Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Architecture
Welcome to the most dazzling skyline in the world. We defy you not to be awed
as you stand for the first time at the harbour's edge in Tsim Sha Tsui and see
Hong Kong Island's majestic panorama of skyscrapers march up those steep,
jungle-clad hills. This spectacle has been created because in Hong Kong
buildings are knocked down and replaced with taller, shinier versions almost
while your back is turned. The scarcity of land, the strains of a growing popu-
lation and the rapacity of developers - as well as the opportunism of the com-
mon speculator - drive this relentless cycle of destruction and construction.
Heritage Preservation
The government's disinterest in preserving architecturally important buildings went almost
entirely unregretted by most until very recently. The destruction of the iconic Star Ferry Ter-
minal in Central marked a surprising reversal in public apathy. Heartfelt protests greeted the
wrecking balls in late 2006, but to no avail.
However, in the wake of the protests the government announced that the Streamline Mo-
derne-style Wan Chai Market would be partially preserved (though a luxury apartment tower
has risen over it).
Meanwhile the nearby Pawn, a flashy drinking hole converted from four old tenements and
a century-old pawn shop, is a running sore with heritage activists who argue that the Urban
Renewal Authority has short-changed the public by refusing to list the building's rooftop ter-
race as an unrestricted public space. Similarly, the former Marine Police Headquarters in
Tsim Sha Tsui, now yet another hotel-cum-shopping centre, has disappointed many after the
original landscape was razed.
There have been some bright spots, however, most notably when the government stopped
the demolition of the magnificent King Yin Lei (1937), a private, Chinese Renaissance-style
mansion on Stubbs Rd over Happy Valley. Even more significantly, the government launched
in 2008 a scheme for the 'revitalisation' of historic monuments, which allows NGOs to pitch
for the use of these buildings. The nascent program has already seen the restoration of the
Old Tai O Police Station and the distinctive pre-WWII shophouse Lui Seng Chun.
Despite these positive examples of heritage preservation, the reality remains that the im-
peratives of the property market, in the name of urban redevelopment, continue to dictate the
city's future and its connection with the past. The deep, protracted uncertainty over the fate of
the West Wing of the former Government Secretariat in Central - a fine model of understated
