Land-use/Transport Planning in Hong Kong

A Review of Principles and Practices

Harry T. Dimitriou, Alison H.S Cook

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• eBook ISBN: 9780429778797
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1998, this volume is certain to be the definitive work about the practice of land-use and transport planning in Hong Kong. Dimitriou and Cook explore the historical developments, current issues and problems, policy and planning responses and new directions. Hong Kong has experienced remarkable economic growth as the 'Gateway to China' and its land-use has become a model for other cities in the region and for China as a whole.

Part One
Historical Developments

Historical developments: Editors' Overview

Harry T. Dimitriou and Alison H.S. Cook

The British occupied Hong Kong Island from 1841 to 1997 on the basis of somewhat dubious trading activities in the nineteenth century and their victory over the Chinese in the First Opium War. China ceded parts of the Kowloon peninsula and Stonecutters Island in 1860 at the end of the Second Opium Wars. Whereas Lord Castlereagh (Britain's foreign minister at the time of Hong Kong's acquisition) is reported to have dismissed Hong Kong Island as 'worthless' and Kowloon as a 'mere duck-farm and rice-paddy adjunct', today, the territory is light-years away from its former self. It is one of the ten strongest trading economies in the world with a gross domestic product of US$142,538 million in 1995 (up from US$3,463 million in 1970) and a per capita income of US$22,990 for the same year (World Bank 1997). This latter figure has since increased and surpassed that of the UK.

Figure 1 Hong Kong city scape Source: A.H.S. Cook

Perhaps influenced by this stark contrast with its past, an internationally famous west-coast US academic, once proclaimed while visiting Hong Kong that as a city planner I am not concerned with history but only the future'. Looking back on how Hong Kong has developed, this sentiment must have been strongly shared by many of the 'makers-and-shakers' of the territory actively involved in shaping today's urban Hong Kong (see Figures 1 and 2). While the territory has a rich and very interesting heritage dating back to the nineteenth century, not much of this visibly remains. Investigation of the territory's past, however, suggests that its very history, and its location as one of the world's great deep-water ports¹, as well as its longstanding function as the southern 'Gateway to China', have in fact laid down the foundations of Hong Kong's present day immense success (Cameron 1991).

On the premise, therefore, that the history of Hong Kong is indeed an important starting point to understanding its present day culture, values and growth - from its humble beginnings as a settlement of 12,000 in 1841 and 23,817 inhabitants in 1845² to its population of six million in 1996 - the first part to this book traces three sets of critically important developments that have molded Hong Kong over its 134 year old colonial history. These include:

• The evolution of Hong Kong's urban transport system (see Chapter 1), now transformed into one of the world's most efficient and economically viable systems and a model to many other cities in the region.
• The emergence of land-use planning and urban redevelopment activities (see Chapter 2) which through the territory's land lease system produces revenues for the Hong Kong Administration in excess of HK$19 billion (Information Services Department 1996)³. This system has proven so successful as a generator of public revenues that, again, it is increasingly looked upon as a model for other Asian cities.
• The parallel development of land-use and transport planning exercises (see Chapter 3) that have in recent years sought to guide the territory's rapid urban growth, providing a rational framework for the largest public works programme in the world costing an estimated US$24 billion⁴ for the replacement of the territory's airport at Kai Tak, up-grading its sea port capacity and providing support infrastructure, including roads, railways and a new town (see Figure 2).

Figure 2 New airport at Chek Lap Kok Source: Hong Kong Airport Authority

Robert Cottrell, in his introduction to his fascinating book, The End of Hong Kong (1993), cites the Peak Tram (see Figure 3) as '....one of the few vestiges of nineteenth century history which Hong Kong has yet to dismantle ....'. Cottrell goes on to claim that '...the tram was, like most things in Hong Kong, conceived as a speculation....'. This speculative quality - in the transport industry of Hong Kong - is also referred to by Peter Leeds (sometime Commissioner of Transport for the Hong Kong Administration between 1982 and 1987) in Chapter 1 of this book.

Figure 3 Peak Tram, Hong Kong Island Source: Courtesy of Hong Kong Tourist Association

Leeds provides an insight into the entrepreneurial spirit that underlaid (and still underlies) the development of the public transport industry in Hong Kong. He traces the evolution of urban public transport in the territory from the the early years of British colonial settlement to the present. He points out that many of the oldest transport routes remain key transport arteries today, despite the numerous reclamation works that have taken place almost annually (see Figure 4) and the construction of complex elevated road transport infrastructure (see Figure 5). In his contribution, Leeds highlights:

• the early introduction of vehicular licensing and mechanised transport;
• the critical role of the tram system as an agent of urbanisation on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island;
• the extensive reliance on good ferry services between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon (at least until recently)⁵;
• the belated introduction of railways, now more than ever, poised to play a strategic role in the development of the territory;
• the very successful development of bus services, which in the case of minibuses, have set a level of regional and world-wide acceptability and respectability⁶.

The above developments are described against a backcloth of historical events, migration flows and population growth, rising demands for housing, and a growth (and decline) in industry and commerce - culminating in a whole array of urban development initiatives, including reclamation schemes, redevelopments and new towns construction. With economic growth of the territory averaging 5.5 per cent per annum between 1980 and 1993, these developments have generated a huge transformation in the socio-economic profile of the travelling public, both in creating a more affluent market for public transport travel, as well as a steep rise in private car usage. The growth in personal trip-making has been accompanied by a dramatic rise in freight traffic (especially by road)⁷, and the resurgence of the railway as a potentially very significant transport mode for Hong Kong's future.

Figure 4 Construction of West Kowloon Expressway Source: Courtesy of Hong Kong Tourist Association

Chapter 2, by Alexander Cuthbert (a past faculty member of the University of Hong Kong), offers a very different perspective to the preceding chapter. Apart from focusing much more on land-use development and the socio-economic and political pressures that have transformed the 'commodity' of land in Hong Kong, the reader is reminded, that for all its economic successes, Hong Kong is void of natural resources. Cuthbert argues that the territory owes its success almost exclusively to an atypical colonial experience that defies the normal chapters of history. Today Hong Kong continues to follow an atypical course in that it is the first capitalist economy in a decolonisation process to be returned by a colonial power to a communist government; except that there is a very valid debate as to whether Britain still qualifies as a world power and whether the current government of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is, by traditional definitions, still a communist administration given its heavy reliance upon the market system as a vehicle for its development.

Perhaps above all, Cuthbert's chapter highlights the longtime importance of two major sources of revenue for the Hong Kong Government: revenues from the sale of monopolistic franchises, and from land leases. While the former (especially revenues from utility and transport franchises) became more significant later in the territory's development, revenues from real estate go back to the very beginnings of Hong Kong, when in 1841, Captain Elliot declared Hong Kong a Free Port. Soon after the annexation, developments mushroomed uncontrollably along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, whereupon, Elliot introduced the first sale of land lots in June 1841 in an attempt to control the rampant development which was occurring (Cameron 1991). This planted the seed for revenue which has resulted in an excellent harvest over the years, and a yield of US$2.5 billion for 1994-95,⁸ representing 11 per cent of the total coffers of the Hong Kong Administration from land based revenues which the British Government is obliged to share with the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) upon transition.

Figure 5 Elevated roadway on Hong Kong Island Source: A.M.S. Cook and H.T. Dimitriou

Cuthbert sequentially outlines the establishment of the territory's town planning legislation and briefly describes the intermittent property booms that have since taken place and which have ultimately raised residential and commercial property prices to among the most expensive in the world. He firmly discounts the simplistic notion that Hong Kong has been managed by a non-interventionist administration. He points out the government's support for restricted market access to various aspects of its economy and the massive government subsidy provided to the housing sector by accommodating in public housing, much of it in the new towns, approximately 50 per cent of the territory's population; albeit within apartments with very confined space standards⁹. Arguing that land-use developments are merely an expression of economic and political forces, Cuthbert gives an account of:

• the strategically growing importance of Hong Kong as an international transshipment centre;
• the rise and decline of its manufacturing sector;
• the rise of its Central Area as a world-class financial centre;
• the dramatic increase (especially in the 1980s) of the middle class;
• the development of tourism;
• and the associated urban development/redevelopment and infrastructure these changes have spawned.

The latter part of Chapter 2 outlines some of the government's responses to the above developments in the form of programmes, plans and projects introduced on the one hand, to facilitate further economic growth and, on the other hand, to control the direction of this growth. The combined set of 'enabling' and 'control' measures ('carrot and stick approach') has largely been developed and adapted by government in close alliance with the captains of industry and trade. For the most part they have not been proactive efforts but rather responses (often belated) to bloated economic and physical growth with little regard to democratic rights, community participation and environmental concerns.

Chapter 3 continues the theme of Chapter 2, but from an entirely different perspective. It takes a much more technical and detailed approach to discussing the plans and programmes over the last two decades for guiding the future urban and infrastructure developments of Hong Kong. Edward Pryor, the Principal Government Town Planner responsible for strategic planning at the time of writing this book, provides a more officially oriented account of the main methodological steps and principles employed in strategic land-use and transport planning in the territory, particularly the Territorial Development Strategy (TDS). Whereas the preceding chapters essentially focus on different sectors - the first on transport and the second on land use - this contribution, in Pryor's own words: '..investigates whether the respective roles of land-use and transport planne...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Foreword
• Preface
• List of Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part One: Historical developments
• Part Two: Current issues and problems
• Part Three: Policy and planning responses
• Part Four: New directions
• Subject Index