Turns out, we may go beyond just seeing most of Hong Kong’s neighborhoods. We may live in them.

After one week in North Point (albeit, a hotel), and 16 days in the madness of Wan Chai, we packed today and moved to Tin Hau, which lies between North Point and Wan Chai. The area is named after a Chinese sea-goddess who is known by various names. Including, yes, Tin Hau.

This neighborhood feels different. Not nearly as crowded as Wan Chai. Not as cramped. The streets are a bit wider, as are the sidewalks. Not talking Champs-Elysees here, but noticeable. The neighborhood feels a bit more upscale.

Anyway, we are crashing for about 10-12 days in the service-hotel/apartment of a colleague, who is out of Hong Kong for three weeks.

This represents quite a change. In room setup as well as neighborhood.

At Vince’s apartment, in Wan Chai, we were on our own. Take out your own trash, clean up after yourself, etc.

At this serviced apartment, in a 20-something-story building on Mercury Street, someone comes by daily to pick up the trash, twice weekly to do more serious cleaning and changes your linens every Saturday.

The place is smaller. Here we have just one room, really.

Though there is a walk-in closet. And the bathroom is much bigger than at Vince’s. The room doesn’t really have a kitchen, but it has a fridge and a microwave, and that’s about all you need in a part of the world where it costs almost no more to eat from street stalls than to cook your own meals. As it turns out, the square footage is quite similar. It’s just one big room, with a walk-in closet, vs. two smaller rooms.

We are on the second floor. So no view. But there is a terrace, a big one, and that counts for something. A place to go out and get some air, and look at the people in the street, if we care to. Albeit at the risk of having thousands of people from the high rises across the street scrutinize your every move.

The place has wireless internet, and cable TV, so we’re set on the electronics front.

And though the bed is at the other end of the room containing the desk at which I’m sitting, there is a to-the-ceiling frame, at the foot of the bed, that serves as the border for a roller-shade. When the shade is pulled down, it provides a sort of divider, cutting the room in half. Which could come in handy if someone were trying to sleep and someone else were typing at the desk.

The TV rotates, so you can turn it to watch in bed … or flip it the other way to watch from the couch.

It’s probably a good size for the one guy who lives in here. But it’s a bit cozy for two.

Anyway, why are we here? Because Vince has some friends in town who are going to use his place, and then he is coming in with a friend, and we were not going to be able to stay there from Oct. 29 until Nov. 10.

That 10-13-day gap had been weighing on us since we got here … thinking that even if we moved into a place — to stay/remain — on Nov. 1 we would have some hotel time in there.

Then I overheard this colleague mention he was leaving the country, and I asked, and he’s letting us stay here at no charge, which is incredibly generous.

So, Wan Chai … about half the people in Hong Kong seem to live there. On the Island Line, the subway, that is, the train seems to empty — and then fill again — every time it gets to the Wan Chai station.

Thousands of little shops, tens of thousands of people. Very tight. Very cramped.

Tin Hau isn’t that crowded. And the metro stops nearest here (Tin Hau, Fortress Hill) aren’t nearly as heavily used.

So, it’s not as if we’ve come on to some desert island … but it doesn’t seem quite as frantic as Wan Chai.

Lots of little shops and restaurants, yes. But instead of having 15-foot storefronts, they’re about 30 feet wide in Tin Hau. Things are just a little bigger here.

It’s still very Chinese. Fresh meat hanging on hooks in open-air shops. An enormous market across the street. A fruit store. Just not as packed-to-the-gills Chinese.

A good thing about our new digs … I’m very close to Victoria Park. We just came back from a walk over there. (Where bugs bit us, but it was dusk, and what do you expect.) I’ve been doing my walk/jog at Victoria Park, and it was a couple of metro stops from Wan Chai. Here, I’m about three blocks from the north side of the park. Cool.

Also, up on the roof, above the 26th floor, is a little patio. It has a wooden chair-swing at one end, and an enclosed exercise room at the other, with one elliptical machine and one tread mill. For when you don’t feel like going over to the park, I guess.

There’s also quite a view from the roof. There’s the Wan Chai ferry station and the convention center, east, in the distance. Up close is a harbor for private boats. This is looking down the length of the island from a northern upturn of the coast. Near the aptly named North Point.

Anyway, this neighborhood feels more open, but smaller in scope. The island’s hills come very close to the water, here, so development is only a few blocks deep.

I like it, so far. I feel like I’ve made a move up the economic ladder. I’m in a smaller space, but it is more modern. I’m also closer to the park and the office.

After this … we’re either off to Mid-Levels, where yet another colleague is about to go on vacation … or perhaps to a hotel for a few days before moving back in to Vince’s.

If we go to Mid-Levels (a fairly posh neighborhood, from what I’ve heard), we would be there a month. Then we would go back to Vince’s place, in Wan Chai, unless he has rented it to someone else. And in that case, we might have to look for a temporary stop similar to this one.

Make sense?

The down side is never quite unpacking, and then having to move all your stuff.

The up side is … it looks as if we will be able to say we actually lived in four different neighborhoods, on the chance that we want to stay. Or come back.

About to go find some little restaurant for dinner. Lots of choices around here.