A CITY TRANSFORMED

Hong Kong's reopening highlights the explosive growth and cultural vibrancy of the Kowloon area

- ARATI MENON

On a Friday night at Soho House Hong Kong, the 30th-floor Pool Room was at capacity. A DJ churned out West Coast hip-hop classics for creative multihyphenates thronging the bar and squeezed onto the narrow balcony. It was just one of the parties and openings accompanying Art Basel, back in full force for the first time since 2019, bringing something not seen here in a while: international visitors.

For three years, Hong Kong was hermetically sealed from the world while being roiled by both a global pandemic and political protests. When I arrived in March, two months after the city's reopening-and 12 years after my last visit the change that most jumped out at me lay across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island and Soho House. It was the rise of the Kowloon area- both on the skyline and in the culture. Once, visitors like me would head straight to Hong Kong Island, working through its dim sum parlours and markets by day and carousing by night. Now, though, Kowloon "is where everyone comes," my driver said as we sped past Harbour City, the district's luxury-shopping hub, which rivals the island's prestigious Causeway Bay.