Letters | Hong Kong’s border cemetery plan reveals mindsets stuck in the past

Name: Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area
Uploaded: 2021-05-08T23:30:19.000Z
Duration: 5 min 25 s
Description: Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area

That the idea of building a massive cemetery complex next to Shenzhen’s downtown district is even being considered shows Hong Kong officials have yet to wake up to the reality next door

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A worshipper visits a Hong Kong cemetery a week ahead of the grave-sweeping Ching Ming Festival in March 2020. Photo: Dickson Lee

Letters

Published: 7:30am, 9 May 2021Updated: 7:30am, 9 May 2021

With reference to “Hong Kong pushing ahead with huge cemetery complex near mainland border” (April 9), the funeral home plan reveals an old-fashioned colonial mentality.

A New York town planner would never build a super funeral home in the heart of Manhattan, or a London urban planner would never envisage such a project within the vicinity of the City. Hong Kong’s urban planning authorities must be out of their minds to propose such a ridiculous idea.

Some Hong Kong officials, it seems, are still living in the early 1970s. As far as I know, the plan dates back to 2012, but I wouldn’t blame people for thinking it was made by the colonial officers in the 70s when Shenzhen was still a little fishing village. It seems an old map of the colonial Hong Kong is still hanging in the officials’ minds, and the area next to Shenzhen is still considered the most rural part of the territory. They can’t see or simply refuse to acknowledge the emergence of a global financial centre in Shenzhen.

05:25

Hong Kong's competitive edge questioned as Xi says Shenzhen is engine of China’s Greater Bay Area

Location, location, location. We need a young urban planning official with a mind as sharp as Li Ka-shing’s, who can truly see the potential value of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen neighbourhood golden belt.

If Hong Kong’s Legislative Council approves this misguided plan, I am afraid it will show the territory’s leaders are surrounded by mediocrity.

Khaw Wei Kang, Shenzhen China

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | Hong Kong’s border cemetery plan reveals mindsets stuck in the past

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} That the idea of building a massive cemetery complex next to Shenzhen’s downtown district is even being considered shows Hong Kong officials have yet to wake up to the reality next door

Letters | Hong Kong’s border cemetery plan reveals mindsets stuck in the past

That the idea of building a massive cemetery complex next to Shenzhen’s downtown district is even being considered shows Hong Kong officials have yet to wake up to the reality next door