Robert Gerhardt

Hong Kong is two very different cities. It is the Pearl of the East, with one million millionaires calling it home, out of a population of just over seven million. There are more skyscrapers in the city than any other city in the world. But it also has a huge wealth gap, and the high cost of living forces the poorest to live in coffin apartments, or spend their nights sleeping in 24 Hour McDonalds. Domestic workers work six days a week, but on Sundays can be found in the bars looking to find Western husbands who are their key to escaping their current situation.

During the day, Hong Kong is crowded and hectic. There are businessmen in their suits heading to meetings or lunches. Vendors hawk their wares in markets and shops. The wealthy show off their finery as they wander the more upscale sections of the city, while tourists look and stare in the shop windows and marvel at the glitzy towers. All the while, the homeless and beggars look for coins dropped to them by those who pass.

At night, the grittier sides steps from the shadows. Expats drink away in the bars in Wan Chai, Kennedy Town, and Causeway Bay. Women in short, tight dresses stand on street corners or outside of massage parlors smoking cigarettes. People in ones and twos wandering the dark streets and back allies while lovers kiss in the shadows. Small groups bed down for the night under overpasses. And watching over it all are the occasional police officers on their patrols.