Advertisement

Wall tree protection sets benchmark

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0

Measures to safeguard three rare 'wall trees' in Kennedy Town affected by a railway project should become a benchmark for similar structures across the city, a specialist said.

MTR Corp contractors are monitoring the stone walls in Forbes Street and the old trees growing on them, as construction of the West Island Line is under way nearby.

Professor Jim Chi-yung, of the University of Hong Kong, who devised a tree protection system for the MTR Corp, said the wall trees were 'world-class urban living heritage'.

'The wall dates back more than 140 years. Nowhere else can you see such large and old stone walls with so many magnificent trees in such a clustered pattern,' Jim said.

The site of the stone walls was earmarked for the new line's Kennedy Town station, but green groups and district councillors campaigned against the plan in 2005. The MTR Corp then decided to move the station eastward and southward to a public swimming pool, and relocate the pool at a cost HK$600 million.

The walls are made of volcanic rock and support 22 Chinese Banyans and five Japanese superb figs, four of them listed as 'old and valuable trees'.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Choose your listening speed
Get through articles 2x faster
1.25x
250 WPM
Slow
Average
Fast
1.25x