Bamboo

    

     Construction is going on all around us, due to the subway line that's being extended out to our neighborhood on the west side of Hong Kong Island.  A few buildings are being renovated.  Old ones are being torn down and replaced.  About "old":  Hong Kongers' idea of old housing is different than ours.  Someone I recently met said she lived in a very old apartment, built 36 years ago.  Our 65-year-old house in Minneapolis seems ancient to them.
     Walk down most any block and you'll walk under or around scaffolding like this, always made of bamboo.  Bamboo is widely used in Asia because it's plentiful and thus economical, and it's strong, lightweight, flexible, and versatile.  It's highly renewable, too.  Bamboo is not a tree, it's a woody grass, one of the fastest growing plants in the world.  Many species mature within 3-5 years. It grows from a rhizome, so it easily regenerates after it's been cut, and its extensive root systems help prevent soil erosion.  Bamboo has been used since ancient times in China for food, clothing, buildings, household implements, weapons, papermaking, musical instruments and medicine.
     What's most striking about bamboo in Hong Kong is seeing this low-tech material used since ancient times being used in the 21st century as scaffolding on some of the sleekest, most modern buildings in the world in the Central business district.

     Here's another incongruity.  This delivery guy was ahead of me on a walkway over a busy road in Central.  He was headed into the swanky IFC mall, carrying his goods the way they've been carried for many centuries in China, on a notched shoulder pole made of--you guessed it--bamboo.  You can see the flexibility of the bamboo here.