Central-Mid-Levels Escalators
Outdoor covered escalator network climbing a steep hillside, reversing direction twice daily for commuters.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Central-Mid-Levels Escalators follows filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, who came here a year after the system opened and declared it the most cinematic place in Hong Kong, shooting Chungking Express on these stairs and in the apartment beside them. It traces the escalators back to their 1993 opening as the world's longest outdoor covered escalator system, the budget overruns that drew criticism, and the daily schedule that has the whole network run downhill each morning before reversing at ten twenty. Listen for the quality of light Wong Kar-wai singled out as you ride.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
The Peak Tram
Victorian funicular railway climbing four hundred metres to Hong Kong island's highest peak.
Pottinger Street
Steep granite-stepped lane from the 1850s, once the colonial boundary between Chinese and European quarters.
Ngong Ping 360
Bi-cable gondola ride spanning five kilometres over sea and ridgelines to a mountaintop plateau.
Yick Cheong Building
Five interconnected residential towers whose dense courtyard became a global photography icon and Hollywood film set.