Central District & HSBC Building

Central is the financial heart of Hong Kong — a forest of skyscrapers on the north shore of Hong Kong Island that houses the headquarters of every major bank, law firm, and corporation in the territory. The district's architectural highlights include the HSBC Main Building (Norman Foster's 1985 masterpiece, a building so expensive it was the most costly structure in the world when completed), the Bank of China Tower (I.M. Pei's angular glass prism), and the IFC Two (the tallest building on Hong Kong Island), which together create a skyline conversation between three generations of skyscraper design.

Foster's HSBC Building is the most architecturally significant — a high-tech structure that hangs its floors from external trusses rather than supporting them on columns, creating an open ground floor that allows public passage through the building and a pair of escalators that carry you into the banking hall through the underbelly of the structure. The building cost HK$5.2 billion in 1985 and was the most expensive building in the world at the time. The feng shui of the building (orientation, water features, the pair of bronze lions at the entrance) was taken as seriously as the engineering.

Central's ground level is a study in Hong Kong's compression of functions — elevated walkways connect buildings above street level, the MTR station operates below, and the narrow streets between the towers contain everything from Michelin-starred restaurants to noodle shops, designer boutiques to wet markets. The Landmark, Prince's Building, and IFC Mall represent the luxury retail dimension, while the alleys behind Des Voeux Road contain the cheap, excellent food that keeps the financial district's workforce fed.