Life Inside The Busy Cities Of The World | BBC Earth Explore

It's Monday morning rush hour. It's hot, it's humid, and one of the most densely populated places on earth is on the move. Excuse me. There are around 42,000 people per square mile on Hong Kong Island alone. It's a global financial hub with people flocking to it from all over the world. There are offices, apartment blocks, a transport system, temples, and over seven million people all crammed into one place. And the only way to make it all fit is by building up. This is the world's most vertical city. There are more skyscrapers here than anywhere else on the planet. This is a city where China meets the West. 150 years of British rule couldn't erode ancient traditions. It makes for a commute like nowhere else in the world. This is a bit unusual. Surrounded by women who are just whacking slippers on stones. Let's find out what's going on. I'm underneath one of the busiest flyovers on Hong Kong Island. Many big cities have street traders, but I've never seen anything like this. Hello, how are you? Right, better find out what this is. Wong Kut Ling is what's known as a devil beater. These women can help you get rid of bad luck or wish bad luck on others. It's an ancient Chinese folk ritual involving paper refugees and shoes. So what is this? So, do I have villains around me? Do I have bad energy? Apparently, devil beating is very popular with commuters and it costs five pounds. This is unbelievable. I'm about to have some kind of religious ritual under a flyover with buses driving past. OK, here we go. Keep going. Come on, then, come on. I don't know about beating the devil, but it's certainly good for getting your aggression out. After a thorough beating, the effigy is burnt inside a paper tiger to keep the demons away. Go away, be banished. They've gone. I feel free, I feel lighter. In any other city, this underpass would be just another thoroughfare. But in Hong Kong, traditions have to be packed into the smallest and busiest of spaces. Many people come to Hong Kong in search of a better life. It's Sunday afternoon in the heart of Hong Kong Island. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Everywhere you look, there are women, sitting, chatting, too many to count. We were just travelling around and we noticed what looked like a huge, well, a kind of huge gathering of homeless people, but I've stopped and we've asked around and actually, these people are all in domestic service. They're all housekeepers and cleaners for Hong Kong families. And they're given one day off a week, Sunday, and they haven't got anywhere else to go, really, so they come here into this public space and hang out with their friends. This is one of Hong Kong's main thoroughfares. But today, it's turned into a makeshift village built with cardboard and tents. Why are people here? Why are building these little houses? Because it's our holiday. Every Sunday, it's our holiday. And have you got anywhere else to go? No. Sometimes, we go to church in the morning and then, after that, we stay here until night because tonight, we go back to our... You go back to work. There are more than 300,000 living, domestic workers in Hong Kong. That's 5% of the city's population. Most come from the Philippines or Indonesia. And on their day off, they come here to be together and share stories. I think this gives you an impression of how densely packed in the people of Hong Kong are. A lot of these women have either tiny, tiny little living spaces in the flats of the people they work for, or they just have to sleep on the kitchen floor. So, on their day off, they just have to spill over onto the pavements, public spaces. Like so many people, these women are in Hong Kong to earn money, looking after other people's children while hardly ever seeing their own. When was the last time you saw your children? One year. One year? Every year, we go once. You go once a year? Is it very sad being away from your children? Yeah, of course. Very lonely, but we have to, we need to work. For me, this is a reminder of the inequality here. These women are paid only about 400 pounds a month, despite living in one of the richest cities in the world. Yet without them, Hong Kong couldn't function. They're a vital part of the system that keeps this city running. The poorer you are, the less space you have. So, I'm just about to meet a guy who lives in what they call a cage community here, and he lives there because property's so expensive, this is all he can afford. I just want to find out what life's like for him. At first, there seems nothing unusual about this building. It's only when I get to Alan's door that I realise just how small his home is. Wow, now I wasn't expecting that. I was expecting to open the door to go into one place, but there's actually two doors here. Can we come in? This used to be just an ordinary flat, but a private landlord has illegally divided it into bed spaces that are no larger than a cupboard. Nice to meet you. Bob Marley? Bob Marley, no, Addy, Addy, Addy, Addy. Alan has lived here for three years. He says 11 people live in this corridor alone, and there's another one just like it next door. Tell me about where you live. Is it this space or all of this bit here? Just in this space? And your kitchen, where do you go for that? So where do you go for food then? Alan works as a dishwasher. He pays £180 a month to live here. To rent a room in this area would cost nearly three times as much. He used to live with relatives, but after they passed away, this was the only place he could afford. So you've got about six foot of space lengthwise. It's so small. I can't imagine what it must be like to live in this small space. Is this normal here in Hong Kong? Alan's case might seem extreme, but over 200,000 people are estimated to live in places like this. There's no easy fix to Delhi's urban air pollution. They've tried closing power stations and rationing car use, but respiratory disease here has shot up by 30% since 2010. And half of Delhi's 4.4 million school children have lasting lung damage. I'm off to meet someone who's bringing the fight against air pollution indoors. This is nice and green, isn't it? Feels like I'm entering another world entirely. Mr. Mittal, nice to meet you. How are you? Good, thank you. Kamal Mittal is an entrepreneur and inventor. The killer fact about Delhi's pollution is it can be as bad indoors as out. So he's built a purification system to cope with the problem. Oh, wow. This is beautiful. I was not expecting this. What is this place, Mr. Mittal? Now we are inside the air tank, which is used for cleaning the air using plants. So how many plants have you got in this building? We've got between 6,000 and 7,000 plants at any given time. This greenhouse is on the roof of an office building. The plants absorb CO2, remove some of the pollutants, and boost oxygen levels. The purified air is then pumped around the building. We have several types of plants here. First are these bamboo palms. Then we have money plants. Well, every Indian household has a money plant. Here we have about 2,500 of them. And what do they do? What's the purpose of these? They remove trichloroethylene, formaldehyde, and benzene. Because of the plants, we grow our own oxygen. You grow your own oxygen. I've never heard that term before. I love the idea of it. Is it grown in here? This is the oxygen-producing room? And another room, you'll see. Something the plants have a hard time with are solid particulates entering the building from exhausts and smoke outside. So filters on the roof are built into the system. The smaller particulates that are more harmful to health can be detected by this device. Right now, we have six microgram per meter cube, which is excellent. Outside, generally, is 250 normally. And in the winter, it goes up to 2,000. On Diwali, it goes up to 3,000. So it works. The system works. That gorgeous building is Bangla Sahib Gurdwara. It's the largest Sikh temple in Delhi. And today is Sunday, so it's the busiest day for prayers. And everybody here is coming to pay their respects. And then they'll go and eat langar, which is a huge meal that everybody sits together and has before they go home. The langar is a community kitchen where anybody who visits is offered a meal, without charge, no matter who they are. You don't have to be Sikh. And this is what's known as the langar hall. This is where between 700 to 800 people will now pour in, sit down, and eat the meal that's been prepared for them. Thousands of people, including many from poorer households, are fed and cooked for by an army of volunteers. Today's a Sunday, and in rolling sittings, they'll feed the 5,000, five times over. That calls for a serious operation in the kitchen. This is the official chef. How much dal is made every day? Sunday, 1,000. 1,000 kgs of dal on a Sunday. And chapati? Chapati, every day, 1,000 kgs. 1,000 kilos of chapati flour every day? 2,000 kgs Sunday. Double that on a Sunday, 2,000. And everybody in here is doing seva, everybody's volunteering. Everyone's doing seva? Yes, everyone. Seva, or service, is how Sikhs give time back to the community. And having grown up in a Sikh family, I want to do my bit today. I've never stirred a vat of mutton paneer this big in my life. The meal is vegetarian, so anybody is able to eat here. Paneer curry, dal, and rice pudding. And no Indian meal would be complete without a flatbread. Chapatis by the thousands. All right, chapatis are so easy. You get the chapati flour, turn it into a little ball, flatten it. My mum would be so proud of me right now. Thank you. So, she just said something that my mum has been saying my whole life. I said, how many chapatis have you made? And she says, thank you, darling. She says, you don't count them. And that's the point, you don't count. Because as soon as you count, you're kind of thinking about what you're doing. And because it's this idea that you're just giving, that you just keep doing it. It doesn't matter how many chapatis you make, just keep making them. I'm heading underground to see how a more modern city is emerging and revolutionising the daily commute. Hello. Can I have a ticket to Karakamba, please? Yeah, one. Thank you very much. The Delhi Metro, built from scratch since 1998, is a mega project that's retrofitted a modern railway network to a city that had previously relied entirely on roads. So, I've got a round blue token, like a coin. There's no slot for it, but I'll give it a go. This is the network's busiest station, where the main north-south line interchanges with a key east-west route. It's nine o'clock on a Monday morning. Things are a little busy. Anuj Dayal is an executive director of the Metro and has been involved since construction began. How many people do you carry a day? Around 2.8 million. At present, we are running on peak frequency, so we have a train every two minutes, 11 seconds. This brand-new rail network has had a massive impact. For a maximum fare of about 70p, distant neighbourhoods are now connected, transforming people's lives. How did the people of Delhi suddenly respond to this brand-new metro system in their city? It was a real challenge. And I'm talking about the year 2002, when there were no escalators also in the city of Delhi. There were escalators in only the international airport and one or two other places. So, to get people to tread on the escalator was a big challenge. To use the metro, you require a lot of discipline. They are scared that when they go onto the train, the train door might close. It's automatic. So, there were a lot of psychological barriers that we had to overcome. For example, an escalator, it had to be translated into the Hindi language as Bijli Ka Sidi. In English, I would say, a staircase made of electricity. Now, people are well-versed. They're quite... Now, they're experts. I head to the back of the train to join the rest of the rush-hour commuters. It may be efficient, but it's still pretty busy. Have you ever been crushed? Daily. I'm told these carriages are designed to take 300 people. There's definitely a bit of a pinch point trying to get onto this train. And we're definitely operating at capacity today. I've come out to the most beautiful place, a very far cry from the noise and bustle of Mexico City. The mist is coming off the water and the farmers are working the fields. It's beautiful. This is Xochimilco. Not far from the heart of the modern city, this working landscape is an insight into Mexico City's watery past. Early settlers built this ingenious system. Artificial islands, known as chinampas, on which to grow their crops. Lucio Usubiaga works with the farmers here to try and preserve the islands and their way of life. This used to extend right across the valley that Mexico City now sits in. Are we looking at the last remnants of these islands? Yeah, we are. In Mexico City, you know, it's a basin. So it had five lakes. And right now, this is the last lake that we can really look at. And that it survives with some of its traditions. So this is the only place where you can come and get a feel for what life was like under the Aztecs. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. These chinampas were all made for agriculture. So they're all man-made? All man-made, yeah. More than 1,000 years ago, even before the Aztecs came here and conquered the Xochimilcas. Today, the chinampas are farmed as they've been for centuries, growing crops like maize, tomatoes and chilli peppers. This is lettuce. Lucio is taking me to meet a fourth-generation chinampero, Noy Coqui. Today, he's planting radishes. Noy, are your kids doing this farming as well? Is another generation of farmers being made? There'll be people farming here for generations to come. I really admire Noy's efforts to preserve the ancient farming methods. But Lucio wants to show me how these chinampas are being threatened by the rapidly sprawling city. We've come into a part of the chinampas now where we're seeing more houses, this one here, built right onto the edge of the riverbank. We can see illegal houses, it is not permitted to build houses in this natural protected area. But because of the housing demand, some people have no other alternative but to build them here. But this sums up the development of Mexico City over the centuries. People just constantly looking for new grounds, people moving here from elsewhere. There's a density of population here, which means people need to find new ground to build. So do you think if we come back here in 20 years' time, the chinampas may not be here? Well, I am hoping that there will be enough efforts and resources to prevent this from happening and instead of seeing more houses, we'll start to plant more chinampas. Let's hope so. Now, I'm going to meet one of the families that have been here since the early days just to find out a little bit more about this place. If you need somewhere to live in Mexico City, you build it yourself. Incredibly, more than half the architecture here is built without regulations ensuring basic construction standards. Benito Perez and his mother-in-law, Gloria Lopez, have lived in this house for decades. Solo, con sus manos. In Mexico City, more than 60% of people live in areas known as colonias populares, informal, unregulated settlements. It's how Neza started. It's just amazing. I wouldn't know where to start when it comes to building a house, but these people, they're just so motivated. In this house, there's 22 people that live here and four generations of their family, which is incredible. It's like anywhere in the world, man. You want to make your house a castle, don't you? I'm surprised to discover that the family don't just live here. Benito also runs his shoe business from the house. Households, they'll either be selling shoes, they'll be making something, and then they'll take it to the tionguis, the local market, the portable market, to earn money for their families. So the house is more than just a house. It's a business, it's everything for them. I feel humbled that the family has invited me to stay for lunch. In Mexico, food is a serious business. It's my chance to meet the rest of the family, including Benito's wife, Sandra. You're going to speak English to me, yes? There's granddad, Benabe, who built this house, Benito's daughter, Lupita, and the rest of the family. Amen. Wow, look at this. It's just like everything else here in Mexico City. A big surprise. The last thing I was expecting to find here is a cable car. It's accessible as well. There's a wheelchair entrance, there's a ramp. I'm loving it already. The views from the Mexicable, you've got this sprawling city and these murals and the amazing colours on the houses. It's just breathtaking. This cable car system was only completed in 2016. It costs just six pesos to ride, and already nearly 30,000 people are using it every day. Victor Jasso is the engineer who keeps the system running smoothly. Can you tell me about the mechanics? What goes into this? Because it looks like an enormous engineering feat. This cable car is moved by an engine. The engine is the big red one over the station. And with that engine, we move the whole loop between station four to station one. So that one engine moves all of these cars across four stations? Yes. Wow. There are seven cable car stations in total running just over three miles, connecting some of the city's poorest and most isolated hillside neighbourhoods. The system is run from control rooms like this. With this button, we can reduce the speed because sometimes we have some people that maybe need more assistance. Actually, we've got a wheelchair customer. Do you need to slow it down? Just put it in Lento Uno. The speed reduces. So it makes it slower? Yeah. And this now allows this lady in the wheelchair to get in easier? Yes. This technology is really unexpected. It looks like it's quite easy for him to pull. Yeah, and it's really, really easy for pushing it. It's amazing. The cabin, it's one tonne. So this is a tonne, and we can just push it? Yeah. Wow, that is so easy. Look at that. One finger. Look at that. That's incredible. That system is so smooth. I need that for my wheels and my chair. Yeah. This all makes for a very different commute for local residents. Juan Martinez Jurado uses the cable car every day. Muy inseguro. Has pasado algo a ti? This new public transport system hasn't just improved the commute for locals, it's also transformed the surrounding neighbourhood. It's a recipe for disaster. On average, there can be up to 500 accidents a day. In the winter, that rises to an incredible 1,500. Our 38-mile commute has been faster than normal for Daria. We are almost here. I need to go to my work. OK. And are you on time? Honestly, I'm three hours late. Three hours late? Yeah. Oh, my God, well, Daria, I'm so glad I don't have to do your commute every single day, but thank you so much. I really enjoyed it. Moscow knows it has a huge problem and is trying to solve it with a cutting-edge traffic management centre. Oh, wow, the streets of Moscow. Can I join you? Yeah, yeah, sure. Thank you. Here we go. Receiving data from its major highways every 1.5 seconds, their network of 2,048 cameras can locate and track vehicles anywhere in the city. Will you have seen me this morning? Yeah. Yeah? Yeah. Can you show me? Yeah, sure. Right, let's see. No, no, no. No, yes. It is? Yeah, that's it. Here we come. That's amazing. You've been spying on me. Look at that. You've got nearly four million cars on the streets here. So what can you do about it from here? Are you just observing it or can you actually make it better for the drivers? Is this live traffic updates we can see? Moscow's traffic chaos is largely down to the way the city has grown. It radiates out in rings of wide boulevards and railway lines from a central core. So at the moment, it's not really designed for people to be able to get around quite easily, so you have to come into Moscow to be able to get out. I can see the rings. But what you need to do is build roads so that you can actually... Yeah, yeah. The daily grind of eight-lane highways packed with standstill traffic can mean Moscow life is hard. Moscow. Right, you ready to join the masses? Capital of Russia and home to nearly 13 million people. We are entering the Russian metro at rush hour. Three-quarters of Muscovites, that's nine million people, use the Moscow metro every day. And, look, we've got a queue already. It's the busiest underground system in Europe. And we're at the Komsomolskaya station, the busiest hub on the network. They're not messing around with this metro system. I mean, they built it for, like, enormous capacity. It serves three mainline rail terminals. They flood it with commuters from all over Moscow. Lanes, lanes. So we're being told that this is the hour of lanes, so get in a lane and stick to it. People are moving, no-one's pushing each other. Aren't you afraid? No, we're not afraid. Can we go down here? Yeah, good. Check this out. We've got no choice but to keep going. Oh, there's an amazing system here. Everyone knows exactly what to do, they're just being pushed along. This is like a baroque palace. The tsars built palaces in Russia, Stalin built subway stations. So he did something good. A palace for the people of Moscow, 37 metres below the ground. Look at this. Wow. Oh, my goodness me, look at that. Oh, that's amazing. Now it feels like we're in the Sistine Chapel. It's like being in a cathedral. Completely, it does feel like that. It's so strange that this is a metro station. It's beautiful. This painted ceiling, and on top of it all, the wellspring where all of this magnificent comes from, the star of the Soviet Union. Thousands of people travelling through here a day, millions of people a year, and they'd have been given one impression, and that was that the revolution was working for them. Absolutely, this is what Stalin was providing for his people. When it opened in May 1935, the Moscow Metro was a subterranean Soviet utopia, using architecture to demonstrate the power and purpose of the state. It turns the daily commute into a history lesson. 44 of its 206 stations are cultural heritage sites. It's enormous, it's like the nave of a cathedral, and that means no matter how many thousands of people are in here, trains come quickly, it's never that busy. Also, it makes you feel really small. It's like the state is looming over you. We should have brought our sandwiches. Not only is it beautiful, the system is efficient. During rush hour, there's a train every minute and a half, precisely. On top of being regular, they're also reliable. The Moscow Metro holds the world record for the punctuality of its trains. Do you know what? If it's a female announcer, it's going anticlockwise, if it's a male announcer, it's going clockwise. We're on the right train. How many stops? The Metro is just one of the faces Moscow shows to the world. Efficient. Imposing. And a reminder of the overarching power of the state. The younger generation in this city has grown up free from the ideologies of the Soviet Union, with a more Western outlook. A new freedom of spirit is emerging, and I've heard about a growing trend that embraces the future, yet draws on the past. Down one of these alleys is a modern take on Moscow's years of communal living. What the heck is this place? Hi. Hi. Hi, how do you do? It looks like a cafe, but feels like someone's apartment. There's no prices on food or drink, and people are reading, playing cards, and happily chatting, even sleeping. What is this place, Irene? This is Zipherblat. This is your first time. First time in Zipherblat. Hopefully you'll tell me all about it. What is it? It's very difficult to explain to a person in five minutes what it is, because the whole idea of the place is kind of big and deep. Evolving out of the city's lack of communal space, Zipherblat, meaning clock face, is an anti-cafe. You pay for time, and everything else is free. You become a tenant of the space. So this is library. Yeah, it's beautiful. This is beautiful, yeah. It looks very cosy. The people of Moscow still long for community and want strangers to become friends. Is it a very Russian thing to want to talk to strangers? Because people, I suppose you presume that Moscow is a city where everybody is very much all about themselves, like any major city. You can come and sit at a table, and you can read, you can work, you can communicate, you can talk, you can dance, you can do whatever you want, but just, like, together. Muscovites are trying to find an escape within the city, as personal space in homes is limited. Do you come here quite a lot? And that's not a pick-up line, by the way. Oh, you've got a plate of biscuits. Look at that. I was going to bring you a biscuit as well. I feel like I could live here. Yeah, I like to communicate with people, to learn different things from them. It's kind of like I'm being a waitress, except at some point I'm going to sit down and just have a coffee, which is quite nice. Hey. So, how are you doing? I love it. I'm into it. Yeah, it makes total sense to me. I really like the idea. It's like being in someone's living room. I'm so glad that you loved it. Like, when it's a foreigner, it's important for us to show the part of Russia and Moscow which is kind of closed from the beginning. So, I'm so glad that you felt it. Thank you. I feel like I've been allowed in and I've experienced something very touching. What an amazing place.