A stormy night view of Hong Kong Harbor
Hong Kong Harbor or Victoria Harbor is a natural landform harbor situated between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon in Hong Kong. The harbor's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on the South China Sea were instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony and its subsequent development as a trading center.
Throughout its history, the harbor has seen numerous reclamation projects undertaken on both shores, many of which have caused controversy in recent years. Environmental concerns have been expressed about the effects of these expansions, in terms of water quality and loss of natural habitat. It has also been proposed that benefits of land reclamation may be less than the effects of decreased harbor width, affecting the number of vessels passing through the harbor. Nonetheless Victoria Harbor still retains its founding role as a port for thousands of international vessels each year.
Long famous for its spectacular views, the harbor is a major tourist attraction of Hong Kong. Lying in the middle of the territory's dense urban region, the harbor is the site of annual fireworks displays and its promenades are popular gathering places for tourists and residents.
The first reference to what is now called Victoria Harbor is found in Zheng He's sailing maps of the China coast, dated c.1425, which appear in the Wubei Zhi (A Treatise on Armament Technology), a comprehensive 17th-century military book. While the harbor was charter in later maps, the first map depicting it in detail is an 1810 marine chart prepared for the East India Company by Daniel Ross and Philip Maughan, lieutenants of the Bombay Marine.
Some of the first recreational activities to take place in the harbor were water competitions such as swimming and water polo in the 1850s, undertaken by members of Hong Kong's first sports club, the Victoria Recreation Club.
During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong. On 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a naval battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbor. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities. These incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbor was originally called "Hong Kong Harbor", but was later renamed as "Victoria Harbor", to assure shelter for the British fleet under Queen Victoria.
The subject of pollution came to fore in the 1970s with the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbor, a year after the RMS Queen Elizabeth burned and capsized there. Studies also showed excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbor for decades.
After completion of the Central and Wan Chai Reclamation Feasibility Study in 1989, the Land Development Policy Committee endorsed a concept for gradual implementation of this additional reclamation. It consists of three district development cells separated by parks, namely, Central, Tamar and Exhibition.
The latest proposed reclamation, extending along the waterfront from Sheung Wan to Causeway Bay, faced public opposition, as the harbor has become a pivotal location to Hongkongers in general. Activists have denounced the government's actions as destructive not only to the natural environment, but also to what is widely considered as one of the most prized natural assets of the territory. NGOs, including the Society for Protection of the Harbor, were formed to resist further attempts to reduce the size of the waterbody, with its chairman, Christine Loh, quoted as saying that the harbor "...is a precious national asset and we must preserve it for future generations. I believe an insightful and visionary chief executive would support our stance and work with us to protect the harbor". Reclamation work also led to the demolition of structures of historic significance, Queen's Pier and Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier, to massive public opposition.
Victoria Harbor covers an area of about 41.88 km2 (16.17 sq mi) as of 2004. The eastern boundary is generally considered to be the line formed between the westernmost extremity of Siu Chau Wan (小酒灣) and A Kung Ngam. The western boundary is generally considered to consist of a line drawn from the westernmost point of Hong Kong Island to the westernmost point of Green Island, thence a straight line drawn from the westernmost point of Green Island to the southeastern-most point of Tsing Yi, thence along the eastern and northern coastal lines of Tsing Yi to its westernmost extremity, and thence a straight line drawn true north towards the mainland.
There are several islands within the harbor:
Green Island
Little Green Island
Kowloon Rock
Tsing Yi Island
Due to land reclamation, the following are former islands that are now connected to adjacent lands or larger islands:
Stonecutters Island (now connected to Lai Chi Kok Bay, New Kowloon)
Channel Rock (now connected to Kwun Tong, New Kowloon)
Kellett Island (now connected to Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island)
Hoi Sham Island (now connected to To Kwa Wan, Kowloon)
Nga Ying Chau (now connected to Tsing Yi Island, New Territories)
Pillar Island (now connected to Kwai Chung, New Territories)
Mong Chau (now connected to Kwai Chung, New Territories)
Chau Tsai (now connected to Tsing Yi Island)
Rumsey Rock (now within Tsim Sha Tsui/Hung Hom)
Victoria Harbor is home to most of the port facilities of Hong Kong, making Hong Kong amongst the world's busiest. An average of 220,000 ships visit the harbor each year, including both oceangoing vessels and river vessels, for both goods and passengers. The Kwai Chung Container Terminals in the western part of the harbor is the main container handling facility, operating round the clock and handling about 62 percent of the 21,930 TEUs handled by the territory in 2004. Some 400 container liners serve Hong Kong weekly, connecting to over 500 destinations around the world.
For many years until 2004, Hong Kong handled the most containers (measured by TEUs), but it faces competition from the ports in nearby Shenzhen in recent years, with the ports in Shenzhen combined handling more containers than the Kwai Chung terminals since August 2004. Overall, the Hong Kong port has also lost out to the Port of Singapore in containers handled, with Singapore's port outpacing Hong Kong's since the first quarter of 2005.
Transport
There is no bridge crossing the harbor, but there are three cross-harbor road tunnels: Cross Harbor Tunnel (opened 1972), Eastern Harbor Crossing (1989), and Western Harbor Crossing (1997). The three tunnels act as important linkages between the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon.
Three Mass Transit Railway routes also run under the Harbor. They are namely:
Tsuen Wan Line
Tseung Kwan O Line (sharing an immersed tube with the Eastern Harbor Crossing)
Tung Chung Line and Airport Express, which share the same trackage within the tunnel
A fourth railway route will soon also pass under the harbor as part of the Shatin to Central Link. It will be served by the North-South Corridor, connecting Hung Hom to Exhibition and Admiralty stations.
The Star Ferry has been crossing the harbor since the late 19th century. The operated ferry routes today are: Central to Tsim Sha Tsui and Wanchai to Tsim Sha Tsui. But, on 31 March 2011, Star Ferry has ended operations from Wan Chai/Central to Hung Hom because they were unprofitable. Some other regular ferry services also operate in the harbor.
The Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry Company used to operate numerous cross-harbor routes between various piers of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Many of the routes are now operated by First Ferry. Some of the piers no longer exist because of reclamation projects, or many of the routes became unprofitable. Currently, the company continues to operate vehicular ferry services for vehicles carrying dangerous goods that are prohibited within tunnel crossings.
For international passenger traffic and traffic to mainland China and Macau, there are two ferry terminals, namely Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal and Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal, and a terminal for cruises, the Ocean Terminal. Another cruise terminal (Kai Tak Cruise Terminal) has recently been opened.
from Wikipedia
