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`Little Hong Kong' to lure tourists after massive makeover

This file photo from Oct. 20 last year shows an aerial view of Aberdeen harbor in Hong Kong. The ancient fishing settlement is to receive a multi-million dollar makeover. PHOTO: AFP

The ancient fishing settlement that gave Hong Kong its name is to receive a multi-million dollar makeover to turn it into the city's next big tourist attraction, an official said on Monday.

Tourism commissioner Eva Cheng told RTHK radio that the government hoped to turn Aberdeen, a shabby town in southern Hong Kong Island, into a Fisherman's Wharf development with entertainments and a hotel themed on its nautical past.

Aberdeen -- known in the Cantonese dialect as Heung Gong Tsai or "Little Hong Kong" -- was the largest permanent settlement on the island when British invaders took the southern Chinese territory in the early 1840s.

The sweet aroma given off by trees that once grew in the area gave the town its name of Heung Gong -- or "fragrant harbor" -- a bastardized version of which, "Hong Kong," was adopted by the British for the entire colony.

The town was then, and remains, the center of Hong Kong's fishing industry with a vast and teeming wholesale fish market.

Cheng said private firms would be expected to foot the bill for the redevelopment. It would go hand in hand with a HK$5.5 billion (US$705 million) refurbishment of the nearby Ocean Park amusement park, due to be completed by 2010.

Hong Kong is seeking to bolster its status as a prime tourism destination with the opening last year of Hong Kong Disneyland and the planned development of a mountain cable-car ride to the city's famous Big Buddha statue.

In 2004, a record 20 million travellers entered Hong Kong, making it Asia's most visited city.
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