Day 2: Kowloon Kai Tak Development

Start with employees who working at Kwun Tong at traffic peak hour.

Kwun Tong is a industrial district.  Since many industries are moved to China, the industrial buildings become empty.  The landlords tried to change the function of the industrial buildings, for examples freight house, design studio, indoor war game, function room, retail store, offices etc.  They offer a low rent space for any activities.

Indoor games in industrial building.  (Photo by Sky Posts)

Urban Renewal in Kowloon East
Government found that problem and targeted to redevelop Kwun Tong (Kai Tak Development Project).  They set up the Energizing Kowloon East Office to execute and speed up the development project.  The redevelopment include 320 hectares land with mix of commercial, housing, community, tourism, public facilities, infrastructure etc.  The iconic buildings and systems are include Cruise Terminal, new rail system EFLS (Environmental Friendly Linkage System), sports complex, Metro Park etc.

Energizing Kowloon East Office 

Development master plan model

Kai Tak Development plan (Photo by CEDD)

Cruise terminal is in-use.

Revitalize Industry Building Project
We had chance to visit a revitalize industry building.  It is still under construction.  It will be revitalized as a high end office.

It do not have facade yet.

It do not have lift.  We walk to 9/F by temporary staircase.

The structure is reuse the original industrial building.

It do not have curtain wall yet.

The architect make use the original bricks and apply
simple wall painting as the design of the wall finishes.

These are disposal of exiting old pipes.

Temporary stair case in the construction site.

I doubt whether the redevelopment can benefit Hong Kong people.  Nowadays, seems all shopping malls have same brands of shops and restaurants.  It's because only the corporates can afford the rent of the shops and they monopolized the market.  The existing industrial buildings offer low rent for any business, which benefit small companies and creative business.

Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) and MegaBox
We had quick walk pass through ZCB.  ZCB is a showroom and education center to promote zero or low carbon building design and technology apply to Hong Kong.  It was closed today.  So, we could just visit the website to study it's technology.

We went to MegaBox for lunch.  MegaBox is mix of shopping mall and office building.  The outlook of the shopping mall has a "Big Eye" (a round glazed facade).  It provides nature lights for several floors in the mall, which saved electricity of lighting.  Visitors in the mall can see the nice view of Cruise Terminal through the "Big Eye".  The design is very smart.

The "Big Eye" design.

Ice rink can share the sunlight through the "Big Eye".

There is a outdoor area where can see the Curise Terminal and
Kowloon side.  The building management locked to the door,
so it's easier for their maintenance and management.

I could only take a photo through the two glazed doors.

Kowloon City
We took bus to Kowloon City after lunch at MegaBox.  Kowloon City is a very old town and many places are developing.  Old buildings and new buildings are mixed together.  When we were walking on the street, my right hand side were very old buildings and left hand side were luxury residential buildings and shopping mall.  The new buildings and the old buildings at the same street are cost approx. HK$12k/sq.ft. and HK$3k/sq.ft. receptively.

Old building on right hand side.  The buildings are very interesting.
It is a very long building or they are different buildings connected together? 

New residential building and shopping mall on left hand side.

New building price

Old building price

Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen
Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen is the only walled villages in town.  Due to the development of this area, they are going to be dismantled and redevelop.  The villagers are requesting government to arrange a new house for them in the same district.

The houses are collected to each other and share the same structure, so they cannot stand alone.  The developer buy some houses and dismantle them to affect the structure of neighbor houses.  They use this method to push the villagers leave the village.

When we visited Nga Tsin Wai Tsuen, it's actually not many people living there.  Only few elderly.  The houses are looks empty, old and danger.  Seems this village will no longer be here.

The houses looks empty.

Banners for request relocation of villagers.

The houses cannot be used.

Kowloon Walled City Park
Kowloon Walled City was a very interested place.  When Hong Kong was colony of UK, Kowloon Walled City was a self-governance place where not under UK and Hong Kong government.  It was at the center of Hong Kong, but out of Hong Kong government or UK's control area.

Kowloon Walled City became a criminal slum, ie. drug abuse, gambling, sexy, illegal doctors, refugees etc.  It affected the safety of the Hong Kong.  Government tried to destroy the organized crime there.  On the contrary, it made the Kowloon Walled City more strong.  The people built many unauthorized buildings shortly.  They made use every inch of space for buildings.  The buildings were close to each other with almost no gap between them. The corridors were narrow and environment was poor.  Although they were unauthorized buildings, people thought the architectural is amazing.  Buildings were close to each other with almost no gap.  Kids were running on the roofs and jump over the buildings.  People living in it could not see any sunshine.  The center of the city was a temple.  Except the surrounding buildings, the temple was the only place can see the sunshine.

Finally, Chinese government, Hong Kong government and UK agreed to dismantle this place and changed to a park.  It is the Kowloon Walled City Park now.  Unlucky, I'm too young and no chance to see this amazing unauthorized architectural.

Model of the Kowloon Walled City shows the high density of buildings. 

The elevation of the Kowloon Walled City.

The temple at the center of Kowloon Walled City are kept
and become a exhibition and visitor center.

A public house outside Kowloon Walled City.
People live very close to the criminal city. 

The previous living place of Moses when he was young 
We pass by Moses' previous living place.  It becomes a international school.  The buildings are renovated.  We could see the building name at the top of building.  It is style of some old buildings.

Building name on the building

Classrooms of international school.

Langham Place
Mongkok is a high building density area.  Lands are limited.  Langham Place is a skyscraper with shopping mall, hotel and offices.  Langham Place shopping arcade is a very thin building, small land use area and tall.  There is a very long escalator from 4/F to 8/F.  (Personally do not like long escalator as it is danger.).  From 8/F to 13/F, each floor is super small and only for small shops.  Hong Kong's lands are expensive, architects always facing problem of limited land.  Buildings are develop vertically, taller and taller.

Trip postponed

It is still raining.  The trip will be postponed to two weeks after.

Hong Kong has lots trees.  There are many trees fall down due to strong wind and heavy rain.  One tree fell down at Sheung Wan Mid-Levels and hurt two persons this morning.  Serious accidents of tress fall down are always happen in Hong Kong.  Although government increased the frequent of regular check for the trees in Hong Kong, accidents are still happen.

Photos from Sing Pao newspaper.

Come on stop raining please!!

I'm really look forward for the next trip, we will go to a cemetery in the morning, Bethanie and swim in the water fall.  When I do a search of the water fall from the internet, it comes out a lot ghost stories and news about find dead body there.  The water fall is a nice place for leisure and swim in summer time, but there are many stones and people easy to slide down.  There has accidents every few years.

It is raining these few days.  It makes the trip more harsh and excited.

Day 1: Tin Shui Wai > Lau Fau Shan > Ping Shan (Trip start!)

It was the first time to meet my team.  Almost all of them are from Penn State University.  I was looking forward a wonderful study time with them. 

Wetland

We started our trip sharply at Tin Shui Wai station. Our first destination was Wetland Park. Tin Shui Wai is a fish pond area with lots wetlands before development. Since development of Tin Shui Wai, some wetlands are lost. Wetland Park aim to become an ecological mitigation area to compensate lost of wetlands by town development. Hong Kong government consider benefit and profit of a development project, and it is no exemption to Wetland Park. The government would like to develop Wetland Park as a WORLD-CLASS wetland ecotourism attraction point. I doubt that how to attract both nature animals and WORLD-CLASS tourists to such small park? We are different to Taman Kinabalu in Malaysia with area over 700 km sq. Lucky, Wetland Park is not a hit tourist spot till now, so it is still an option as a living place for nature local animals.

The wetland is so nice.

A crocodile in cage.

 The crocodile photo that I take is not clear,
so I downloaded this photo from internet

Human damaged the wetland to built their new home, and built
a cage for original aborigine, crocodile, as their new home. 

Public Housing

Hong Kong is a small place with population 7 millions.  It is the top 3 high density living place in the world.  Tin Shu Wai Development project intend to build a new living area to solve the housing problem in Hong Kong.  

We had chance to visit inside of a public housing estate.  The interior actually looks not bad and environment is clean. There are quite many leisure facilities in the estate, ping pong table, children playground etc.

Lift lobby in public housing

Clean corridor in pubic housing

Leisure space

Public ping pong table

Children playground

Not every Hong Kong residence can get a public housing.  Government has requirements of income and asset of public housing applicant.  For example a 3 persons family, their total monthly income and asset are limited to HK$21,050 (US$2,700) and HK$417,000 (US$53,500) respectively for apply a public house.  The rental of public housing is approx HK$1k to HK$5k per month for a approx. 300sqft to 500sqft permises.  The same quality private housing estate with similar location at Tin Shu Wai require HK$3m to HK$4m.  There are so many Hong Kong people can not meet the requirement of apply public housing and can not afford to buy a private housing.  

There are quite many society problem in Tin Shui Wai's.  Drug abuse, vagrants, joblessness, family violent etc.  Some people said the society is too far to the town and it do not have commercial activities, said offices.  Tin Shu Wai only develop residential buildings as some people said the government made an agreement with a private developer for no commercial/economic development at this area to protect their private property projects in future.  I'm actually not really agreed this reason.  In other countries, there are so many people take over an hour to their work place everyday.  For example London's properties are very expensive, people live at areas outside London and take 1-3hrs (single trip) to work everyday.  Another example people work at Abu Dhabi, but they prefer live at Dubai and take 2hrs (single trip) to work everyday.  It is because Dubai provide better living environment.  Living place away business area take long time travel, on the other side the living environment is better.  The reason for Tin Shui Wai's social problem is public housing mainly for low income family.  Also, Tin Shui Wai has new immigrants, they have many problems on adopt a new place.

It is easy to find social service center in Tin Shu Wai.

Last time when I visited Tin Shui Wai, I was a primary school student.  The new Tin Shui Wai town was just developed at the moment.  I only knew it is a district for public housing.  Nowadays, when I visited it again, I found the environment is quite comfortable compare to the towns in Kowloon and HK Island.  The roads are wider, people density is lower, all buildings are new, sufficient facilities.  

Tidy and clean environment planning.

Wide road with nice palm trees.

Comfortable river side with cycling path.

Light Rail Transit go through most areas at West New Territories.

Village House in Lau Fau Shan

After visit public housing estate, we walk to Lau Fau Shan and visit the village houses in Lau Fau Shan where at south of Tin Shu Wai.   

The policy of village houses in Hong Kong is that male villagers are entitled a rights to build one village house in their village after 18 years old.  In Hong Kong that such high population density city with serious lack of housing problem, male villagers are benefited to have advantage on build a house.

Village houses are always close to each others,
so the relationship of the villagers are very close.

Village house are very close, so the ventilation is not ideal. 

Male villagers have rights to sell their village house and the profit is very high.  Some of them built a sequence of luxury houses to get higher profit.  There are lots ordinance problems about handover of village house from villagers to non-villagers.

Luxury houses for sell. 

Unauthorized building works are serious problem in village houses.  Four years ago, government insisted to remove unauthorized building works.  The action effectively removed many unauthorized building works and educated people for serious of this problem.  Even the action helped, there are still many unauthorized building works didn't be removed especially in villages.

You can easily find unauthorized building works in villages.

We had lunch at Lau Fau Shan and take a bus to Ping Shan Heritage Trails.

Ping Shan Heritage Trail
Ping Shan Heritage Trail connected the heritages in Ping Shan to introduce the history and culture of Ping Shan village and Tang Clan.  We started with Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery cum Heritage Trail Visitor Center.  This visitor center is renovated from a police station.  It is a nice white building with many rooms to exhibit Ping Shan villager's traditional materials.  This visitor center located at the peak of mountain where can overlook Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long area.

  

Path of Ping Shan Heritage Trail

Heritage Trail Visitor Center

Ping Shan Tang Clan Gallery

View from visitor center to overlook Tin Shui Wai and Yuen Long

There are different types of temples for particular gods. For example Hung Shin Temple is for god of the sea.  Fishermen in Ping Shan village will have worship in Hung Shin Temple to pray for safety work in sea.  There are many ancestry temples for their later generation worship.  The government and villagers keep the heritage very well.  The paintings, decorations, structures are in good conditions.

Hung Shing Temple for god of sea.

The doors have very nice painting and decoration.

These are window partitions at upper floor. 

Ancestry temple.

Temple for god of son.

Doors in village are always have greeting and gods. 

Ching Shu Hin a impressive building for me in this Ping Shan Heritage Trail.  Ching Shu Hin was a hotel with luxury decoration.  Those decorations are not traditional Chinese style.  It mixed western style.

The arched door decoration and colours are mixed western style.

The door frame and woodcut are mixed western style.

The woodcut are not tradition Chinese style.

I love Chinese courtyard.  It just like a garden in a house and it is "in" the house, not outside the house.  It always at the center of house.  It provide a good leisure place to enjoy the sunshine and greenery in house.

The window at courtyard. 

The window frame looks like a picture frame
that framed a picture of courtyard.

The last heritage building is Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda.  It is a Fung Shui tower for Tang Clan.  The original pagoda has seven floors.  Due to erosion by the weather, it's now only has three floors.

  

Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda

Hong Kong has lots valuable natural environment and heritage.  They have their stories and meaningful to local people.  It is worth to keep those or revitalize them.