Rethinking cities #3 – the daily commute part II: Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong

IV. Beijingers and Tokyoites: walkers  Despite the low cycling statistics for two of the most famous cities, Paris and London, all is not lost.  There are other noteworthy trends and possibilities, including an ultra-high 46% walking modal share for Paris and almost 30% for London, according to Deloitte’s City Mobility Index.  In fact, we find Read more

Rethinking cities #1: Ommmm in Paris, the 15-minute commute in Milan, and Amsterdam in a doughnut

As cities are coming back to life with summer drawing to a close and Covid restrictions relaxing …we urbanites and city-dwellers are looking forward to some of the magic that cities offer … chance meetings in the street, lazing at kerb-side cafe tables looking into the streetscape, accidental tableside conversations that spark an idea, chit-chats Read more

Island tales #2: East meets West in beautiful beachscapes, remote villages, church ruins and Hakka clans

One of the most astounding things about this ultra-urban city of Hong Kong is that there are still some tiny and remote villages that are not accessible by vehicles, are mainly populated by village houses, and rather untouched by urbanism, and many of these are in Sai Kung, a large area in the Northeastern part Read more

Keep calm and learn some history: portrait of a city under siege

[An early April update: Hong Kong Museum of Art has opened up some of its multimedia collections online in its virtually@HKMoA initiative while the museum is itself still closed to public access.] We at Madeleine’s have been spending time in a city where there is definitely a siege-like feel: shops have shorter hours, office-workers are working Read more

In London this winter

Having been in London earlier in November, we are looking forward to being back in London in 2 weeks which would be mid-December.  Here’s our 5 favourites for this winter in this cool city: Theatre. OK, even our London insider who isn’t that into theatre was urging us to go see this production: Translations at Read more

Urban re-inventions #1: Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun hits its 1.5-year-old mark

We at Madeleine’s recently had the opportunity to do a “revisit” to a big urban renewal and revitalisation project: Tai Kwun, which celebrates its second Christmas (and hits the first-year-and-a-half anniversary of its opening). This is a complex sitting almost in the middle of Central, just 100 steps up the hill from Queens Road Central Read more