Without a supportive mother, Winston Chu Ka-sun might not have embarked on his eight-year crusade to protect the harbour.
He says it was his 86-year-old mother, Cissy Chu Fok Wing-yue, who, when looking out of her Mid-Levels flat in 1995, remarked on the chunk of land protruding from Tsim Sha Tsui towards Sheung Wan.
'My mother said: 'Son, go and object [to the reclamation work]'. I was tempted to walk away but was unable to find someone big to take on the job. So I took it with reluctance.'
This was how the fight began, when Mr Chu, now 63, was still a Town Planning Board member.
He began to lobby legislators' support for the Harbour Protection Ordinance, which later became his weapon.
The legislation was passed a few days before the 1997 handover. Nonetheless, the controversial Central and Wan Chai reclamation projects received the go-ahead by legislators a year ago, and Mr Chu argued they would 'turn Victoria Harbour into a river'.