Bamboo Jungle

One of the things about Hong Kong that seems to prove endlessly entertaining for foreigners—whether resident expats or visitors—is the presence of the scaffolds that cling to our city's buildings when they are under construction or renovation. I guess it's just another crazy quirk of this crazy city, but instead of relying on boring steel to get the job done, we prefer to use Asia's iconic, sturdy, abundant natural resource: bamboo.

Just about six weeks ago, when some repair work was being done on my flat here, a workman informed me a day or so in advance that scaffolding would be going up. I excitedly asked, "Bamboo?" And his reply was a befuddled, "Yes, yes. Of course." As if to say, "Obviously, you stupid gweilo. Haven't you lived here long enough to know that yet?"

Bamboo scaffolding in my stairwell during a recent paint job

But it's one of those things that never seems to get old, at least not for me. Each and every time I see a gnarly jumble of bamboo shooting skywards, I pause to take in the sight—and to admire the gumption of the homegrown daredevils who earn their daily bread navigating these vertigo-inducing webs. They've struck me from the very beginning. And I'm not the only one. Even the introduction of my Frommer's Hong Kong guide contains the line, "There are as many skyscrapers here as you're likely to see anywhere, but they're built with bamboo scaffolding..." Clearly they are a beloved oddity of this place.

View from my old office window in March 2012

I suppose at first I must have thought it was "an Asian thing." But it turns out that's wrong. It's "a Hong Kong thing." Yes, Hong Kong is the last place where you can witness this spectacular phenomenon. Nowhere else, not even in Asia, do they go about constructing their scaffolds in this strange manner.

Wan Chai residential towers under construction last month, from the Hopewell Center's glass elevator

Currently, three of the SAR's most iconic structures are under bamboo at the same time, so I've been scurrying around town on a little photo-tour over the last couple of days. It's funny, but Hong Kong might very well be the one place on earth where finding out a famous sight is under scaffolding actually enhances the experience instead of turning it into a massive letdown. 

Starting in Sheung Wan, there is the historic Western Market, a handsome, red-brick Edwardian building completed in 1906. From that time all the way until 1988, it operated as a popular food market, where locals could stock up on meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. Now a far less attractive building a few blocks away takes care of that need, while the venerable structure itself houses cafés, bakeries, a few souvenir shops and dozens of fabric vendors.

Moving eastward across the island, you can visit Statue Square's classic Old Supreme Court Building, opened in 1912 and designed by the same architect who did Buckingham Palace in London. As you probably guessed from its name, the original purpose of the building was to provide a home for the highest judicial body of the then-Crown colony. In the mid-1980s, Hong Kong's Legislative Council (usually referred to as LegCo) moved into the space, which they vacated in 2011 to relocate to the new government offices constructed in neighboring Admiralty. Currently the building is vacant, though the plan is for the Court of Final Appeal—the highest court in the post-Handover land—to take possession next year.

Saving the best for last, we finally come to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on Wan Chai's waterfront. This massive complex was completed just in time for the 1997 Handover—and provided the venue for the official ceremony that brought an end to over a century of British rule, with Prince Charles, Tony Blair and other important dignitaries in attendance.

The scaffold here is without doubt the single most impressive I have come across since I moved to Hong Kong. It's massive, it's dense and it's almost unbelievably cool. They even had to post bilingual signs saying "No Climbing" because the mess of bamboo is just too darn tempting to scale. I'll certainly be disappointed when it inevitably comes down. Wandering around the waterfront promenade this morning, it struck me that the scaffold itself is so incredible, it's actually become a sort of tourist attraction in and of itself. In fact, more people seem to be interested in taking photos of the madness than of the glorious views over the harbor!

While it's just happenstance that such a noteworthy trio of landmarks are undergoing renovation works concurrently, the bamboo scaffold is a ubiquitous sight around Hong Kong all year long. Though the larger, more famous buildings ultimately garner the most attention, and thus a mention on here, even the smallest patchwork jobs inevitably depend upon bamboo. As I was walking home yesterday afternoon after visiting Western Market and the Old Supreme Court Building, I saw two workmen seemingly precariously balanced on bamboo high above the sidewalks of Happy Valley.

Literally just across the street from them, Saint Margaret's Church is also covered under the stuff. And around the corner from my apartment, piles and piles of bamboo poles lay on the ground, evidence that yet another scaffold will be rising in my neighborhood any day now!