Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

Many Park Island residents have heard, "from someone who heard", that there might be plans for a luxury resort and marina at the Ma Wan old village. I'm going to provide a little more information on this. It is my understanding that there are indeed plans to build such a resort on Ma Wan, along with quite extensive plans to develop (with appropriate conservation and restoration) the Ma Wan old village. The development of the resort and old village are scheduled, at this stage, to take place between 2016 -2019. I will provide more details in due course, but for now I wanted to show you where the resort will be. Location of proposed luxury resort and marina on Ma Wan The location marked with the red star is the area where Government approval has been given for the development of the resort. Apparently, approval requires the resort to have no more than 400 rooms, and requires, among other things, the developer to provide "sufficient road transport

The iconic Tsing Ma Bridge, which can be viewed from Park Island, Ma Wan, is the longest bridge ever built in Hong Kong.  The Bridge has a centre span of 1,377 meters and crosses the marine channel between Ma Wan and Tsing Yi.  The main cables supporting the Bridge were made up of some 27,000 tonnes of steel wires. The total length of these wires is sufficient to stretch round the world 4 times. The Tsing Ma Bridge forms a major part of the essential link in the expressway and airport railway connecting the Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.  On Tsing Yi, the Bridge links directly to an interchange with connections to the urban districts and, via the Ting Kau Bridge, to the Northwest New Territories. On Ma Wan, high level viaducts extend from the Ma Wan end of the Bridge and cross the island to connect directly with the Kap Shiu Mun Bridge across the Kap Shui Mun channel. The Tsing Ma Bridge Tsing Ma Bridge

1600 pandas had a great time on the beach of Park Island / Ma Wan recently, and were warmly welcomed by Park Island residents. The pandas, created by French artist Paulo Grangeon in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature, are a protest work from the artist about the dwindling panda population. Each paper panda represents a real panda. In 2004, the WWF estimated that only 1,600 pandas inhabit the planet and that the species is endangered.  The pandas have already visited France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Taiwan as part of a world tour. Their arrival in Hong Kong brings them closer to the natural home of real pandas, in the bamboo forests of western China.  Here's a nice little video of the  1600 pandas arriving in Hong Kong . Below are a few photos of the pandas on the beach at Park Island. Pandas enjoying the beach at Ma Wan Park Island residents welcome 1600 pandas who came for a visit

I've received a number of emails since my last update on this blog, asking if Hong Kong property prices will start to rise again. Currently, by applying a mathematical calculation of cost of rent vs cost to borrow, Hong Kong property is relatively fairly priced. That is, not excessively overpriced, nor excessively under priced . In my mind, the biggest deciding factor is still: 1) How long the Fed will keep interest rates at current levels; and 2) To what extent the property cooling measures will be eased in Hong Kong. That is, will they be eased prior to the Fed increasing interest rates, in tandem with t he Fed increasing interest rates, or at a lag in time from the time t he Fed increasing interest rates. If you knew the answer to these questions you could with great certainty make money (or prevent losing money) with regard to investing in property in Hong Kong. My prediction is still that the  cooling measures will be eased in Hong Kong  in tandem wit

I've written on the topic of car access to Park Island for residents before and it is always a topic of interest, both to Park Island residents who prefer not to have car access (due to wanting to limit public access/noise/pollution etc) to Park Island, and those who prefer to have cars, due to both the convenience and the likely significant boost in property prices that would undoubtedly result (welcomed by owners, but no so much by those of who rent apartments on Park Island.). See:  http://parkislandhongkong.blogspot.sg/2010/11/will-private-cars-ever-be-allowed-on.html I recently received an interesting "unofficial" update today from a senior Hong Kong Transport Department official that I will now share. As some of you may know, in the past, one main reason cited for not allowing private cars for residents of Park Island has been that the Transport Department had concerns about the effect on traffic congestion over the Tsing Ma Bridge and the Kap Shui Mun Br

Check out these bands who recently performed at Cafe Roma on Park Island.  You probably wouldn't find people this cooling living in Discovery Bay...  WHITE NOISE JOE STEINER & JAMES BEETON - Acustic Gig Also some of Park Island's female talent visible in the first clip - :)

In a post in 2012 I wrote about plans to significantly expand/replenish the main beach on Ma Wan. See : http://parkislandhongkong.blogspot.com/2012/09/ma-wans-tung-wan-beach-to-be-extended.html  Map of proposed Tung Wan Beach replenishment project. I spoke to the Department of Leisure and Cultural Services today for an update, as the previous plans were to commence works in March or April of 2014, and so far I have not see the beach grow. The latest plans are now for works to be commenced in March/April of 2015, with the project to be finished by the end of 2015. So, what caused the delay? Well it's typical Government bureaucracy, (as is often the case). In a nutshell, the volume of sand to be added is so large that it will "significantly alter the shoreline and high-water mark". In essence under some Ordinances, this is considered to be "creating new land". So even though the Department of Leisure and Cultural Services has approved the pro