Hong Kong's iconic Victoria Harbour halved in width by developers

Nov 2, 2009, 2:09 GMT

   Hong Kong - Hong Kong's iconic Victoria Harbour has halved in width over the past 13 years because of reclamation work in the high-rise city of 7 million, a news report said Monday.

   The gap between Kowloon and Hong Kong island used to be 2,300 metres before reclamation work began in the 1990s but has now shrunk to just 910 metres, the South China Morning Post reported.

   Eighty hectares of harbour was reclaimed from 1996 to 2004, and a further 12.7 hectares are to disappear in a reclamation project in the Wan Chai and Central area between 2010 and 2016, the newspaper said.

   The width of the harbour, Hong Kong's best-known landmark, is measured from Johnson Road in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island to Chatham Road in Tsim Sha Tsui in Kowloon on the opposite shore.

   The Hong Kong government has been criticized for allowing too much reclamation of the harbour to accommodate high-rise office and housing blocks at the expense of the skyline.

   It has also been attacked for allowing development up to the water's edge and not attempting to create walkways and recreation areas along the harbour front.

   Winston Chu of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour told the newspaper: 'In most countries, city planning is for people's well-being, but in Hong Kong city planning is for money-making.'