For most of us, the MTR is hardly a place to soak up our surroundings, what with the harried crowds and the daily rush to get from point A to point B. The colorful walls and mosaic tiles brightening each station are easy enough to bypass. But have you ever wondered why each train station is so vibrant?
Some station colors are obvious references to their name. Choi Hung literally means “rainbow” in Cantonese, hence the rainbow design, while the white-speckles-on-black in Diamond Hill call to mind the same sparkly gems. For others, however, the story requires a bit of deeper digging.
MTR chief architect Andrew Mead revealed that stations were color-coded in the 1970s in part because large swaths of the population weren’t literate. The different colors provided an easy way to identify stations. Important stations — Central and Tsuen Wan as line endings and Mong Kok as an intersection — were highlighted in red. The more you know!
