MegaBox - the Mega shopping centre.

Things that I thought would be the same everywhere:
Elevators stop on every floor and escalators take you one floor at a time. This is not so in Hong Kong. There is a shopping centre in Kowloon called "MegaBox" where this custom is taken to another level.

MegaBox looks spectacular, it looks like a camera. Hugo spotted the place from the air when we arrived. It has a giant screen on the inside that can be seen through a five story high round window from the outside. The building is painted red, bright red.
Inside it is almost empty - there is a emphasis on how much room is reserved as unoccupied "free space". Shoppers can also go ice skating.

The escalators take shoppers up five floors at a time. The elevators stop on only odd or even floors depending on whether you catch one on the north or south end of the bulding. To get to level three, a customer has to first go to level eight in the lift then take the escalator down five floors. When taking the escalator, it seems strange to see the place that I wanted to go only a few meters away slowly disapear behind me while the being helplessly transported to the lofty heights of the "Podium Garden". Shopping centres in Hong Kong seem to put all the same products in one place - for example, at the Windsor centre, all the computer shops are on level 10 and 11. At Times Square, all the home appliances are on level 5 and 6. Parking is on level 16. There is no front door access to the footpath - the front door is a busy bus and taxi transport hub that is closed off to pedestrians - shoppers arrive by the bus-load from the nearby train station. Trying to find a shop is like being trapped in an Esher picture.


References:
http://www.megabox.com.hk/eng/home.htm
http://www.mcescher.com/indexuk.htm