Letters | Links between Hong Kong Island and Lantau needing reclamation? Been there, considered that

Readers discuss the history of proposals for container terminals and roads on reclaimed land, how landlords can help shops attract patrons, and visitors from the mainland flocking to a prestigious local university

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The waters around Lantau Island shimmer in the sunset as seen from Hong Kong’s third highest mountain on November 1, 2023. The government’s plan to reclaim land in the waters off Lantau have sparked much debate. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 11:30am, 9 Apr 2024

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Your correspondent’s suggestion that the Kwai Tsing Container Terminals be moved to Kau Yi Chau (“White elephant? Here’s how to help Hong Kong’s Kau Yi Chau project take flight”, March 25) ignores both history and the deed of restrictive covenant placed on the environs of extensions of Hongkong International Theme Parks.

In addition to the retention of the natural landscape and height limits on developments in its immediate vicinity, the deed guarantees no reclamation and a prohibited anchorage area (except for authorised vessels) in waters to the south of Hong Kong Disneyland.

In the 1990s, the reclamation at Penny’s Bay for Disneyland was meant to house five container terminals. The areas marked for four of the terminals survive as the rectangular outlines around the Kau Yi Chau islands on the existing North-East Lantau outline zoning plan S/I-NEL/12. Also shown on the plan are the Penny’s Bay Highway and its connection to the North Lantau Highway, for use by container lorries, and reclamation at Yam O/Sunny Bay at one time intended for a river trade terminal.

The latter area may now see the proposed Hong Kong Island West to Hung Shui Kiu Rail Link, which passes through the Kau Yi Chau islands, running through it. The rail link accords with your correspondent’s emphasis on the “importance of transport links” and the imperative in the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area “to build a rapid transport network” such that travel times among major cities in the Greater Bay Area are reduced “to one hour or less”.

Not shown on the outline zoning plan is a proposed (submarine) road from Kau Yi Chau to Hong Kong Island. In 1994, that road was intended to land on a reclaimed area off Green Island, the construction of which was expected to be “more difficult than most reclamations” in Hong Kong “because of the exceptionally thick marine deposits, strong tidal currents, and the deep water of the Sulphur Channel”.