day 40_Hong Kong_city without ground

"Ground is a continuous plane and a stable reference point. It is the surface on which the conflicts of urban propinquity: public and private, planned and impromptu, privileged and disadvantaged, are worked out. In cities like New York, great cultural significance is placed in being on the spatial ground [...] The ground plane remains a reference point for cultural life. Hong Kong enhances three-dimensional connectivity to such a degree that it eliminates reference to the ground altogether. Hong Kong is a city without ground." A. Frampton, J. D. Solomon, C. Wong in Cities Without Ground.

Entry into one of many shopping malls which are part of an extensive network above the street level, three-dimensionalizing the ground of the city:

The longest outdoor covered escalator system in the world, making one feel more like inside a large urban interior, rather than being outside on the streets: