I had the opportunity to head into Central and check out the City Gallery.
This gallery showcases Hong Kong's city planning and infrastructure designs. It's a pretty awesome set of galleries that takes a look at how Hong Kong was, what it took to become the city that it is now, and also shows the City's development plans for the future.
City Gallery Info:
3 Edinburgh Place
Central
From Central MTR Exit K, you can walk over to Chater Road and follow the subway to Edinburgh place. The City Gallery is right behind City Hall and looks out onto Victoria Harbour.
Hours
Wednesdays - Mondays rom 10 am - 6 pm
Admission is FREE!
My first impression of the City Gallery was that it was really made to be interactive and attract the attention of kids. I picked up one of the Scavenger Hunt packets to see if I could go through the Gallery and answer all the questions.
There are 4 floors and quite a few galleries.
Ground Floor
A brief history and introduction to City Hall
First Floor
A look at Hong Kong's Living Environment (Housing Estates)
Second Floor
A look at Hong Kong's infrastructure, transportation and sustainability projects
Third Floor
A look at the development of Hong Kong, the planning process, the development of the land and a theater that showed a video of Hong Kong's past/present/future
Fourth Floor
The Resource Center/Library/Computer Lab
I really liked how everything was so interactive. And the bits of information were actually really interesting: In 1972, Hong Kong decided to forge ahead on a new Public Housing development…
So, 40+ years ago, the dawn of the Housing Estates came about! These Public/Government Estates are something that I feel makes Hong Kong what it is.
The Resource Center, at the top of the Gallery is actually a pretty nice place to read up on the Government's City planning. Besides the computer lab, there were books on topics like urban planning, the airport development, and sustainability.
The Library also look down to the theater. The short movie was actually the highlight of my City Gallery Experience. It showed the past, present, and future of Hong Kong's city development. The plans for development in the future were probably the most fascinating thing about visiting this little museum.
***A look at the City Gallery***
There was a lot to see. I think we spent a good two hours just wandering the halls. But, in the end, we finished up answering the questions on my Scavenger Hunt packet, headed up to the Resource Center to see if they were correct, discovered that we found everything correctly, and got a plastic folder as a reward.
How satisfying!
It's totally worth taking a trip out to the City Gallery if you are interested in urban or community planning. It's pretty awesome and I'd rank it up there with the Maritime Museum (which I totally didn't realize would be as awesome as it was.)
