To gaze across Victoria Harbor at Hong Kong's skyline is to take in one of the world's most spectacular urban settings.
Yet a stroller grumbles that the view from the waterfront is about the only thing up to scratch.
PHOTO: AP
``There used to be a restaurant here," says Vincent Fong, a 33-year-old engineer walking with his dog on a bare sidewalk along the water's edge.
``I don't know where it's gone. I don't know where to go now. You can't even sit down and have a chat in these parts," Fong said.
The deep harbor -- the best natural resource Hong Kong ever had -- is closely entwined with the city's history, from its roots as a fishing village to the colonial days of British tea merchants to its modern incarnation as the top international port.
As the city grew, largely on fill added to the harbor, planners apparently never thought much about beauty.
That's changing as Hong Kong's government seeks a major facelift of the harborside to make it more appealing as a place for people to enjoy themselves or just relax.
The government has announced plans to build new waterfront promenades on Hong Kong Island and on the Kowloon Peninsula as well as upgrade an existing walkway. The designs are not yet final, so it's unclear how much the government will spend.
Planners envision low-rise buildings full of shops and restaurants lining the walkways.
One of the promenades is to be divided into themed segments, such as a ``historical corridor" with views of older buildings on Hong Kong Island and a ``marine basin" where visitors could board boats.
On the Kowloon side, an extended promenade is to run alongside a new waterfront park and an ``Avenue of Stars" will showcase the best of the territory's film industry.
The idea is long overdue, say local architects, who disparage the bare strips of pavement that now run edge parts of the harbor. Some of the sidewalks don't go very far before they are cut off by buildings.
``Everything is failing grade," said architect Vincent Ng. To attract people, ``you can't just pave a pavement and plant some trees; there has to be some activity."
A government town planner, K.K. Ling, conceded officials long neglected the harbor, even as it became less industrial in recent years with the movement of many factories to China
The government hopes to do better as it makes Hong Kong a more livable city all around.
When the British seized Hong Kong in 1842, the harbor provided for safe passage up the Pearl River to the bustling port of Guangzhou. It was deep enough to attract big ships, giving Hong Kong a natural edge over Macau, which was much older as a trading center but has a shallow harbor.
Decades of land reclamation squeezed in the harbor by extending the waterfronts on each side -- over 3,000 hectares had been added by 1997, when officials enacted a law that put restrictions on further filling.
Ironically, officials will have to shrink it some more. Parts of a 3.5km stretch of the new promenade planned for Hong Kong Island would be on new land fill. Even the Star Ferry pier on the island will be moved to make way for the promenade.
The work won't be finished for at least a decade.
That's not soon enough, says C.M. Lee, a 48-year-old supervisor at a property management company who comes to the harbor to fish.
``I'd really like to be able to come here at three in the afternoon, have a cup of tea and a sandwich," Lee says.
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