On deliveries

The thing you don’t notice when you live in a city with a normal ratio of people to space is constant flow of deliveries which all go on in the background. In Hong Kong, the tight squeeze means that all this secret background work is pushed very much to the foreground: the streets are so tightly compact that there are no alternative side roads to off load large stock piles; shops and restaurants often occupy such small spaces that there are no side doors or back doors to use for sneaky deliveries. No, in HK It all happens right there, very much in the way of things.

The biggest feat seems to be delivering water. Since it’s not advisable to drink the tap water in HK, bottled water is big business here. Households buy sturdy 5.5 litre water bottles, while offices and public buildings offer 10 or 15 litre water cooler/ heater systems so that staff and visitors have easy access to hot and cold water around the clock. These massive bottles need to be constantly delivered and collected and refilled. They bottles arrive in large lorries which men promptly jump out of and into the back of to lift out and carry to their destination. Since offices throughout HK regularly tower up to the 30^th or 40^th floor, these bottles have to be carried then trolleyed up to these heights. Meanwhile, down below, streets block as the water lorries sit waiting for their men to return, unable to park due to the which results in honks and horns from all the aforementioned until the delivery men run back with the empties and they can move on.

One way to get a piece of the Honky pie is to put together your own private delivery service - ideally one which cuts out the delays caused by stationary and stalling cars, taxis dropping off and picking up, buses pulling out and coaches pulling up. And every day I see folk cycling around the city streets doing just that. When I found out I was moving to Hong Kong, I was living in Copenhagen where cycling was my main mode of transport. Half joking, half hoping I asked Jane, a Cantonese friend from Danish class if there was any point in taking my bike out to HK. “Yes. If you want to die,” she replied very straight faced. So I sold my bike and came here without wheels, but despite Jane’s warning, I do regularly see people on bikes.

Granted, nobody in the city really chooses to commute by bike, but for deliveries it’s a popular choice. In the Hong Kong travel guide which my Mum gave to me before I moved, there’s a photograph of a man cycling a very old school bike with a front basket filled so full with chicken feet that you could hardly see his head. Everyday bike baskets brimming with whole chickens, trays of frogs or fresh fish and bags full of herbs and greens weave their way through the taxis and buses and trams to deliver whatever they’re carrying. Some of the more extreme cyclists carry gas canisters which typically weigh between 12 and 15 kilos. I’ve seen cyclists balancing up to three of those on one bike: two strapped onto each side and one sitting in the basket, or if the basket’s past it, the cyclist holds one of the canisters by hand and steers with the other, much like a bike riding circus clown (just with serious amounts of pressurised gas instead of water squirting plastic flowers).

Those who understandably prefer to have both feet firmly on the ground whilst delivering, favour the metal framed cart method. Walking around the city you see these foldable carts chained to metal rails, patiently waiting for their owners to come on duty and start collecting and delivering all manner of things from recycling, food, and water to household rubbish, DHL style deliveries and stacks of freshly printed newspapers and magazines. The carts are pulled and pushed through the pavements and streets, but since both are almost always already packed with large scale delivery operations, the cartloads are often taken by train, bus, tram or boat to ensure timely arrival by avoiding as much of the HK street chaos as possible.

Deliveries come on foot a lot too. As far as I know, Hong Kong is the only place in the world offering free McDonald’s delivery, so you often see well dressed McDonald’s recruits running around the city with their insulated, saturated fat full back packs, ready to make some desperately hungover gweilo’s day. They even bring out coffees as the minimum spend is only $50 (£4). Many of those offices and workplaces that need daily water delivery also go the full stretch and order breakfast and lunch to be delivered. If you work near a substantial sized office or commercial area, you will be surrounded by restaurants, but at dead on twelve every lunch time, 50% of the population abandons their normal position and goes to a restaurant to feed on noodle and rice bits. The 50% who can’t squeeze themselves around a table, either queue for another sitting (you have never seen real queues until you see people waiting in line in HK), or order food to be delivered. As you have probably gathered, this is a busy time around the city; taking a taxi or public transport or a bike or even a cart will only slow down the delivery speed, so delivery people simply carry the food. Up to four plastic bags packed with steaming boxed up rice and meat mixtures and cartoons of ice cold soy milk are wrapped around the wrists of these delivery people who run from restaurant to office block, still wearing their aprons and sweating under the heat of the midday sun and the suffocating humidity.

For those like me, standing back on the pavement to let the carts past, watching the delivery chain unravel is a constant reminder that so many people here sweat and shout and strive to get deliveries delivered on time. Delivery people of Hong Kong, we salute you. You get things moving, and you add, in a big way, to the constant buzz that is the electric current of this city.