Underdeveloped Tourism Destination – Island South & Lamma Island.

As known to all, Hong Kong is the leading financial center in Asia. The 1st impression come into mind when talking about HK will be the pointed BOC Tower with 2 IFC and ICC erected on 2 sides of the Victoria Harbor. In 2013, 54 million visitors [1] from around the world arrived Hong Kong and most of their destinations are filled by crowded and bustling metropolitan sceneries in downtown area. But if you have a look at the natural map and know a little bit more about HK, actually 70% [2] of the total 1,104 sq.km land are green area. If these natural green areas could be leisure or tourism destinations and further developed, how many more opportunities it could create for HK. Not until we visited Hong Kong Island South and Lamma Island, had I realized those areas has great potential to be a tourism destination.

Waterfall Bay

Waterfall Bay

Waterfall Bay was scenery near the famous public housing project - Wah Fu Estate. Actually, the waterfall is also quite famous itself. The fresh water from the waterfall is said to have given the city its name. In the old days, the ships from and to Guangzhou will always got drink water here and people used to call the place “Fragrant Harbor” and its Cantonese homophonic translation was just “Hong Kong”. The Waterfall Park can overlook beautiful scenery of the Lamma Island. There is a neglected Japanese pillbox in the bay, it is also known as a famous haunted house. When the Wah Fu Estate was open in 1970s, some kids played there but drown. Since then, the authorities closed the roads there and make it as inaccessible as it is today.

The place here is so famous and beautiful but why there are limited people visiting every day? When we arrived that day, we found its only visitors seemed to be the aged residents in Wah Fu Estate. Hong Kong is planning the Southern District to be a tourism destination but the traffic accessibility is still not satisfying in some parts, perhaps that is why the Waterfall Bay is so famous but we saw rare visitors. There should be some effort on that and further improvement is needed on the public access and infrastructure there. Moreover, to prevent any drown accident happen again, some security facilities should also be built if it intends to open to the public in the future.

Aberdeen Promenade

Boats along Aberdeen Promenade

Our next stop is the Aberdeen Promenade. It used to be a busy fishing area and most of the fishermen are from Southeast Asia. However, the fish here were getting fewer and fewer. There used to be prosperous fish market here at around 6 am every day many years ago, but fishing is no longer allowed in HK in recent year, so the fish market disappears. The Aberdeen Promenade is also one of the densest harbors in the world. You’ll find the picture below how the boats are stopped one by one. Since 1970, HK began its large scale reclamation and the promenade was then formed. There are also many recreational facilities within the park and the lots of ferries and boats are stopped along the seaside. There is a “Fisherman’s wharf” [5] plan undergoing and part of the Aberdeen Promenade park is planned as a tourism site by the government. But under the latest plan, the redevelopment scheme seemed shrinking. All in all, the Promenade is a very important linking point and transportation hub for Island south, if the leisure and tourism of this area wish to be underpinned, this Promenade should be improved to facilitate more public traffic. And as mentioned above, crucial issue of this ambition is improving the traffic of Island South !

Lamma Island

Lamma Power Station

Finally, we stepped on the ferry and starting for Lamma Island, which will be the last destination of our 3-day site visits. The Lamma Island[6] is 3^rd largest island in HK and 6,000 populations living there including lots of foreigners. When hiking along the path of the hilly island and disturbed occasionally by the giant spiders, we were sweating all over and cannot not remember how long we walked. But we all know that to enjoy the grand sights of the Lamma Winds and Power Station on the peak, we need to remain committed to it until we arrive there. When we were high enough, we caught a glimpse of the 3 giant chimney of the Lamma Power Station. It is a coal and gas-fired power station built for Hong Kong Electric, which provides power to Hong Kong Island and Lamma Island. We found that among the 3 giant chimneys, only 2 are smoking. Actually, the last one is a fake one standing there, just because of Fengshui problem.

Lamma Winds

It was still some distance before we reached the peak and when we arrived there we found the Lamma Winds was already under our feet. I felt as if we were flying together with the Winds! There is an exhibition center for the Lamma Winds, which is a showcase to the public of the sustainability the power station and the government have achieved. But per our observation, the main station power in Lamma is still dominated by coal and gas-fired originated power, so hope the sustainable energy efficiency is not just an exhibition but on a real-case basis.

The Lamma Island is all filled with green and with lots of beautiful scenery spots, just to name a few beside the Lamma Winds and Power Station above: Hung Shing Yeh Beach, Hung Shing Temple, Yung Shue Wan and Tin Hau temples and Tai Peng village etc. All the places are with exceptional natural and historical view and Lamma Island is very resourceful in terms of tourism. The only shortage of the Island should be its traffic accessibility. Until now the only method to get on board the beautiful seems the ferry, the Island is no doubt charming and attractive, but without a sound traffic accessibility, how could the leisure and tourism resources be enjoyed.

References:

[1] HK Tourism Performance in 2013 (http://www.tourism.gov.hk/english/statistics/statistics_perform.html)

 Waterfall Bay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterfall_Bay,_Hong_Kong)

[2] Green Coverage in HK (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF)

[3] Waterfall Bay (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%80%91%E5%B8%83%E7%81%A3)

[4] Aberdeen Promenade (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BB%94%E6%B5%B7%E6%BF%B1%E5%85%AC%E5%9C%92)

[5] Fisherman’s Wharf Plan (http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E4%BB%94%E6%BC%81%E4%BA%BA%E7%A2%BC%E9%A0%AD)

[6] Lamma Island (http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/see-do/great-outdoors/outlying-islands/lamma-island/index.jsp)