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Mid-Levels Escalator

One of the challenges of living on Hong Kong Island has always been the very steep landscape and this has lead to some innovative solution from the Peak Tram of 100 years ago to the more recent "Central to Mid-Levels escalator system", more commonly "Midlevel escalator". 

It is a set of escalators, each one not particularly large, and moving walkways which takes you from Central Hong Kong all the way up to the "Mid-Levels", that affluent residential district below The Peak.  Along the way it passes some interesting areas such as the Hollywood Road antique shop area and the SoHo food and drinking area.

Built in the years before the handover to China it was complete in 1993 at a cost of $240 million.  Which of course is just the start as the running cost just for electricity is over 50 million!  Does it really help?  Probably not as people walked up anyway, but it does make life easier and is certainly an unusual thing to see.

As it is built through an already busy area with narrow streets most of the system has had to be elevated in the air, so this also gives you a chance to have an unusual perspective on some of the buildings.  And you end up looking into a lot of 1st floor windows!

It has a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest outdoor covered escalator system, which is strange as Ocean Park also claims to hold the same record.  Clearly HK people love long escalators.

As the system is one way only the direction changes during the day to cater to commuters going down in the morning, then returning up later in the day.  The middle of the day is also up so as a tourist you'll probably be taking it up which is just as well as that is where you get the most benefit.

Either traverse the whole system in one go just to watch what it does, or stop along the way to see some interesting sights such as the old Central Police Station building.

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