A friend of mine has an apartment in Hong Kong with an amazing rooftop terrace which looks out over the Wan Chai (灣仔) district. Having first seen it during the day I had to come back in the evening to take some pictures of the skyline.
If you were asked to move house twice and start a new job during the course of one month you’d probably think it was a madness, but that’s exactly what I’ve done over what was among the four busiest weeks of my life. Now that it’s almost over I can begin to settle down and reflect on a fairly busy beginning to 2011.
Over the past few weeks since I brought my new Panasonic Lumix GF2 Micro Four Thirds camera I’ve been testing it out around Hong Kong, mostly in the evenings and weekends. One of the key features I’ve been playing with is the video mode which shoots full 1080i HD at 25 fps.
Another day, another night market in Taipei, this time Ximending in the Wanhua District where the lights shine bright and every other person was riding a bike! In comparison to Shida and Shilin night markets Ximending had a more modern feeling and definitely seemed to be catering to a younger crowd.
Last night the streets of Shenzhen were filled with the sight, sound, and unmistakable aroma of millions of fireworks being set off by people across the city as China saw in the Year of the Tiger with a bang. As with many activities here, the more noise, the more luck it’s supposed to bring. Shortly before midnight I took to the streets with my camera to capture the action (while trying to avoid getting my head blown off):
Walking along the streets of Seoul can sometimes feel a little overwhelming, such is the visual noise generated by a million neon signs all screaming for your attention. Combined with the massive hordes of crowds at certain hours and it can be quite a disorienting, if not an exciting experience all the same. There’s something about neon lights which never cease to allure my eyes and from my travels I’ve found three main places where they shine brightest in Seoul: Gangnam, Sincheon (above) and Myeongdong (below). Cheonggyecheon stream is also beautifully lit up at night but with a more relaxed romantic atmosphere. Myeongdong is mainly full of trendy clothes shops for young people while Sincheon is more focused on bars and restaurants (and dodgy looking motels). Gangnam…
10pm in the Futian district of Shenzhen taken from the roof of a 33 story apartment block which a guard kindly let me climb out onto (in China there are no “health and safety” laws… that people follow anyway). They came out surprisingly well considering they were taken by a shaky hand without a tripod. There is something magical about the night in such densely packed cities where man has built upwards towards the heavens. Thousands of lights twinkle against the skyline as if indicating their inhabitants very existence within the controlled chaos of urban dwelling in China. As if arteries in some enormous autonomous monster even the roads and highways take on a life of their own at night ferrying the lifeblood of…