Indigoman (Sep 6, 2005)

Ofcourse not, they are very differnt cities. Just because cities who have a lot of businesses and skyscrapers doesn't mean they copy new york.


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## Effer (Jun 9, 2005)

NO!!!


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Hong Kong's road markings are British because it was a British colony.

Anyway, I think I used the wrong word! It's not imitate. I just wanna saw that Hong Kong resembles New York in many ways. Or to say, sister cities.

I've given the first two. Here's the third one.

Parks, Central Park in New York and Victoria Park in Hong Kong


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## James Foong (May 12, 2005)

can't be. HK skyscrapers' designed are strictly based on chinese Feng Shui concept. it clearly wont imitate NY.


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## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

ailiton said:


> HK's lifestyle is NOT similar to NY.
> 
> There's not much similarities between the two cities.




Bingo.


My chinese friend from Guanzhou's father works for a chinese city board of urban planning. I might have heard wrong but apparently HK is 97% chinese, not very diverse. Mostly tourists make up for the other. NY is like 50% American. Totally different in almost every way.


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

I always thought that NYC was trying to imitate HK.


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## Jay (Oct 7, 2004)

It's called Chinatown, Most major American cities have one, look into it sometime.


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## DarkFenX (Jan 8, 2005)

^^ I agree. Chinatown is supposed to be imitating China.


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## shibuya_suki (Apr 24, 2005)

^no.chinatown is the satallite city of hk in all over the world.  

look at the hk style neon,hk resaturant,yum cha,and traditional chinese charater.......
and less mainland style restaurant,so i consider its canton town,hk town,rather than china town,cos china itself it a culture mecca as well


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

Chinatowns are built by Chinese abroad, a place where they have a home away from home. It's also a place where they can practice their own culture or built an image of their cities from back home.

It's just like in Shanghai where British expats built churches, banking house and most western architecture


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## James Foong (May 12, 2005)

i see that chinatown is everywhere. every city's chinatown is different n unique on its own style. chinatwn is ONLY named when that place is so 'chinese', filled with chinese people, reside and trading there. so, NY n HK can't be same.


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## shibuya_suki (Apr 24, 2005)

the interesting chinatown is in yokohama in japan
this is the only one chinatown which is very japanese


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## nikko (Jul 23, 2004)

Well, I feel they're even. They're obviously very different in terms of architechture, socially and economic. But the way HK is set up, I've always felt that both these cities are on the same par as each other.


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## cloudthegreat (Jan 20, 2003)

NYC, though a cultulral melting pot it is, doesn't really "melt" the taste of every culture that is in the city. The so called "melting" is no more than a dominant white culture taking in just a little spice from every other culture in the city. I don't think that the American really care about other cultures other than their own, except for curiosity and exotic reasons. Of course it is not a fault or anything, because they are the strongest and most confident group in the world. So I won't really put the multicultural aspect of NYC as a so special feature to the front when comparing to other cities.

HK, on the other hand, though predominantly composed of Chinese (Cantonese), is much more open to foreign cultures, be them from American, Japanese, Korean, British, or even Taiwan and Mainland China. They are much more aware of happenings, the fashions, the cultures (perhaps mostly pop-cultures) around the globle. Of course, that is not to say they don't have or they don't care about their own culture.

So physically NYC is much more multicultural than HK, mentally HK is more multicultural than NYC IMHO. That's just my take of course.


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## ChinaboyUSA (May 10, 2005)

No one intimate each other, it is really somewhat ? to have title like this. They are similar to each other;

More Chinese people in the US live both here and China, more business connections are going on!

Something about the Chinatown in NYC, it looks very backward actually, like China in 100 years ago!
Really not the representative of a modern China, except for the delicious food! Nice!


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## pottebaum (Sep 11, 2004)

The architecture in Chinatown is very America; it's just the added details(and people) that are Chinese. 

Next time I'm in the city, I really want to check out the Chinatown in Queens. It's gotten pretty huge thanks to all the immigration.


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## Intoxication (Jul 24, 2005)

Hk? imitating? Naaaaaaaaaaaa


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## IshikawajimaHarima (Aug 3, 2005)

NY copied European didn't it?


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## Stratosphere 2020 (Sep 15, 2002)

WANCH said:


> Hong Kong is a city that is common with New York, it has it's own skyscrapers, parks, culture, etc. The lifestyle in HK is very similar to NY or better! Do you think HK is trying to imitate NY in many ways such as skyline, urban planning, way of life, etc?



Nope Hong Kong has limited space while being an important financial center, the natural thing to do is to go up!


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## Stratosphere 2020 (Sep 15, 2002)

IshikawajimaHarima said:


> NY copied European didn't it?


Don't think so. Most European cities still have skyscraperphobia. Unlike European cities, New York is a gridded city built with the prospect of eventually being super dense.


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## Siopao (Jun 22, 2005)

Better yet, Is Dubai imitating NY and HK?


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## IshikawajimaHarima (Aug 3, 2005)

Stratosphere 2020 said:


> Don't think so. Most European cities still have skyscraperphobia. Unlike European cities, New York is a gridded city built with the prospect of eventually being super dense.


I said about not the height of buildings but the style. NY is full of European architecture such as Metropolitan museum and the other museums, Colombia Univ, Grand central terminal, Carnegie hall, NY Public library, a lot of apartments and so on so on..


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## staff (Oct 23, 2004)

NYC is unique. Hong Kong is unique.



Siopao said:


> Better yet, Is Dubai imitating NY and HK?


Neither NYC nor HK are (or has never been) recreational theme parks in the middle of the desert. Dubai is very unique too, even though in a completely different way.


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## TalB (Jun 8, 2005)

Imitating another city is not just about being the most dense, it also has do with it having a cultural diversity.


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## Siopao (Jun 22, 2005)

staff said:


> Neither NYC nor HK are (or has never been) recreational theme parks in the middle of the desert. Dubai is very unique too, even though in a completely different way.


I meant the density


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## silly thing (Aug 9, 2004)

shibuya_suki said:


> central plaza is exactly post-modernversion of ESB,i guess central plaza designer might copy og ret idea of designing this building... (joking)
> 
> actually ,hk is a it that rising up with history accident.....the world never will have second hongkong forever,this is a very unique city in world history....
> 
> ...


well, i dun think that hk lacks its style
hk hv it's own influenial film industry, some maybe say that it's nth compared with hollywood, but bare in mind, hk is just a city and now it's film industry can be bigger than japan's , it's already a miracle, and the similar one happens in hk's pop music industry

dun always blame that hk just copy from others coz hk is just a city state, tokyo and ny r different coz they r the centre of two most powerful nations and hk can just stand alone, compare with other city-states and small population nations like singapore, sweden....hkgets its own pop culture 

and in fact, hk has tons of things r better than ny, says the cleanliness, safty and modernism

hk is still in its rising, it's gdp growth rate this yr top among the developed city


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## superchan7 (Jan 21, 2004)

NYC has a great ethnic diversity. The so-called cultural melting pot only brings together very few aspects of foreign cultures. And what of the local culture? Are Caucasians greeting each other with "Shalom" or "Ni hao" for the sake of patronizing foreign cultures? If there is any cultural diversity at all, it is sharply segregated. That's just the way cultures are. You can't mix them.

Anyway, I don't see how either of these two cities is copying the other in any way. Hong Kong even builds skyscrapers for different reasons. New York has a lot of available land outside Manhattan. Manhattan has such tall buildings because the land value and the potential for investment return is so high. Hong Kong is a city of highrises--rich or poor, Chinese or not, male or female, stud or geek--chances are you live in one and work in one. There is no choice; nature forbids it.


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## brooklynprospect (Apr 27, 2005)

pottebaum said:


> The architecture in Chinatown is very America; it's just the added details(and people) that are Chinese.
> 
> Next time I'm in the city, I really want to check out the Chinatown in Queens. It's gotten pretty huge thanks to all the immigration.


The Queens Chinatown (Flushing) actually looks more Asian in a way. It seems like lots of the buildings there were built after WWII, and match more with the kind of non-descript concrete boxes you see so much of in Asian cities.

And actually Flushing is maybe 60-70% Chinese, with the balance Koreans. And there's a very clear line between the two parts. In general, Chinese are moving in, and Koreans are moving out.


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## brooklynprospect (Apr 27, 2005)

Also, Flushing hardly has any tourists. So it's overwhelmingly Asian in a way that the touristy parts of Manhattan Chinatown are not. Flushing has a few old-style Chinese mini-malls (two or three stories of little shops inside a building) that give it a hardcore Asian feel. 

And lastly, Flushing is way out in the middle of nowhere, a 1 hour elevated subway ride from midtown, past relatively sparsely populated parts of Queens, but is itself surprisingly dense, large and crowded. Going from Times Square to Flushing on the 7 line (nicknamed the Orient Express), when I get out, I almost have the feeling that I'm in another city - a small Asian city.


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