To some, a deserted public housing block or a derelict hospital is nothing but a waste of space. But to the explorers behind anonymous collective HK Urbex (Hong Kong Urban Exploration), these forgotten buildings reveal another side of Hong Kong, beyond the shimmering skyscrapers and glitzy malls.
“Sometimes we’re the last people to step foot in a building before it’s demolished,” said Pripyat, an HK Urbex crew member. “And then the next week, it’s gone.”
Inside these crumbling buildings,the explorers often find themselves alone with personal artefacts – portraits, postcards, clothes and photo albums. Every room tells a different story of another era, another experience.
“You inevitably end up doing kind of like detective forensics work,” Pripyat said. “The last place we went, we found an x-ray of a guy that revealed a worrying shadow in his chest. You try to piece together these lives.”
HK Urbex is comprised of eight anonymous adventurers who explore derelict buildings (Credit: Kate Springer)
Founded by Ghost and Echo Delta in 2013, HK Urbex comprises a crew of eight anonymous urban explorers. Most are journalists, videographers and photographers who choose to withhold their identities in hopes of keeping the focus onto the sites, rather than themselves.
Their masks and balaclavas also protect them from asbestos and potentially harmful elements – not to mention law enforcement.
“Not everyone would deem climbing a fence to take a few photos of an antiquated site as legal, so the concealment helps,” Ghost said. “What we’re doing is not about us, it’s about so much more than that.”
Over the past three years, the intrepid team has explored everything from old Chinese Medicine factories to rundown psychiatric wards, historic colonial-era mansions, former British military barracks, prisons, decommissioned hospitals, derelict apartment buildings, metro stations, paint factories and cinemas.
The explorers have visited old military barracks, hospitals, prisons and paint factories (Credit: Kate Springer)
The list covers more than 200 addresses, many of which have since been demolished. Along the way, the crew documents each site’s story with photos, videos, drone footage and even virtual reality.
“It’s about immortalising these sites that are fast disappearing in our city. It’s a form of preservation, really,” Ghost explained. “We also explore train stations, bridges and flood gates. I call them negative spaces – the spaces that exist in limbo between the city that people don’t usually go into.”
Most residents will never see these places. Hong Kong takes a famously passive approach to preservation, instead prioritising the tallest, fastest, biggest developments. The routine demolition of heritage sites – such as historic Queen’s Pier in 2007, Wan Chai's landmark Tung Tak Pawn Shop in 2015 or the slated demolition of the 160-year-old Graham Street Market – has led to public protests and resentment(BBC Travel).
