Angled view at Festival Walk Mall in Kowloon Tong.
A trip to the mall in Hong Kong can be an expensive and surreal venture. Malls here are reserved mainly for high-end shops - Armani, Chanel, and many other stores that I've never felt patronage towards. That said, the malls are sprinkled with everyday shops to tickle the pleasure of even me.
Coffee shops are essential, huge places for lingering, and the residents of Hong Kong know how to linger unlike any others I've seen. Movie theatres can be quaint, leather plated palaces of escape. High-end grocers sprout in unlikely places, offering meat flown in from the United States and Australia and take-away curries.
At Times Square, a 20+ story development in Causeway Bay, the floors are intentionally segmented into themes - 2 floors for electronics, 1 for children, 2+ for adult outerwear, etc. The IFC (International Finance Center) and the Prince's Building are the two malls that I find myself in most often. Clad in marble and chrome, not unlike most of Central Hong Kong, and with backlit expanses and open piano performance areas, they stand as much as monuments to shopping as they do actual places for real merchandise.
Malls are built for foot traffic, because even with their high-end brands, malls here attempt to be as intertwined with daily life as possible. The IFC is the major transportation hub for Central with ferry launches to the outer islands and a station for the Airport Express train. Prince's gets more of its traffic from it's skyway connections which link to a network of above ground walking routes.
Everyday I pass stores I'd never dream of approaching at home. They'd have to be destinations. Intentions. Here, they are my landmarks, yard art, and just "noise" that are now beginning to be overlooked in commute.
They say that shopping in Hong Kong is a sport, and I'd believe it. A good shopper trains, practices, and probably even stretches in the coarse of their outings. So shop-a-holics, if you are looking for a place to test your abilities, you may have found a destination worthy of your play.
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