Batgung

Oh the horror!

For some years now we've been enjoying a fairly decent view from our apartment as you can see from the image below. Its often nice to just lounge around and look out at the ships and little sailboats going about their business, quite relaxing in fact. We don't get to see the fireworks or anything fancy like that, but it is by any standard a nice view (something landlords make you pay extra for).

Fairly decent view with not too much pollution...

Then one day I noticed that what was once a parking lot was being cleared away and sure enough transformed into a construction site shortly after. I thought to myself "maybe a new MTR exit or perhaps they are going to extend the park, plant more trees and vegetation so that we have a greener environment and more space for children to play in?" ... that would be too good to be true in Hong Kong.

Construction site...

Being somewhat curious I decided to have a quick walk over and see what exactly it was that they were up to. Imagine how horror struck I was when I discovered that it would be the new site for a 30+ floor building and new headquarters for one of the government departments. What was once a wonderful view would soon be blotted out by another concrete edifice (as if there weren't enough of them in HKG as it is, 8000+ no?).

Future view in 2009. They may as well blot out the sun...

When will it ever stop? This building will not only spoil the view for thousands of residents but will effectively add to the wall of buildings yet again blocking the flow of air, hence deteriorating the already poor air quality in the area. Is there not enough space in Kowloon for government buildings?

Would it be too difficult to build a few parks or plant some tree on Hong Kong island instead of buildings? Would it be too much to ask for more green open spaces for the children to play in and run around instead of having them playing around shopping malls and supermarkets? Looking at trees and perhaps reading under one instead of rendering themselves blind by constantly fixating portable game devices? Oh yes! That stupid cultural hub they want to build in Kowloon. We all know what the success of such "hubs" in HKG is like.

On the plus side maybe our rent will go down. ;)