HONG KONG: On the first floor of a hulking residential building, at the end of a dimly lit corridor, a narrow door opens up into Hong Kong’s economic underbelly.

Twenty-two men live in this particular 42-square-metre apartment in the neighbourhood of Mong Kok, in cubicles each hardly larger than a single bed, stacked above one another along two narrow passageways that end in a dank toilet and shower room.

Each cupboardlike cubicle has a sliding door, a small television, some shelves and a thin mattress. Most of the men have lived here for months, some for years.

“Luckily there is air conditioning. If not, sleeping would be impossible,” said Ng Chi-hung, 55, who is unemployed and occupies one of the bottom bunks. “If you live in such environment, you have to adapt to everything.”

Hong Kong’s per-capita gross domestic product is higher than that of Italy, and not far short of those of Britain and France, according to World Bank figures. But for unskilled or semi-skilled people like Ng, the city is a tough place to be, said Wong Hung, an associate professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who specialises in urban poverty and employment.