Last week I posted newly discovered photos from my house in San Francisco during the years of Good Chinese Wife. Also included in that stack of 1996 photos were a bunch from the apartment where I lived after graduate school. So without further ado, I’d like to introduce you to Sunshine City.
All Hong Kong flats have these metal gates to keep out the riff raff. If you’ve read Good Chinese Wife, you might remember the parts where “Cai” and I venture out to the KPS video rental store. Here I am with a bag of VHS tapes from that store.
The inside of the flat! 420 square feet never felt so luxurious! The bathroom off to the left is where I learned I was pregnant with Jake. The bedroom off to the right is where I slept for two years. The other room in the back left is where we watched movies and was a guest room. There was a little galley kitchen off the left in the foreground. And off to the right, on one of the fabric-covered boxes (used as a table) was the phone where I called Cai in China when I was sick. Memories!
The view from our bedroom. We were on the 25th floor of 40+ stories. This area was in the New Territories, the huge span of land that borders mainland China.
This is what the apartments looked like from the street. I still remember the Cantonese for where I lived. (Ma On Shan, Sun Gong Sing, Dei Sei Kei or 馬鞍山新港成第四期).
On the ground floor of the apartment buildings, there were manicured grounds with this outdoor seating area, along with a pool and club house (for an additional fee).
Under this level was a two-story mall.
And under the mall, on the street level, was a wet market.
Despite the difficulties that occurred in this apartment, I will always look back on it with fond memories. From 1996 to 1998, we paid about US$1100 a month in rent.
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