Sunday, August 30, 2015

Size is relative

At the mountain camp in a valley slightly up a branch of the Tian Shan, we met a “mountain man” who takes care of the camp.  


It was said that he once lived in Tokmok.  Tokmok is a city with roughly 50,000 people.  Over there, I have not seen a building with more than 10 storeys. Even the bus terminal looks pretty empty.  But the mountain man found it too “crowded” and moved back up the mountain.  


Many young people in Tokmok would like to move to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.  Bishkek has ~800,000 inhabitants.  The tallest building in Bishkek has 18 storeys, and it does have several Soviet-style governmental buildings.  The streets do look more crowded than Tokmok.  Many of the adults we met in Tokmok found Bishkek too crowded and prefer to stay in Tokmok.   


This is what Argyle Street looks like today.


I suspect all of them would probably find Hong Kong too crowded.









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