Public Transportation (Hong Kong, China)

Get familiar with public transportation of Hong Kong for your trip.

There are close to 7 million people in this city. Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world. If you own a car or are riding a taxi, you will run into traffic jams like in any large city. However, Hong Kong has various transportation options such as trams, buses, mini-buses, ferries and trains which make it really easy to get around. In fact, Hong Kong has one of the most efficient transportation systems in the world with 80% of its residents using it.

Let's see what it is like to ride on the local train here called the MTR. When using the MTR, you can buy a single journey ticket or a one day pass. Although there are many ticket attendants at all the stations, using the automatic ticket machine is really easy. Here we are at Sheung Wan MTR station and need to go to the Mong Kok station. On this machine, I simply select my destination, it tells me the price, 11 dollars, I put in the money here and I have my ticket. If I do not have change, there is another ticketing option here. This is one of the greatest conveniences of Hong Kong for a local or a tourist, and that is the Octopus card. It is an electronically stored money card which is accepted on trains, trams, buses, ferries and even convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and Circle K. You can buy them at any MTR station or you can also buy them at convenience stores such as 7-Eleven and Circle K.

If you have a ticket, you enter it here, but since I have my Octopus card, you simply swipe it. To find out the platform, I have to know which line I am taking, as the platform will be marked by the last stop on that line. In this case, Chai Wan. Looking at the map, the last stop on the blue line is Chai Wan. Inside the train, we can always tell how far a stop is. That was our quick and painless journey in Hong Kong's MTR system. This is Rosanna Wilcox, showing you Hong Kong.

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[geobeats]

How do you think Hong Kong's transportation system compares to that of other cities? Tell us in comments!

[klebehss]

lol this sounds like a copy of the MBTA in boston XD the same ticket/card system with trams and more people .

[shree711]

Actually, the buses here usually come from the UK. Some come from Sweden though. The trams are a relic of Hong Kong's heritage. The taxis here have huge amounts of legspace and are air conditioned. Taxi drivers do not overcharge here or beg for tips. Hong Kong has surely one of the best public transport systems in the world. I do not wish to make sweeping statements though.

[shree711]

I swear. I yet have to find a place with such comprehensive and effective transport. 90% of daily transport is done by public transport. I do not know if there are higher figures for that sort of thing in the world. The MTR is clean, profitable (USD$1.5 billion in profits), safe and punctual (99.7% punctuality rate). I have been to some other places such as New York. The subway there is rather dirty and reminds me of my home country (India). The buses here are cheap, AC are to a great standard.