Saturday, October 11, 2014

Tall tales

I confessed to an American acquaintance the other day that I don't really feel like I'm in a megacity of twenty-plus million. what I see is at most New York-scaled. She wasn't convinced. But then she lives in a housing complex with ninety towers. Mine's several dozen too, come to think of it, though low-rise compared to the neighborhood I passed through on my way to the 玉佛禅寺 Yufo (Jade) Temple this afternoon.
Is it still a neighborhood, though? What would that even mean? Each of these towers contains enough people for several neighborhoods, each complex for a small city. But compared to old towns you don't see many people at all. Where do they congregate? Do they congregate?
I imagine this area used to look like this, but won't for much longer.
Now it's one big tower complex after another - here comes the next one!
Next after that might be the one emerging right next to the temple; its monster drill was taller than the temple! Will there come a day, not so far off, when Jade Temple is the only thing under twenty storeys here?