[Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

Hong Kong Island

The Island is the busiest part of the Zone, home to countless companies and corporations, most of them situated in the numerous starscrapers and arcologies of the northern Wanchai / Victoria district.
Also the Island houses the incredibly productive Cyberport facilities near the western district of Pokfulam, which also houses the Pokfulam Satlink Array. To the south there is Aberdeen District, one of the Zones busiest local harbours and residential area, with the recreational possibilities of Ocean World and the beaches of Repulse Bay just around the corner.

1. Central / Wanchai / Victoria
One of the world's busiest commercial centers, and home to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Central Wanchai is dominated by big money, and dominates the big money made in the Zone.
This district is part of the so called Four Rings, winding up into the hills and mountains of the island.
Here the Zones biggest arcologies and most profound architectural achievements can be found, first of which is the iconic Victoria Arc, located just above the subway station “Central”.
Most of the residents of Central district reside, work and live most of their lives in the big arcologies, while the non-arcodwelling populace commutes to and fro between smaller structures and buildings housing mostly foreign companies and corporations. Due to the highly commercial nature of the district, the streets are kept clean, safe and secure by the ever present PPB.
Of course Central is also home to one of Hong Kong's most popular shopping areas, rival only to the Nathan Road area on the other side of the Channel.
Victoria Harbour itself houses numerous ferry piers with connections to all maritime destinations in and around the Zone, as well as a number of merchant wharfs and the Zones biggest wholesale market, secured by a permanently present destroyer class battleship of the SEADA Navy, and the accompanying Marines keeping the market and the residents secure.

The Hidden Cities
Inside the huge Central arcologies, elements of the Street and the Underworld have set up so called “Changzi”, undercities, hidden cities, parasitic townships, that fester inside the gigantic megastructures of the arcologies, using a mixture of hacking the internal networks and sealing off currently unused parts of the buildings to house approximately 3.000 people, most of which have prices on their heads, are hunted by the authorities or have other reasons for secluding themselves from the world outside. The Sun Yee On Triads hide a lot of their tech- and drug laboratories in these parts of town, while the 14Ks use them as the wandering location of the biggest “Black Market” of south east asia, the “Thieves Market”.

[ Characters with some ranks in Streetwise, Fringe Benefits indicating Triad / Underworld membership or Area Knowledge: Changzi will have the necessary means to come up with information about the current whereabouts of the Hidden Cities and the Thieves Market. Access: Thives Market or Changzi is necessary for characters being constantly informed and updated about the most recent location of these places, though good standing with the Triad in question is usually required in order to acquire this perk. In the Hidden Cities characters can find unlicensed, well equipped cyberdocs, underground lawyers and a lot of prominent local figures from the Dive underground living here in avoidance of the Law. ]

AW: [Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

Hong Kong Arcoscape
Hong Kong's central districts are traditionally populated by very tall vertical structures, due to the insanely high land prices. Since the time of independence with an ever growing number of citizens, the Zone has become increasingly dependent on the unified and easier to control megastructure spaces, arcologies offered. The city has since seen one of the world's biggest booms of arcology construction in the time after the financial disaster of the Bionic Project. Today the city's number of arcologies and arcology like structures is second only to that of Singapore.
The large number of vertical cities within the city brought with it a number of challenges. Most megastructures are self governed to some extent, though technically still falling under the Zone's own jurisdiction. Bionic Island created a precedent for limited autonomy on “artificial land”, which lead to a number of applications for similar forms of limited independence, in some cases leading to weirdly complex jurisdictional situations, in which the ground floor of an arcology is governed by the city, while all upper floors have limited autonomy.
Arco-Dwellers can be isolationist folks though, so oftentimes the PPB runs into trouble when investigating inside one of the bigger Arc's in the Zone. Even cooperating with Public Protection can be difficult for both sides at times. This is an ongoing problem, and the upper tiers of the PPB as well as MIND still haven't worked out any kind of all encompassing solution.
In general, Hong Kong knows two kinds of citizens, those who are arcodwellers and those who are not. Arcodwellers tend to lead a secure, regular life. The technology used in the typical arcology makes it possible for people to work all kinds of shifts in a healthy though entirely artificial environment without setting foot outside the building for months at a time.
The street-dwellers of the city are mostly divided between those who envy the ones able to afford this lifestyle, or shunning it as a way of life that's constantly monitored, breeding the ultimate corporate drones.

Urban Street Dwellers

Being a “street dweller” in Hong Kong doesn't mean that you actually live on the street. It just means that you use an actual outside city street to commute to work and back, that you are not one of the happy arcodwellers – for whatever reason. The urban centers of Hong Kong are home to an astounding number of arcologies and nearly-arcology size structures, residential high-rises and skyscrapers.
But even people living in the upper floors of residential skyscrapers are considered to be street dwellers, since they usually have to leave the building they live in for their workplace or for groceries (unless they do their grocery shopping through the Dive').
Since arcologies are highly regulated, surveyed and secured areas, housing usually more well off inhabitants than other structures, the crime rates between inside and outside differ as drastically as the overall quality of life.

AW: [Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

Hong Kong Arcoscape
Hong Kong's central districts are traditionally populated by very tall vertical structures, due to the insanely high land prices. Since the time of independence with an ever growing number of citizens, the Zone has become increasingly dependent on the unified and easier to control megastructure spaces, arcologies offered. The city has since seen one of the world's biggest booms of arcology construction since the dramatic failure of the Bionic Project.
Today the city's number of arcologies and arcology like structures is second only to that of Singapore.
The large number of vertical cities within the city brought with it a number of challenges. Most megastructures are self governed to some extent, though technically still falling under the Zone's own jurisdiction.
Bionic Island created a precedent for limited autonomy on “artificial land”, which lead to a number of applications for similar forms of limited independence, in some cases leading to weirdly complex jurisdictional situations, in which the ground floor of an arcology is governed by the city, while all upper floors have limited autonomy.
Arco-Dwellers tend to be isolationist folks though, so oftentimes the PPB runs into trouble when investigating inside one of the bigger Arc's in the Zone. This is an ongoing problem, and the upper tiers of the PPB as well as MIND still haven't worked out any kind of all encompassing solution.
In general, Hong Kong knows two kinds of citizens, those who are arcodwellers and those who are not. Arcodwellers tend to lead a secure, regular life. The technology used in the typical arcology makes it possible for people to work all kinds of shifts in a healthy though entirely artificial environment without setting foot outside the building for months at a time.
The street-dwellers of the city are mostly divided between those who envy the ones able to afford this lifestyle, or shunning it as a way of life that's constantly monitored, breeding the ultimate corporate drones.

AW: [Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

2.Pokfulam / Cyberport / Cyberport University
With Silicon Valley gone, the Cyberport is the world's leading breeding ground for anything technology related. The 'Port is made up of two large arcologies: First there's the C³ - The Cyberport Central Compound – which houses residential areas for the Cyberport's many companies' employees as well as office spaces and laboratories The second is the CPU – The Cyberport University – the world's biggest and most advanced information technology education facility.
The 'Port was originally a project wholly owned by the then Special Administrative Region's government, and was then after the Wellington Treaties taken over by the Corporate Council's Cyberport Bureau.
The Project serves as a huge joint-venture research facility including most of the top technology producing companies and corporations in the world, the biggest of which are Wakashima Systems, Taipeh Optotech and Megatech Metanational. The 'Port played an important role in advancing the Lightbringer Foundation's Prometheus III AI project, and was similarly vital during the development stages of the Diversity.
The Cyberport is one of the few acrological structures in the city that does not operate under a semi-autonomous status, the Public Peace Bureau having a dedicated Cyberport security detachment on location.
[Characters can use the Perks Computer Link and Access: Cyberport / University as well as any Number of Contacts and Fringe Benefits for using the Cyberport's advanced databases and computers. Advanced Tech is not applicable, the Cyberport does in fact have a lot of relatively advanced technology, but none advanced enough for the general techlevel of the setting to justify the high cost of the perk.]

AW: [Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

3.Aberdeen / Ap Le Chao Island / Ocean Park / Repulse Bay
The city of Aberdeen is Hong Kong Island's second most populous city, and the FTAZ's most densely populated arcology zone. The city is home to a number of corporate megastructures, the Neptune Industrial Hong Kong Facility being the most prominent one. Besides corporations and their numerous employees, Aberdeen houses a busy local harbor, which is mainly a hub for sampan traffic, but also home to Hong Kong's fishing industry, which is processing the fish bred in off-shore open sea fish farms.
Ap Le Chao Island's Lei Tung and South Horizon Arcologies are known for their very liberal communities and memesets. Word on the street has it, that Lei Tung Arcology has close ties to the infamous Glass Alley underground movement, as well as that the Arcology is frequently housing agents from the LIS. The Sunset Club in the upper levels of Lei Tung is a popular hangout among the Zone's progressive thinkers.

[Characters with the perk Contact: Glass Alley will know how to reach members of the secretive progressive democratic underground. Players having a Base in one of Ap Lei Chao's Arcologies should consider the memeset their characters follow.]

Ocean Park and Repulse Bay rank among the Zone's most popular recreational areas, the first being a rather traditional, old fashioned fair ground, including such archaic yet timeless attractions as ferris wheels and a huge roller coaster. Repulse Bay is a popular and usually hopelessly overcrowded beach. Visitors are frequently routed to the beaches Dive presence, which is in fact quite elaborate, in order to keep the crowding at somewhat acceptable levels.

AW: [Fokus] Hong Kong in Heavy Smog - District by District

Kowloon

The mainland part of Hong Kong City is in general referred to as “Kowloon”, stretching from the eastern shore of Junk Bay in the east to Tsuen Wan and Stonecutter's Island in the west, from the Tsim Sha Tsui costal tip in the south to the mountainous hills in the north.
Kowloon is perhaps the most densely populated place on the planet, boasting a staggering amount of very large arcological building, housing millions of citizens.
Just as Hong Kong Island, Kowloon too is home to countless corporate headquarters, but also to the busiest port east of Singapore. Kowloon has seen massive land reclaiming in the past decades, leading to the creation of whole new cities within this district, Kai-Tak New Town being the most prominent one.

I: Tsim Sha Tsui

The harbor district of TST as it is called locally is a gleaming example of Hong Kong's technological advancement, a showcase for tourists and traveling businessmen alike. TSTs Arcoscape is a staggering view, rivaled only by the marvelous starscrapers of Hong Kong Island.
The Ocean Terminal and Victoria Harbour, located at the eastern waterfront, are Kowloon's gateways to the world since the early 1800s. The harbor is framed by the Kowloon Harbour City Project Arcologies, built during the 50s arcology boom. Harbour City's six massive towers provide one of southern Kowloon's most prominent landmarks, and rank among the cities most expensive real estate. Harbour City is a structure with limited autonomy under the Bionic Act, it's executive security provided by the dedicated private security company aptly named “Harbour City Guard”.

[Access to Harbour City requires at least Fringe Benefit: Business Rank, Government Rank or Member of the High Society. A character attempting to access Harbour City while having a Hunted: PPB disadadvantage will have to make a check whether or not the arcologies' elaborate security systems pick his ID up. Fringe Benefit: Resident of Harbour City can be acquired, and is a requisite for a base located in the arcologies, as is the Money perk at at least “Wealthy” level.]

TST also boasts a high density of very high classed luxury hotels for wealthy businessmen just off the district's high street shopping mile of Nathan Road. In general, TST is an incredibly busy and also an incredibly wealthy district, ranking amongst the lowest crime rates worldwide. The local Public Protection Bureau is well funded, very well equipped and staffed by the most ambitious cops the Zone has to offer. Serving the Zone in Tsim Sha Tsui is regarded as one of the highest honors the Bureau can bestow upon a Public Protection Officer. TST is the heart of Hong Kong as far as the Coroporate Council is concerned, so naturally a lot of funds are invested in keeping this district in the tremendously good shape it has been in since the early days of the millenium.