You allknow how it is sometimes with exploring, sometimes it's just too much effort to go and keep checking the same leads and trying the same places. To be honest, I've been getting sick of doing roofs out here, there are so many hundred metre plus buildings that you can simply walk out onto the roof of, which offer the same view as you'll see from ten adjacent roofs.
Since most of the more interesting or really tall buildings have been so brutally rinsed by the traveling instagram generation they are now properly secured and have seriously on the ball security. At least one has a guard sat by the roof door all day..
Often it takes a fresh attitude to finally get those kind of places done, and so far this year I've been doing well for visitors, between Monkey, Andrej, Siologen and Snappel I've had a good boost of fresh enthusiasm and managed to get a few long time targets ticked off and also made time to go try some new places.
I've also not really posted much for a while, so I thought I'd actually make a report out of them.
In no particular order then.
V Point, this is an almost completed tower in Causeway bay with a truly massive billboard on top of it. 31 floors and roughly 150m.
ChinaChem Century Tower. 33 floors and 120m.
Sunshine Plaza. 38 floors and 150m.
Just left of centre at the top of the shot above, the funny angular building is V Point again.
Top Glory Tower. 35 floors and 135m.
Lippo Centre. 48 floors and 186m.
This has been a long time target of mine and has managed to frustrate me for most of the last two years. I'd not bothered trying for months, but Andrej pushed for another go and as luck would have it, there were workers on the roof who didn't give a shit about three random westerners with cameras.
As you can see, this is a pretty unique building. Locally it's called the Koala Tower.
Hopewell Centre. 64 floors and 216m.
This is another that has kind of eluded me for a long time, I've managed to get onto the lower roof easily, but the floors above that are the offices of Hopewell Holdings, the buildings owners, with the very top floor being the office of their CEO who also happens to be the architect of the building. The roof has a swimming pool on top and it always seemed that the only way up was to go through the offices with their RAID carded doors..
After a bit of random bumbling about with Silo and Snaps, including various alarms and bemused staff members we opened a door and realised we were at the very top this time.
The combination of rain and the CCTV camera opposite meant that we neither had a swim or spent long up there. Either way, glad to have got this one done too finally.
Manulife Plaza. 52 floors and 240m
This was great fun, like a platform game. Getting to the roof here involves bypassing various doors and finding a key that will unlock the only remaining way to the roof. Unfortunately the fog and rain meant that it was almost impossible to take pictures. Andrej was only there to climb the flag pole, and ended up doing it twice due to problems with the drone he'd booked to film him doing it.
Here's the resulting video anyway -
Last up is the New World Centre. 63 floors and 265m.
This is going to be a Rosewood hotel when it's finished and is the newly crowned tenth tallest building in Hong Kong. I've been watching this grow on the waterfront of the Kowloon side ever since I arrived here, it's only just topped out and is still under construction. I need to go back on a clearer night, and when my legs no longer hurt from all those stairs!
Above is the newly demoted eleventh tallest tower, the K11/Masterpiece building.
So there you have it, the best part of 1.5km of verticallity and some long time targets finally completed.
Cheers!
Since most of the more interesting or really tall buildings have been so brutally rinsed by the traveling instagram generation they are now properly secured and have seriously on the ball security. At least one has a guard sat by the roof door all day..
Often it takes a fresh attitude to finally get those kind of places done, and so far this year I've been doing well for visitors, between Monkey, Andrej, Siologen and Snappel I've had a good boost of fresh enthusiasm and managed to get a few long time targets ticked off and also made time to go try some new places.
I've also not really posted much for a while, so I thought I'd actually make a report out of them.
In no particular order then.
V Point, this is an almost completed tower in Causeway bay with a truly massive billboard on top of it. 31 floors and roughly 150m.
ChinaChem Century Tower. 33 floors and 120m.
Sunshine Plaza. 38 floors and 150m.
Just left of centre at the top of the shot above, the funny angular building is V Point again.
Top Glory Tower. 35 floors and 135m.
Lippo Centre. 48 floors and 186m.
This has been a long time target of mine and has managed to frustrate me for most of the last two years. I'd not bothered trying for months, but Andrej pushed for another go and as luck would have it, there were workers on the roof who didn't give a shit about three random westerners with cameras.
As you can see, this is a pretty unique building. Locally it's called the Koala Tower.
Hopewell Centre. 64 floors and 216m.
This is another that has kind of eluded me for a long time, I've managed to get onto the lower roof easily, but the floors above that are the offices of Hopewell Holdings, the buildings owners, with the very top floor being the office of their CEO who also happens to be the architect of the building. The roof has a swimming pool on top and it always seemed that the only way up was to go through the offices with their RAID carded doors..
After a bit of random bumbling about with Silo and Snaps, including various alarms and bemused staff members we opened a door and realised we were at the very top this time.
The combination of rain and the CCTV camera opposite meant that we neither had a swim or spent long up there. Either way, glad to have got this one done too finally.
Manulife Plaza. 52 floors and 240m
This was great fun, like a platform game. Getting to the roof here involves bypassing various doors and finding a key that will unlock the only remaining way to the roof. Unfortunately the fog and rain meant that it was almost impossible to take pictures. Andrej was only there to climb the flag pole, and ended up doing it twice due to problems with the drone he'd booked to film him doing it.
Here's the resulting video anyway -
Last up is the New World Centre. 63 floors and 265m.
This is going to be a Rosewood hotel when it's finished and is the newly crowned tenth tallest building in Hong Kong. I've been watching this grow on the waterfront of the Kowloon side ever since I arrived here, it's only just topped out and is still under construction. I need to go back on a clearer night, and when my legs no longer hurt from all those stairs!
Above is the newly demoted eleventh tallest tower, the K11/Masterpiece building.
So there you have it, the best part of 1.5km of verticallity and some long time targets finally completed.
Cheers!
sounds like a lot of messing about with locked doors but the reward looks brilliant
