When former American diplomat Tess Johnston passed through Hong Kong in the 1960s she never dreamt 30 years later the 'beautiful colonial city' would have disappeared beneath tonnes of concrete and tinted glass.
'It was a beautiful colonial city,' she recalls. 'You've lost all the good stuff. The only buildings left are the Western Market, Tea Museum, Bishops House and Legco. Practically nothing left.' A comparison of preserved buildings is revealing. In Shanghai's top category of preserved buildings are 61 monuments including the Peace Hotel and former Hongkong and Shanghai Bank.
The authorities have also declared 175 'municipal preserved buildings' and a third tier of about 200 protected buildings are set to be unveiled.
Hong Kong has 66 monuments and several hundred graded buildings, listed in three categories according to architectural and historical importance.
While the monuments are strictly protected under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, graded buildings lack legal protection.
Shanghai's top tier of protected buildings are protected under national heritage legislation but local regulations governing the others lack teeth.
