Park Island, Ma Wan, Hong Kong

We have another cantopop star living on Park Island. Does anyone know who she is? Here's a hint. She is young and she is cute. I even know which block she lives in, but which one, I am not telling. Here's a digitally semi-disguised photo taken in the elevator. I will expose her next week :) Who is this Cantopop star living on Park Island?

The sun sets over the ocean at Ma Wan Let's move away, for a moment, from the on-going focus on rising property prices in Hong Kong. I'm not going to claim credit for this photo. It was sent to me by a Park Island blog reader. But I love the photo, and it captures so well the peaceful feeling you get if you have an apartment facing in this direction on Park Island as the sun sets, perhaps with a beer or a cigar in your hand, sitting on the balcony unwinding a little after a hard day in "the city".

In my last post Tung Wan Beach to be widened , I reported the good news that the main beach on Ma Wan, used by Park Island residents, is going to be significantly widened with plans for an even wider flat sandy beach.  I now have some further good news to report, this time regarding transport on to Ma Wan! The Tseun Wan District Counsel has just recommended and approved a further easing of transport restrictions to Park Island for taxis. I can confirm that the recommendation was also approved by Hong Kong's Transport Department. It appears that the transport department has approved two major changes. First, taxi access will be opened up to Park Island for weekends as well as weekdays. T he hours of access will be extended such that taxi access will move towards an eventual 24/7 schedule. I think the relaxed restrictions will be welcomed by mothers with kids and prams, and late night revellers returning from Central alike. Secondly, the taxi operation area

Park Island Transport Company Limited (PITCL) was established to provide high quality bus and ferry services to/from Ma Wan Island. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited, the company that developed Park Island. Here is the link of the Park Island Transport Company: http://www.pitcl.com.hk/eng/html/index.asp Information about the Park Island bus schedule here: http://www.pitcl.com.hk/eng/html/bus.htm Information about the Park Island ferry schedule here: http://www.pitcl.com.hk/eng/html/ferry.htm The contact details fot the Park Island bus and Park Island ferry services are as follows: General Enquiry -Tel: 2946 8888 (24-hour automatic telephone system), 2946 8899 (Operator during office hours) Email: enquiry@pitcl.com.hk Address: 1/F, Park Island Ferry Pier, 8 Pak Lai Road, Ma Wan, N.T., Hong Kong

Park Island Residents! Today I have some very good news to report. Our main beach on Park Island, Tung Wan beach is going to G R O W It will be made significantly wider. We are going to get more sand added, significantly more, which will provide for a broad, wide, and extended flat beach, care of the Hong Kong Government. Government approval for the project has already been granted, and a tender for these works will go out shortly. The beach improvement works will mainly involve filling of sand in an area of about 3.47 ha of foreshore and sea-bed to extend the sandy area of the Tung Wan Beach. To give you a sense of the size and scale of the improvement, the sandy area of the beach will increase from about 3,400m2 currently to about 15,000m2. So around a 5 times the increase in the current sandy beach area. In the map below you can see, marked in red where the new sand extension will go: Tung Wan beach extension plans marked on a map  Below you can see an aerial

Readers, I received the following email from Louise Westin, from Sweco Infrastructure, in Stockholm. If you feel like helping her and making contact with her, please feel free to do so. Dear Park Island Blogger, Thank you for your help about where to find information about Park Island and Ma Wan! Now I wonder if perhaps you maybe could give me some answers to my questions to? I would really appreciate your help! I am planning a study-trip to Hong Kong, for a group of approximately 100 traffic planers, urban planners and engineers. On our study-trip to Hong Kong, we have scheduled an visit to Ma Wan and the residential area Park Island. We have not yet sorted out exactly how the visit will be organized, but one idea is to handle out some information material before we visit the Island. This is the reason way I am writing to you, I wonder if you could post a question on the wall of your group. I wonder how the residents on Ma Wan experience that the traffic system to and fr

According to agents on the island last week was a busy month, with lots of enquiries from potential buyers. I was sent the article below by a property agent on Park Island: Park Island Property Newspaper Article In summary, the article reports that  "small size apartment" sales broke record twice within the last month. Park Island, Block 17, Mid Floor, Flat G Size 449sqft Price sold 3.12M ($6949 per sqf) The owner brought in 2010 $2.45M and how now sold earning $1.33M up 54.8%. According to the agent, the seller is now looking at buying a larger apartment on the Park Island. My comment on that is that whilst it appear the seller made a good profit, the larger apartment will of course also have risen in price, so from that perspective his "relative gain" may not actually be that much, as apartment prices everywhere (not just on Park Island) have risen substantially since 2010.   Some of these "small size" apartments were originally