HONG KONG: A CHINESE TAKEAWAY
December 11, 2008
HONG KONG – Short of land to raise more skyscrapers Hong Kong has been
spreading into the sea. The result has been a disaster for the city-state’s venerable
old colonial buildings, once located on the seaside front row together with the first high-
rises but now in the third and fourth row back from the sea and staring at walls instead of
water.
The joy of living in a sea-front apartment can be short-lived in this city - renown as the
hub of the capitalist East - where tomorrow dredges, cranes and bulldozers can arrive to
empty a piece of sea, plug the hole with earth and cement and then raise a series of forty
to eighty floor tall cement monstrosities that will block out everyone’s sun and sea
along that stretch.
The ocean take-away has not only shrunk the once famous Harbor but generated a
mad developers’ rush for more landfills. Some of the projected ‘sea-fillings’ will
close sea lanes between Hong Kong and its nearest islands and could eventually allow
Hong Kong island and Kowloon to be united by a short bridge. (The current connection is
an abominably congested underwater tunnel)
This small ex-British colony, once perched on a barren rock, has been spreading its
tentacles with amazing speed, both as a clearing house and a financial link between
China and the world. Under Beijing’s sovereignty the former colony will remain
autonomous for another 39 years. The British, who ruled the rock as a fiefdom for more
then one hundred years and had no intention to institute any notion of democracy,
hurriedly gave Hong Kong a hybrid democratic system before the takeover by the
Peoples Republic in 1997. The city-state has its own legal system and a kind of peoples
voting rights with ‘limitations.’
Still, this anomaly has made the ‘the rock’ attractive to all kinds of
international financial institutions and companies who prefer to operate on China’s
doorstep under the westernized Hong Kong system rather then inside China under the
direct rule of the Chinese government.
Many expatriates fled when the British lowered the Union Jack on July 1, 1997,
handing over to China their last Asian foothold. The ex-pats feared despite the
arrangement of autonomy for the next fifty years Beijing would interfere in Hong’s
Kong delicate global financial system.
But the mainland Chinese proved far too smart to kill the golden goose they
owned. Instead they allowed the City to operate as an independent business entity. The
result: Aware the Chinese Politburo did not impose its rules (apart from banning criticism
of the Motherland and exhorting the Hong Kong media to sing its praise) many of the
expatriates and their companies who transferred to Singapore and Bangkok prior to the
handover have returned and reestablished in the ex-colony.
“Our fears of massive interference in the affairs of Hong Kong were not
justified. So we came back,� said a British company executive.
Their return and China’s growing clout in the world has made the demand
for space more urgent then ever. Hong Kong’s population has now expanded to six
million in one of the world’s most densely populated urban areas.
But icons like the Pensinsula Hotel and the IFC building, once sea front, are
now blocked by new sea-fill developments. The Peninsula has lost its panoramic charm
and is now surrounded by a massive construction site. Entire shipping channels off
Aberdeen are to be filled in for more construction sites.
At the beginning of last century the famous Tin Hau temple at Causeway Bay
was perched above the shoreline so the Goddess of the Sea could gaze out into the
ocean and make sure seafarers and fishermen were safe, their nets full and the weather
fine. Today the Goddess would have to walk fifteen minutes through a jungle of high rise
buildings to reach the sea and as for keeping an eye on seafarers she would have to
have x-ray vision or fly above the jungle of concrete skyscrapers.
To be able to view the extent of the chilling concrete jungle that is Hong Kong
today one has to climb or drive up to the Peak, the mountain overlooking what was once
one of Asia’s most idyllic spots.
The hunger for space has driven hotel prices sky-high for accommodation so
small one literally could not swing a cat. The scams are amazing at times: If one books
through the China Travel Service (CTS) both flights and hotel costs can be 25 per cent
cheaper even for first class hotels like the Holiday Inn.
Customers who buy multi-transport cards seem always to lose the 50 dollar
deposit when they cancel the card at the end of their visit.
Then there is the Hotel Internet racket: The Ibis Hotel wants 124 HK dollars
for a 24-hour WiFi usage though public WiFi cards cost only 20 HK dollars for the same
period. Hotels, among them the Holiday Inn, block out all other WiFi nets obliging clients
to use their own expensive in-house nets.
At certain coffee shops, like Starbucks, clients can use the WiFi free of
charge by buying a cup of coffee. Some McDonalds allow a 15-minute free access on
their in-house computers for customers. One can also sit on a park bench in one of Hong
Kong’s pretty public gardens, relics from colonial days, which remain like a forlorn
mini- oasis wedged between the concrete monsters. If you find one of these jewels Wi-Fi
nets work perfectly and free of charge.
Charm, beauty, décor in Hong Kong, unless a leftover from the British
days, has been sacrificed to Chinese commercial expediency.
One of the worst victims is Lamma Island a favorite picnic spot for Hong
Kong citizen where dim-sum restaurants have sprouted like mushrooms all set between
oozing sewage canals and the smoke-belching chimneys of Hong Kong’s three main
power stations. Whatever charm Lamma once had has long ago been sacrificed to
Mammon with the exception perhaps of a sweet teahouse-library with refined tastes and
very reasonable prices.
In the big smoke where crowds are like termites on the march reasonably
priced restaurants are so crowded one may have to queue for an hour or more for a table
or seek refuge in the up-market eateries where clients are suitably fleeced for the
privilege of not having to wait for a table.
Nothing beats Hong Kong for an experience in what the future holds for
lifestyle a la Chinoise. (ends)
December 11, 2008
HONG KONG – Short of land to raise more skyscrapers Hong Kong has been
spreading into the sea. The result has been a disaster for the city-state’s venerable
old colonial buildings, once located on the seaside front row together with the first high-
rises but now in the third and fourth row back from the sea and staring at walls instead of
water.
The joy of living in a sea-front apartment can be short-lived in this city - renown as the
hub of the capitalist East - where tomorrow dredges, cranes and bulldozers can arrive to
empty a piece of sea, plug the hole with earth and cement and then raise a series of forty
to eighty floor tall cement monstrosities that will block out everyone’s sun and sea
along that stretch.
The ocean take-away has not only shrunk the once famous Harbor but generated a
mad developers’ rush for more landfills. Some of the projected ‘sea-fillings’ will
close sea lanes between Hong Kong and its nearest islands and could eventually allow
Hong Kong island and Kowloon to be united by a short bridge. (The current connection is
an abominably congested underwater tunnel)
This small ex-British colony, once perched on a barren rock, has been spreading its
tentacles with amazing speed, both as a clearing house and a financial link between
China and the world. Under Beijing’s sovereignty the former colony will remain
autonomous for another 39 years. The British, who ruled the rock as a fiefdom for more
then one hundred years and had no intention to institute any notion of democracy,
hurriedly gave Hong Kong a hybrid democratic system before the takeover by the
Peoples Republic in 1997. The city-state has its own legal system and a kind of peoples
voting rights with ‘limitations.’
Still, this anomaly has made the ‘the rock’ attractive to all kinds of
international financial institutions and companies who prefer to operate on China’s
doorstep under the westernized Hong Kong system rather then inside China under the
direct rule of the Chinese government.
Many expatriates fled when the British lowered the Union Jack on July 1, 1997,
handing over to China their last Asian foothold. The ex-pats feared despite the
arrangement of autonomy for the next fifty years Beijing would interfere in Hong’s
Kong delicate global financial system.
But the mainland Chinese proved far too smart to kill the golden goose they
owned. Instead they allowed the City to operate as an independent business entity. The
result: Aware the Chinese Politburo did not impose its rules (apart from banning criticism
of the Motherland and exhorting the Hong Kong media to sing its praise) many of the
expatriates and their companies who transferred to Singapore and Bangkok prior to the
handover have returned and reestablished in the ex-colony.
“Our fears of massive interference in the affairs of Hong Kong were not
justified. So we came back,� said a British company executive.
Their return and China’s growing clout in the world has made the demand
for space more urgent then ever. Hong Kong’s population has now expanded to six
million in one of the world’s most densely populated urban areas.
But icons like the Pensinsula Hotel and the IFC building, once sea front, are
now blocked by new sea-fill developments. The Peninsula has lost its panoramic charm
and is now surrounded by a massive construction site. Entire shipping channels off
Aberdeen are to be filled in for more construction sites.
At the beginning of last century the famous Tin Hau temple at Causeway Bay
was perched above the shoreline so the Goddess of the Sea could gaze out into the
ocean and make sure seafarers and fishermen were safe, their nets full and the weather
fine. Today the Goddess would have to walk fifteen minutes through a jungle of high rise
buildings to reach the sea and as for keeping an eye on seafarers she would have to
have x-ray vision or fly above the jungle of concrete skyscrapers.
To be able to view the extent of the chilling concrete jungle that is Hong Kong
today one has to climb or drive up to the Peak, the mountain overlooking what was once
one of Asia’s most idyllic spots.
The hunger for space has driven hotel prices sky-high for accommodation so
small one literally could not swing a cat. The scams are amazing at times: If one books
through the China Travel Service (CTS) both flights and hotel costs can be 25 per cent
cheaper even for first class hotels like the Holiday Inn.
Customers who buy multi-transport cards seem always to lose the 50 dollar
deposit when they cancel the card at the end of their visit.
Then there is the Hotel Internet racket: The Ibis Hotel wants 124 HK dollars
for a 24-hour WiFi usage though public WiFi cards cost only 20 HK dollars for the same
period. Hotels, among them the Holiday Inn, block out all other WiFi nets obliging clients
to use their own expensive in-house nets.
At certain coffee shops, like Starbucks, clients can use the WiFi free of
charge by buying a cup of coffee. Some McDonalds allow a 15-minute free access on
their in-house computers for customers. One can also sit on a park bench in one of Hong
Kong’s pretty public gardens, relics from colonial days, which remain like a forlorn
mini- oasis wedged between the concrete monsters. If you find one of these jewels Wi-Fi
nets work perfectly and free of charge.
Charm, beauty, décor in Hong Kong, unless a leftover from the British
days, has been sacrificed to Chinese commercial expediency.
One of the worst victims is Lamma Island a favorite picnic spot for Hong
Kong citizen where dim-sum restaurants have sprouted like mushrooms all set between
oozing sewage canals and the smoke-belching chimneys of Hong Kong’s three main
power stations. Whatever charm Lamma once had has long ago been sacrificed to
Mammon with the exception perhaps of a sweet teahouse-library with refined tastes and
very reasonable prices.
In the big smoke where crowds are like termites on the march reasonably
priced restaurants are so crowded one may have to queue for an hour or more for a table
or seek refuge in the up-market eateries where clients are suitably fleeced for the
privilege of not having to wait for a table.
Nothing beats Hong Kong for an experience in what the future holds for
lifestyle a la Chinoise. (ends)
