Below is the blog of a fictional character who moved into Hong Kong. In the blog we learn the characters thoughts on the city and what the city looks like. Each journal entry is written by the character at the end of their day and the character describes how their day was and the things they did. The journal starts by describing the person’s first day in Hong Kong.

Day 1
Today was the the start of my life living in Hong Kong. This has been all I have could think about for that last three weeks. I knew once I got into Hong Kong my life would never be the same. Tonight I will sleep in Hotel Victoria.  The process of discovering my new apartment was exhausting, and it turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would be.  At first I looked for apartments near Hotel Victoria. I had hopes for this location because it was so close to my job. My employer’s building is in the very center of the city, so I thought that being near the inner city would be a good idea. However, after seeing my hotel I knew this would not work out. The advertisement I looked on made Hotel Victoria look and sound amazing! Unfortunately, after arriving I quickly realized that this hotel was terrible. The building looked very old, poorly built, and extremely cramped. I took a picture to show you just how disgusting the place looked! Yuck!

It wasn’t just my hotel that was gross; all the apartments inside the inner city were horrific. They seemed extremely expensive to be such poor quality housing. Luckily, there were other options. I wanted to live near my employer because I couldn’t afford a car with all these tough regulations on owning private vehicles. Now I see that even without a car I can still easily travel in this city. There are so many buses and transit systems that I am not even worried about being able to get to work on time. With the knowledge of all this easy transportation, I will look for a better home further out of the city tomorrow.
Day 2
I looked further out in the city where much nicer apartments and houses would be available. This led me to finally discover my new apartment building! This apartment was further out of the city and much nicer than the ones I saw near my hotel. I am gladly writing this entry from within my new home. One of the best things out my new place is that there is a bus station right outside of the apartment. Among my top priorities was to be able to get to work on time, and now I am confident that travel will be easy. With the Colonnade Transit Stop right outside my door I’ll be able to travel easily.  My apartment is also much more spacious than the cramped apartment buildings in the central city. I’ll admit that it isn’t unlimited space with complete freedom, but at least I have room to breathe here and a nice window to look out upon the city. I took a picture of the outside of the building and I’ll show it to you below.
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I’ll admit that it is no royal palace, but it is liveable and I’m sure that it will be the start to a decent life here in Hong Kong until I can afford better.
Day 3
So today I woke up in my apartment for the very first time. Which means that I also commuted downtown to where I will be working everyday from my apartment for the very first time. I was very anxious to see how the trip would go this morning, and I must confess, it was very disappointing. When I first found my apartment, I thought that the extra space away from the inner city was nice. Now after only a single day of the city, I am annoyed by how much space is wasted in the city. As the bus drove me further downtown we were basically driving through a forest! Why was there a forest in the middle of Hong Kong City! The apartments and buildings all around this area are all extremely expensive and yet there is a massive wasted space in the middle of the city! I got so angry I looked up an aerial map of Hong Kong.

This picture absolutely mortifies me! Why is there a massive space in the middle of the city that could be used for housing or buildings? The space isn’t even used for a park, it is just an uninhabited space in the middle of the city. This is really annoying because I will have to take the bus through this wasted space everyday and it makes my commute longer for absolutely no reason. The entire Happy Valley (the area where my apartment is) neighborhood network was very poorly designed.  Tomorrow I am going to investigate why this space is wasted and I hope by this time tomorrow I will have some answers!
Day 4
I have received some news on the wasted area that has allowed my to put my mind at rest finally. As I walked outside this morning, I saw some construction happening outside. Since I had some extra time, I decided to investigate. I saw that new apartment buildings were under construction, and I got the opportunity to speak with one of the construction workers. When I asked him about the construction, he told me that the area was being developed as a part of a plan called “Hong Kong: Our Smart City.” Apparently, the developers and architects of Hong Kong inefficiently designed this sector of the city originally. Now the construction workers are making movements to develop the area with this new construction. Businesses and residential areas will be encouraged to move right into this area. The great thing is that the entire thing is being planned methodically to make the area as efficient as possible. This gets me very excited for when the construction starts to move along a little bit.  When the smart growth is finished, I will be able to walk straight from my apartment building to several restaurants! Hopefully they will build a park in the new space as well. Regardless of what they build in the new area, I am just thankful that it won’t be wasted for any longer. I couldn’t help but take a picture of some of the construction going on. Here is just a glimpse of what is to come!

Day 5
After I finally got settled into my home I got the opportunity to explore my community. Today I enjoyed all the sites and attractions there are in my community. After doing a bit of research on my surrounding area, I discovered that Hong Kong Stadium was not far from my apartment. Here’s a map showing how close it is.

The stadium will be brilliant if I am ever in the mood to go to a soccer game. It is an extremely nice stadium as well. I have a picture inside the stadium that is just marvelous.  I can’t wait until I will be able to go to one of the games!
There are more interesting things around my apartment, too. Just north of the stadium there is a huge complex of fields and courts. It is the perfect place for non-professional athletes, like me, to be able to practice sports. There are four tennis courts and two soccer fields which will perfect for anytime I want to go have fun and stretch out my legs.
There is also a bakery and and art center within a close proximity of my apartment. I can’t wait until I’ll be able to check out all of these locations surrounding me.  I left a map showing just how convenient the art center and the bakery are to me. The painting pallet marks the art center and the cup marks the bakery (Both in lower left corner of the picture).