7: yuen long, an afternoon in 2018

The top of the bird tower in Yuen Long Park grants its viewers an entire 360 panorama of the surrounding New Territories area. To the left are the more modest establishments, colorful and stout, almost flooded with middle aged women with short perms and red plastic bags. To the right are the newly renovated apartment complexes of Tin Shui Wai—uniform, coordinated, and eager to welcome sleep. At the foot of the tower itself, an old man in a bowler hat shows off his pet turtle to a group of children. The parrots that are kept there echo colloquialisms: 食飯未，早晨，行開！He tells us that he has spent his entire life here, that he does not want to leave. I smile and nod because I don’t think I can ever stay in the same place forever. I ask him about the price of an apartment, and he reaffirms the fact that a living space in Hongkong would require a hefty sum. People do not even buy the land itself here—instead, they purchase the notion of security that lasts a mere 50 years. By that time, the landscape of the area would have surely changed again, the view from this bird tower different.