In the hustle and bustle of daily life, Hong Kong’s city-dwellers often do not have time to stop and appreciate its remarkable architectural characteristics and often take their everyday surroundings for granted.
In less than 200 years, Central has witnessed Hong Kong’s transformation from a fishing village into an entrepot; from a manufacturing centre into a services hub; and more recently into today's modern metropolis and global financial centre.
As part of the “Appreciate Hong Kong” Campaign, the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors hosted “Touring Central with Surveyors” over the past month to promote the city’s development and raise awareness of the key role surveyors play in shaping Hong Kong’s built environment.
Contemporary city
Taking Central as a starting point, the institute aims to raise people’s interest in issues concerning their daily lives from another perspective, like living space, community facilities, land use, and building related problems.
Starting the tour from the institute’s offices at Wing On Centre, Sheung Wan its president Lau Chun-kong introduced the collaboration between the Government and private sector in creating a successful footbridge network in the district, which has been replicated in dozens of spots across the city, from Tsuen Wan to Tseung Kwan O.
He took the tour along a route that includes the Wing On Centre footbridge network, the International Finance Centre, Central Market, Central-Mid-Levels escalator and walkway system, Gage Street, Graham Street, Caine Road and Robinson Road.
Central was chosen for its historical, political and economic significance and it is hoped that through the tour, people will view the city’s development from a surveyor’s perspective.
“Participants get a better understanding of the surveying profession because we involve different disciplines including general practice surveyors, quantity surveyors, building surveyors and land surveyors and these disciplines interact with each other, then after those buildings have been built, we have the property and facilities management surveyors to help to manage the buildings and we have the planning and development surveyors who look at the development cycles to decide whether to redevelop certain buildings,” Mr Lau explained.
Central consideration
In Central Market’s case, which was built in 1939, surveyors had to consider different factors before advising on whether to preserve or demolish it.
“A lot of decisions have to be made: how to make good use of the project, how much money should be put into it to make it usable to serve the public good, structural considerations, future use, economic returns, all these are related to the work of surveyors in Hong Kong.”
Mr Lau hopes the tour will encourage more people to appreciate and understand the built environment they enjoy today, so that future generations will continue to uphold Hong Kong’s high standard for smart growth and development.
“Through the eyes of the surveyors we can allow students to know the technical issues involved in building up the fabric of Hong Kong and raise awareness of how surveyors interact with other professionals, be they engineers, town planners, lawyers, accountants in their overall development of Hong Kong.”
Fresh outlook
Secondary students Martha Wong and Ruby Leung said the tour not only gave them a new perspective on Central but also opened their eyes to the surveying profession.
“The tour was interesting and fun and I learnt that surveyors do a lot of things for Hong Kong,” Ruby said.
“Touring Central with Surveyors” was launched in 2015 and was well received with more than 250 people taking part.
Around 300 participants signed up for this year’s event which ran from March 12 to April 16.