Manhattan vs Hong Kong: which feels more vibrant and urban (square footage, activity)
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I've been to NYC extensively (thats an understatement at this point) and was just in HK last year, i'll add some of my thoughts
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
1. New York City (I believe) is more connected and continuous at street level than Hong Kong is. Therefore, there is more of a continuous ability to walk around and see crowds. Even the densest parts of Hong Kong can feel relatively quiet at street level in my experience.
Manhattan is substantially more connected. From Battery Park to the top of Central Park is 7.40 miles for context, and tip to tip the island is ~13 miles
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
2. I don't exactly know, but my assumption, even in spite of rapid changes is that New York City would overall see more daytime visitors for work, etc. coming into Manhattan, and that while I think Hong Kong ranks highest on international overnight visitors, NYC still might have more "visitors" overall when considering domestic numbers.
Manhattan's day time population is estimated to be north of 3 million people.. and you feel the second rush hour hits
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
3. While Hong Kong has a number of vibrant areas, I'm not sure any are quite as vibrant/overwhelming to the senses in the bright neon, urban canyon format as Midtown/Times Square can be. That being said, I did not actually go to Causeway Bay, which I suppose is "that place" for Hong Kong more than anywhere, so I can't be sure.
I stayed in Causeway Bay when I was in HK... It was incredibly busy, absolutely... but theres a discernible feeling it's not the feeding frenzy chaos that is Times Square. Times Square is unrivaled in that context
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Originally Posted by cavsfan137
HK
1. With that being said, those numbers I posted above speak for themselves. HK's skyline is just absolutely incredible, at a level I don't think NYC or any other can match. I also consider with HK that is surrounded by places like Shenzhen, etc. that have a similar incredible urban feel. HK is more dense, and at least in certain ways.. you can tell.
HK is a weird city structually in that it lacks suburbs... It's either 500' pencil apartments or 50 acre rice farm. In regards to the skyline it's still the best one I've every personally scene. The view from Kowloon or Victoria Peak is breath taking
Quote:
Originally Posted by cavsfan137
2. I would guess that crowds in HK are more consistent throughout the year. NYC is going to peaked at certain times.. but then at the same time Manhattan can probably feel relatively quiet at certain other times of the week/year. HK meanwhile I don't think has similar ebbs and flows. I will also say that as things continue to change with borders being opened up, the number of visitors (and if international overnight doesn't reflect Chinese nationals, then my assumptions are VERY wrong), people passing thru HK will probably go up more than down.
Two of my favorite cities in the world! This is a very tough question to answer. Cavsfan did a great job of explaining the complexities, but basically Manhattan is a tiny slice of HK so it's hard to properly compare, especially since these comparisons are so hard any way.
I can be convinced either direction depending on the memories I'm thinking about lol. Curious to hear FactsKillRhetoric's thoughts
Hmm, I don't agree. Not with NYC being more connected, but that there is much in the way of "relative quiet at street level" in the core of HK.
Hard to say, but don't forget that there are quite a lot of folks commuting from outer regions of HK into the core "Manhattan" parallel areas. Plus international commuters from Shenzhen, Macau and Zhuhai.
It's interesting to see everyone's thoughts! So, I guess I will contextualize this. I don't necessarily have the extensive level of time spent in other cities that others on here have, and I have very limited experience with NYC (in terms of actual memory, much more vivid and familiar with HK, MC, Tokyo, etc.).
Re: the comment on relative quiet at street level-not in the sense that Tokyo is where you have intense periods of density and then true quiet, in the form of narrow residential streets, parks etc. And, admittedly, I don't have the comparison to NYC to necessarily say-it didn't necessarily feel empty. But, leaving Temple Street Night Market at about midnight... things felt very quiet on the street walking back towards our AirBNB.... almost eerily so to point where, we were just gonna walk, but ended up heading back to the MTR instead. Also... it was raining off/on on the day when I noticed this.. but taking train into central.. there were crowds.. but more of them were in indoor tunnels linking buildings, metro stations, inside the mall. In HK, perhaps because there are more indoor connectors than either of the other 3... people use them. Because of that, I found that walking outside on the street as a whole in Beijing and Mexico City, I was in the midst of a crowd of people more regularly than I was in Hong Kong, though again, perhaps that has a bias reflected in the neighborhoods I visited. It might not even necessarily be less crowds.. but more of an ability to get around there, even walking, without stepping outside.
I agree with you. I really appreciated the post from Joakim breaking this down and discussing my impressions, but if Manhattan gets 3M daytime visitors... roughly how many does HK get? I agree that HK gets a lot of people coming from outer HK, international commuters, etc., and media reports (and complaints, in some cases), have been on the rise from the sheer traffic volume in parts of HK.
Currently living in NYC(As a native of LA) and have visited Hong Kong a few times.
Despite being very impressed with the vibrancy and energy in places like Central, Causeway Bay...I still find Manhattan to be much more vibrant and diverse. HK is one of the most diverse and culturally open cities in Asia, but it is still no where near the like of NYC. NYC not only gives you the feeling of being in the center of universe, it is in FACT the CENTER of the universe. I have never gotten that feeling in Hong Kong.
What surprised me a lot in HK is that you see a lot of people on the street dress so gorgeously in full top designer brand clothes and carry all designer brand bags, but when you see the places they live, they look so cramped, almost ghetto like from the 50s. The housing situation in NYC is already very very serious, but in HK, it is absolutely a joke.
Anyways, the Cantonese food in HK is second to none. I have tried Cantonese food in LA, NYC, Vancouver, Toronto and honestly they are not at HK’s level, not even close.
But, leaving Temple Street Night Market at about midnight... things felt very quiet on the street walking back towards our AirBNB.... almost eerily so to point where, we were just gonna walk, but ended up heading back to the MTR instead. Also... it was raining off/on on the day when I noticed this.. but taking train into central.. there were crowds.. but more of them were in indoor tunnels linking buildings, metro stations, inside the mall. In HK, perhaps because there are more indoor connectors than either of the other 3... people use them. Because of that, I found that walking outside on the street as a whole in Beijing and Mexico City, I was in the midst of a crowd of people more regularly than I was in Hong Kong, though again, perhaps that has a bias reflected in the neighborhoods I visited. It might not even necessarily be less crowds.. but more of an ability to get around there, even walking, without stepping outside.
Large swaths of Manhattan are pretty much dead after midnight. But in any case, my comment wasn't to disagree with the Manhattan side of your equation. I just think, from my experience, HK is every bit the type of place where you will get dirty looks if you stop walking on the sidewalk, for example. And in context, I find Singapore to be the less crowded version of NYC/HK with actual room to breathe and walk without constantly stepping on top of other people.
Large swaths of Manhattan are pretty much dead after midnight. But in any case, my comment wasn't to disagree with the Manhattan side of your equation. I just think, from my experience, HK is every bit the type of place where you will get dirty looks if you stop walking on the sidewalk, for example. And in context, I find Singapore to be the less crowded version of NYC/HK with actual room to breathe and walk without constantly stepping on top of other people.
I would say all of that sounds pretty reasonable. Good to know on Manhattan. If I’m being honest with you, both nights of recent trip to NYC were spent in Queens, almost out towards Flushing. Still jarring how urbane NYC is out there, but wasn’t sure how itd compare.
HK really can get crazy in certain sections, on that I would definitely agree. However I’ve also heard from a number of places that Singapore’s pedestrians move faster than anywhere else, but perhaps the sheer modernity of Singapore and overall less density ensures that doesn’t matter quite as much?
Interesting...I've not exactly thought about comparing the speed of pedestrians between the two. I suppose it's a negligible difference and could go either way. But it's more the attitude...Singaporeans are definitely not trying to push you out of the way and if anything, they're proactively trying to stay out of your way.
The climate is less cold and hot in winter and summer, a reason people stay around more than Seoul and nyc.
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Originally Posted by xiloponeums
Hong Kong on the other hand does not stop. You can walk around Hong Kong at 2am and still see thousands of people around, cars jamming the streets, Hong Kong is like Time Square all over the city. *excluding rural parts*
I stayed around Mong Kok, my god, I recall looking down the street at 3:48AM, it was Tuesday and seeing stores open, and thousands of people walking around like ants music etc.
The climate is less cold and hot in winter and summer, a reason people stay around more than Seoul and nyc.
HK is hotter than NYC in the summer.
To the people who say that there is nowhere in HK as crowded as Times Square, that is not true. Basically all of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok has Times Square level crowds.
Also, the daytime population of Hong Kong swells incredibly from all the Mainlanders.
I think where Manhattan wins in "vibrancy" is in the fact that it is much more multi-cultural, whereas Hong Kong seems racially more homogeneous. But if it's just which is more crowded, then the answer is Hong Kong.
HK and other cities near the Tropic of Cancer do not have heat waves, very rare snow falls. All parts of HK are under 40 Celsius in summer, with HK island and Kowloon cooler than northern NT in summer, maximum is 37 Celsius.
The swell from mainlanders was not apparent during weekdays, most were seen in the busy shopping areas during weekends before the riots.
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