Hong Kong Sprawls Into the Ocean

"From the garden of the Chu family's 30th floor penthouse, Hong Kong's jumble of skyscrapers rising against the harbor look like pixie sticks propped in the ground. To a visitor, the scale amazes, but to fifth-generation Hong Konger Winston Chu, it appalls.

And for one reason:"The 'fragrant harbor' – which is what Hong Kong means in Cantonese – is literally disappearing under cement.

Hemmed by dramatic mountains, the city has grown seaward, literally over the water's edge through reclamation. Victoria Harbor has shrunk, it's once-scalloped edges have been straightened into the city-street grid.

'The harbor used to be twice as wide as it is now,' says Mr. Chu. The government has 'been reclaiming [it] bit by bit. There's a Chinese term that translates to a 'silkworm eating a leaf one bite at a time.' But now it's like a tiger. And that tiger is the government.'"