The Hong Kong urban adventurers for whom nothing is too tall, or deep, or spooky
Daredevils explore the city from all angles - most of them illegal - taking selfies atop skyscrapers or videoing their tours of an abandoned mine, a sunken ship, a derelict cinema, or a murder site
Clambering to the top of Hong Kong’s skyscrapers, Dex Ng is often blown away by the sense of tranquillity from high above the city’s noisy and crowded streets.
“The only sound I hear up there is the wind. But looking down, you can see scores of people and cars streaming by. The contrast couldn’t be greater,” says Ng, a director at a video production company.
He is a member of a group called Exthetics – an amalgam of “extreme” and “aesthetics” – daredevil photographers who climb to the top of towering skyscrapers to snap vertigo-inducing shots of themselves and the surroundings.
Ng set up Exthetics in 2014 with two friends, Daniel Lau and Lawrence Tsui, and a video clip they posted of Lau and other members snacking on bananas while hanging from the lightning rod of The Center, a 73-storey tower in Central, quickly went viral.
Lau, a 24-year-old university student, says their idea is to explore a side of Hong Kong that is rarely seen.
“People go to The Peak to see the night view and visit Tai Tam Country Park to see the red leaves. These are all well-trodden places. We want to explore nooks and crannies that are off the beaten track, like abandoned factories and construction sites. We want to push the boundaries when taking pictures, so people can see that they don’t have to look at Victoria Harbour only from eye level,” Lau says.
