It would become an instant Hong Kong Cultural Icon

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Why are there NO bridges across Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong?

It would become an instant Hong Kong Cultural Icon

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Victoria Harbour Hong Kong - We need a Bridge!

Ever since arriving in Hong Kong on January 2nd 1972 I have always been bemused by the lack of an iconic bridge across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, think of all the major cities in the World like New York, London, Sydney, San Francisco, Paris etc which have an iconic bridge (s)…..

Hong Kong has 4 iconic bridges, (with others under construction) some of them are quite magnificent but to me we are lacking one where it is needed the most, Victoria Harbour, connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon.

I have done a lot of research over the years on this subject, I keep tabs by checking out the websites of the Development Bureau, Transport Department, The Harbourfront Commission and Lands Department of the Hong Kong SAR Government and sadly we are still no nearer to getting our “instant icon” - below are articles and comments about bridge projects proposed but for one reason or another they just never happened and mostly without any explanation as to why they were shelved, at a guess the cost would be the biggest obstacle one imagines.

Learn more | Amazing article about Hong Kong Bridges from Zolima Magazine

I strongly recommend that you read the article about bridges in Hong Kong written by Zolima Magazine which is an amazing publication by the way (click on the link above)

After reading the article I must admit that it had never occurred to me that climate was and still is a factor when it comes to bridges being built in Hong Kong, (humidity, heat and winds from Typhoons) and yet it seems that we solved those issues considering we have 4 mega bridges in operation and others being built as we speak.

It has also been suggested that the lack of land on the shore of Hong Kong Island would be problematical given the bridge infrastructure and road network needed, this became a redundant reason after the major reclamation works over the past 50 years on Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula.

I have heard people mention that a bridge across Victoria Harbour would be an eyesore and ruin the natural beauty, to me anyway this makes no sense given we already have 3 amazing mega bridges and the designs proposed in recent years have been jolly nice!

I also have my own theory or two on why there is not a bridge spanning Victoria Harbour and connecting Kowloon and Hong Kong Island and they are a little bit “out there” so to speak and one theory is quite simply that a lot of local Hong Kong Chinese residents believe it would be bad luck which delves into the head spinning subject of Feng Shui.

I have been hearing those whispers since I was a kid here and it cannot be discounted, a lot of Hong Konger’s are very superstitious and even though I am often personally baffled by “Feng Shui” I believe that it is a factor.

(in Chinese thought) a system of laws considered to govern spatial arrangement and orientation in relation to the flow of energy (chi), and whose favourable or unfavourable effects are taken into account when siting and designing buildings.

This is a dictionary explanation of Feng Shui and a bridge is similar to a building, it is entirely possible that all of the proposals have been quietly dropped because of superstition, it would not surprise me at all and yes it is confusing when you take into account that there 3 road tunnels and more rail tunnels connecting Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, go figure! clearly out of sight, out of mind!

Another theory I have is that I should also point out that up until the late 1960’s there was definitely a big class divide in Hong Kong, the middle class and rich people lived on Hong Kong Island and the rest of the population slummed it in Kowloon and the New Territories, there was mass migration from China to Hong Kong in the 1950’s and 1960’s which did not go down well with the moneyed class in Hong Kong who all lived on Hong Kong Island and wanted to keep the riff raff at arms length across the harbour. Just a personal opinion based on living here for 52 years.

It worked, the only way to get across the harbour prior to late 1972 was on a boat, mainly passenger and vehicle ferries and not forgetting the iconic Walla-Walla, a rather dodgy and not really seaworthy boat which was essential transport in the late evening when a lot of ferry services had stopped running.

Learn more | Zolima Magazine Article about Walla Wallas, Ferries and Kaito vessels in Hong Kong

That is not relevant today thank goodness (Hong Kong Island has more than it’s fair share of Public Housing Estates.) and although snobbery still exists it is much better these days and it should be said that the millionaires and billionaires still gravitate to living at the top of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island where houses and apartments can easily cost US$50 - US$150 Million and naturally they look down on us mere mortals!

So below is the historical time line for Victoria Harbour bridge projects in Hong Kong.

Read On

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Bridge Project Proposal - 1 and 2

As far as I can tell the very first bridge project across Victoria Harbour was proposed in 1901 by the Hong Kong Harbour Master, Mr R. Murray Rumsey in his 1901 annual report (he did get a street named after him!) and they were still talking about it 20 years later see link below, this was closely followed by another report in the 1920’s proposing a bridge that could also have street trams running across it, a bold proposal at the time.

Both plans never happened and were never really given serious consideration and I imagine that as both designs had to be built with iron, humidity, heat and Typhoons would have posed major issues 100 years ago and of course the cost in a slowly developing Hong Kong would be have been astronomical (and World War One stopped most infrastructure projects in Hong Kong 1914 - 1918).

I actually rather liked the bridge design of 1901 which would have been quite close design wise to the Tower Bridge in London as it would had to have taken into account harbour traffic, something today that is not really an issue, it is very rare to see ships of any size sailing through Victoria Harbour these days.

Learn more | Article about the 1901 and 1920 Bridge Projects courtesy of the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Bridge Project Proposal - 3

The next big Victoria Harbour Bridge Proposal was in 1961 and this was taken a bit more seriously and essentially it came down to a contest between building a bridge or a tunnel under Victoria Harbour, see link below.

The image above courtesy of my friends at Old Hong Kong in Colour shows a now and then Victoria Harbour visual from 1961 vs 2020. It should be noted that one of the objections was the proximity of the proposed bridge to the old Kai Tak International Airport which closed in 1998 (you can kind of see it in the upper right portion of the image) I rather think that was just a convenient excuse, I live under the flight path of the current Hong Kong International Airport and a lot of planes fly over our mega airport bridge hundreds of times a day without an issue… but then again technology probably helps these days!

As it happened the bridge project was shelved for a variety of reasons explained in the article, as a result the Cross Harbour Tunnel opened in 1972 (my father was involved with the project) and this was a game changer transport wise in Hong Kong, finally Hong Kong Island was connected to Kowloon and the New Territories for vehicular traffic and it doomed the Vehicular Ferries to a slow death and then within 10 years we had the MTR (Subway) operating under Victoria Harbour.

Learn more | article about the 1961 bridge project courtesy of the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group

This is text from the 1947 study of the best way to connect Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula :

A bridge is feasible but a difficult engineering problem. Requirements would include sufficient clearance for passenger liners, adequate stiffness and strength to withstand typhoons; a reasonable gradient would imply access roads at some height above the shore on each side. This would also probably be the most costly of the three alternatives.

A tunnel is also feasible, by one or the other well established engineering methods. It has the advantages of a minimum cost of upkeep, immunity against typhoons, and the accommodation of the cross harbour services such as water supply, telephone and power cables, which can be serviced ‘in the dry’.

Personally I think the reasoning is perhaps flawed in hindsight given the eventual cost of the first 1972 Cross Harbour Tunnel, I think the bridge would have been cheaper… work started on the tunnel 22 years after the 1947 report, a lot changed economically in that period, well, they were not privy to computer modelling back then!

Learn more | Article about the proposed 1961 Bridge project and 1947 study of a cross harbour tunnel (completed in 1972) with comments about the bridge option courtesy of the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Bridge Project Proposal - 4

The next project mooted was in 1996 and it was for a pedestrian walkway across Victoria Harbour which to me anyway was a much more sensible option given we have so many road and rail tunnels and it could still happen! see image above, in essence it would connect West Kowloon which is our art hub (museums and art galleries) with the Central Business District.

There have been many studies done and a lot of people think this is a very viable and economically feasible project, I remain hopeful and honestly I am surprised the Hong Kong Government has not taken this further, it would probably double tourism arrivals for decades if it was built and it also puzzles me when I think that in Mainland China, the bridge would have been built in a nano second, but as we all know there are cultural differences between Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The article (click on the button below) gives all the detail and as usual nothing has progressed.

Learn more | SCMP article about the proposed Pedestrian Sky Bridge across Victoria Harbour

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Bridge Project Proposal - 5

The next project proposed was in 2003, see image | text below and it was quite a similar proposal to the 1996 project but in my mind better located, ie from next to the Star Ferry in Kowloon right into the middle of the Central Business District.

For reasons unknown the project seems to have died a death and again I simply do not understand why? I personally think this is a splendid idea and would put Hong Kong back on the Tourism map, an instant cultural icon.

… and it will not have escaped your notice that Feng Shui design elements are prominent (The Dragon Culture) so that particular box was ticked … the report mentions 17 million visitors in 2002, well that number was 65 million in 2018 and the figure for 2024 will be around 45 million and probably every single tourist would want to walk the bridge across the harbour.

Victoria Harbour Hong Kong Bridge Project Proposal - 6

There was a proposal in 2015 that then followed from a major player in the architecture field in Hong Kong - Lead 8 :

“One of the few holistic visions for the harbour comes from a Quarry Bay-based architecture firm called Lead 8. Unveiled in 2015, Harbour Loop calls for a 23-kilometre ribbon of promenades that wrap around the inner harbour.”

This was the essence of the plan and it also called for a bridge as shown above at the eastern end of Hong Kong Island, very close in fact to the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and new Kai Tak Sports Arena and in the same vicinity as the Eastern Harbour Road Tunnel.

As you can see the bridge is pretty high as it has to allow for all of the mega cruise ships that come to Hong Kong, this is the channel they use to get to our 2 cruise ship terminals., the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal and the Ocean Terminal.

Personally I doubt this bridge would be seen as a viable option, it is simply in the wrong place as a “tourist attraction” it is too far away from the Central Business District and the down town Kowloon so to speak and I have not seen or heard any other information about it since it was proposed in 2015

There was one other very vague proposal made around the same time but not for a pedestrian bridge it was for a pedestrian tunnel under the harbour presumably of a design similar to an aquarium, the project to me seemed to be more like an underwater shopping mall and I doubt it will ever be taken seriously and personally I would always be worried about safety and frankly the harbour is not the cleanest in the world, I doubt you would see anything of interest when it comes to marine mammals!

As you can see from the 3 images below, we do have some magnificent bridges which are iconic in their own right and not forgetting the massive bridge that connects Hong Kong Airport to Zhuhai in China and Macau, but they could never be as iconic as one going across Victoria Harbour!

So here we are heading into 2025 and not a whisper about any potential bridge project, Tourism is a pillar of Hong Kong society according to the Government and this proposed bridge would be a monumental game changer and I am pretty confident that cost would not be an issue, see statistic below and private investment could lower the cost substantially.