Ah, the joy of an escalator commute!  No stop lights, no traffic, I don’t even have to wait in line to swipe my transit card. My commute to work in Hong Kong begins with walking a little less than a ¼ mile before hopping on the Central – Mid Levels Escalator.

The escalator is 2,600 ft (800m) long with a vertical climb of 440 ft (135m). According to Guinness World Records, the twenty escalators and three moving sidewalks combine to form the longest covered escalator system in the world. The escalator runs downhill until 10 am and then uphill until midnight. (An important fact if you need to go up, and have been out with friends!) The parallel stairs are used for reverse traffic.

I pick up the escalator on Mosque Street and take it all the way to Hollywood Road (roughly half the length of the escalator or seven minutes). One of the things I enjoy most is the unique character of each of the streets which the escalator crosses… residential to commercial to markets. Perhaps my favorite street is just past Jamia Mosque and more like an alley. Its intimate character and abundance of dogs makes me want to live there. (I mean… I’ve already picked out the charcoal gray apartment building I want to live in!)

The escalator officially opened in 1993 and is responsible for bringing life to Hong Kong’s Western District. Those who once didn’t brave the long walk up the hill, use the escalator (as many as 55,000 daily users). With eyes now gazing at the second level, buildings along the escalator have residential and retail tenants about the ground floor.

Elgin Street - yummy restaurantsMosque Street- where the ride beginsThe stairs run parallel to the escalatorMy Favorite Street