Beauty lessons for developers

One of the more atmospheric haunts on the Hong Kong waterfront is Kellett Island, site of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club. Anachronistic as its name suggests, the club morphed over the years from sampan landing to elite hangout.

Visit soon, because a massive four-deck highway will overshadow the yachties and the stalwarts of the rowing section, as part of the Central-Wan Chai Reclamation plan. The planned roads will run straight through the club's classic 1960s amoeba-shaped swimming pool and adjacent marina.

Perhaps few in this city of 6.7 million will shed tears for the yacht club, which will get a new marina and pool out of the deal. But why is it that nowhere along the harbour shoreline are there outdoor restaurants, performing artists and throngs of tourists? The members-only yacht club happens to be one of a kind, the only place where you can sip your martini and watch the sun set over Victoria Harbour. And despite its elitism there is something sad about the slowly disappearing landmark, bound to vanish one day like the Cheshire cat's infamous grin.

There are three schools of urban planning in Hong Kong - the dirigiste, the organic and the chaotic. Chaos is winning out.

The nostalgic Hong Kong of central casting featured Oxbridge-accented mandarins constructing Asia's safest, most efficient and reliable infrastructure, building new towns here, tunnelling through mountains there.

Meanwhile, my friend Liang Ling-Ling, habitue of the Luk Yu Teahouse, holds up the organic approach. Recently, she was fuming over the fate of Wedding Card Street in Wan Chai, or the Lee Tung Street Redevelopment Project as it is known to the Urban Renewal Authority. Under the reproving stare of a waiter, she tore her dim sum menu into shreds and made a little pile of the scrap paper.

'You can't just tear the street down and build a new block full of printing establishments,' she explains patiently. 'A place like Wedding Card Street grows gradually. People discover the shops and then more shops start up to meet a specialised need.' She moves the scraps of paper one by one to form a cluster of scraps along a street. 'Each shop is different and has its own character. That's what you lose when you start with a demolition order and a mandate to build a new Wedding Card mall.'