A Shifting Planning Paradigm In Hong Kong

"For the past 150 years, the government has had free rein to reclaim, sell and plan every inch of land in the territory. But decades of disputable planning, coupled with the public's increasing attention to quality of life, are propelling the territory into a new era.

'We've gone too far, and people are starting to wonder: Can we continue like this?' Institute of Architects vice president Vincent Ng Wing-shun said.

In the past decade, a chasm has steadily grown between the attitudes of the government and the people towards urban planning. Since the handover in 1997, the public has experienced a 'paradigm shift,' Ng said. The people have departed from the 'city in the sky' vision - once a symbol of a prosperous metropolis - and are now questioning whether all those skyscrapers, highways and flyovers circling the harbor are conducive to their vision of a 'home.'

But if the public's aspirations have changed, environmentalists say the government has continued to firmly root itself in the old Chinese mantra: 'Little land, lots of people.'"