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Rant: harbouring a grudge

Annemarie Evans

Illustration: Henrik Drescher
Hong Kong is all about location, location, location and, as such, Victoria Harbour is a waste of prime real-estate. It had its moment, when 19th-century British mariners tied stones on strings, threw them over the side, drew squiggles on a chart and exclaimed: "Blimey, this is deep, it'd make a marvellous entrepot. Let's pop the kettle on to celebrate."

But what was once a harbour has gradually become a nullah with no fish left in it. And all the Chinese white dolphins are basking by the proposed third runway anyway. So pour in the concrete.

What's the harbour used for, exactly? A couple of doddery Star Ferries - take the MTR, much quicker. Oh and the occasional cruise ship - Wah! look at the lights! Just park the boats up by Kai Tak. We need more space for both private and public housing - so leave the green spaces and fill in the harbour. Easy.

No doubt someone will want a keepsake or something, so we can stick a ferry on a plinth, create a small museum and open some seafood restaurants - with the seafood imported from Australia, of course.

We could even have a man-made lake in the middle - Lake Victoria - with a model of how Hong Kong Island used to be and a couple of crinkly oldies on a looped video commenting on the tough old days, when they used to cross the harbour in a wallah-wallah - with no air-con.

 

 

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Harbouring a grudge
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