Chapter 663 Northern Development

Author: Flying Tank

Chapter 663 Northern Development

Xiangjiang, known as the Pearl of the Orient, is one of the most prosperous international metropolises in Asia.

Its airport is one of the busiest airports in the world, with hundreds of takeoffs and landings every day, and close to or even more than 100,000 passengers.

Note this is every day!

The number of trips of 100,000 people is a terrifying figure. What’s more important is that passengers who can travel by air are basically either rich or expensive. Even those who take ordinary class passengers on low-cost flights are people who have no worries about food and drink.

The spending power of such people is amazing. If the Kowloon Walled City is transformed into a hotel, duty-free shopping mall and other service-providing places, the advantage of being close to the airport can be used to earn money from passengers and even captains and stewardesses.

The huge wealth is no joke, it is comparable to gold bricks falling from the sky, and its development value is even higher than the city center of Central.

But after the walled city is bulldozed, what will happen to the villagers inside? There are 50,000 people inside. If the resettlement is not done properly, there will be big problems.

It will definitely not work if the original building is demolished!

Because in order to utilize the Kowloon Walled City, it is necessary to build shopping malls, high-end residential buildings and other buildings. The price is not affordable for the aborigines of the Kowloon Walled City, even if relocation compensation is paid.

Because the minimum size of a high-end residence is two bedrooms and one living room, six to seven hundred square feet, and the price difference is so high that even the residents of the village cannot afford it even if they sell it.

The villagers can only be resettled in other places.

Lei Weidong didn't know what the British Hong Kong government did in real time and space. He probably applied for public rental housing for them so that they could have a place to stay.

More!

Xiangjiang is capitalist. The capitalists are eager to squeeze out the marrow of the common people. How can they let the common people take advantage?

As for filing a lawsuit if you refuse to accept it.

The tycoons in capitalist society are most afraid of litigating with the poor. They will hire a team of lawyers to beat the poor to death with their money.

Let the poor not only waste energy but also lose money.

"I have already thought of the resettlement method. It will definitely not work if the original building is demolished. In that case, there will be no profit." Lei Weidong glanced at the crowd and said:

"I ordered a batch of containers from the mainland and placed them in the Yuen Long area. I am arranging water and electricity connections for the temporary resettlement of residents of Kowloon Walled Village.

As for where they will be placed in the future, I am ready to launch the Northern Metropolitan Area Strategy and place them in the northern New Territories."

"Northern Metropolitan Area, Mr. Lei, are you planning to develop the northern part of the New Territories?" Mr. Dong asked.

"Yes!"

Lei Weidong nodded and said: "For a long time, the development of Xiangjiang has been strong in the south and weak in the north. Most of the industry and population are concentrated in the south, while large areas in the north are under development.

It used to be okay. Although the north had fewer people, it was an industrial area with a large number of factories, which not only provided jobs but also paid a large amount of taxes.

However, since the 1980s, with the large-scale development of the mainland, a large number of manufacturing industries in Xiangjiang have moved to the mainland, and the proportion of the northern regional economy in Xiangjiang has continued to decline from the original 30%.

It has now fallen below 5% and is sliding towards 2%.

Although Hong Kong's financial, real estate, insurance, tourism and other industries are strong, allowing Hong Kong's economy to rapidly improve, the hollowing out of Hong Kong's economy without the real economy is serious.

It is highly dependent on the outside world. If there is any disturbance, Hong Kong's economy will be hit hard. Changes must be made, and developing the northern part of Hong Kong is the best strategy. Of course, when developing, we must pay attention to the fact that it cannot be finance-centered, but technology-led.

.

In the future, there will be two urban centers in Xiangjiang. The southern one is dominated by finance, and the northern one is dominated by science and technology. The combination of the two is the way to go.

"The south is dominated by finance, and the north is dominated by technology. Mr. Lei, how big is your northern metropolitan area plan and what areas does it include?"

Mr. Dong, who is already determined to take office, is very interested in the northern metropolitan area proposed by Lei Weidong. He feels that he has found the future path of Xiangjiang.

“The northern metropolitan area I plan is mainly based on the two local administrative districts of Yuen Long District and North District.

Mainly the mature new towns such as Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long and Fanling, Sheung Shui and their adjacent rural areas, including Kwu Tung North, Fanling North, Hung Shui Kiu, Ha Tsuen, Yuen Long South, San Tin, and Lok Ma

Chau, Man Kam To and New Territories North New Town and other areas."

Lei Weidong took out a map, which marked the areas included in the northern metropolitan area.

"Lei Sheng, the northern metropolitan area you drew is too big, almost three hundred square kilometers. It is not easy to develop such a large area, and the biggest trouble is land. A lot of land has been deserted for a long time.

In fact, they all have owners.

Instead of struggling to acquire this land, it is better to reclaim land from the sea.”

Looking at the location marked by Lei Weidong on the map, Huo Daheng lamented that Lei Weidong was domineering. If such a large area could be built, Xiangjiang's economy would definitely skyrocket, but the difficulties would be huge.

Xiangjiang is no different from the mainland. As a capitalist area, the land in Xiangjiang is privately owned. Regardless of whether these areas are mountains, forests or fields, they are all owned by their owners.

What's more important is that these owners are not paupers, either wealthy families in Xiangjiang or local gangsters nearby.

The movie "Descendants of the Dragon" has a description.

Zhou Xiaolong, played by Sing Ye, looks like a country bumpkin, but is actually a rich second generation. His father, Zhou Feihong, played by Yuen Wah, appears to be the instructor of Tai O Village in Lantau Island, but is actually the largest landowner in the local area, owning half of the land in Tai O.

.

The other half is in the hands of Maomao's family, Zhou Xiaolong's childhood sweetheart.

More importantly, Zhou Xiaolong and Maomao liked each other. Once they got married, the entire land in Da'ao was owned by them.

These local rich people have money, land, food, clothing, and prestige in the local area. It is very difficult to get land from them, and it is not something that can be done with money.

This results in that the development area of ​​Xiangjiang is very small, and most of the area is green mountains and green waters.

The environment is good, but compared with mainland cities, Xiangjiang has really lagged behind in the 21st century, so much so that there are stupid thieves who want to rob the bustling urban area of ​​Xiangjiang.

Because I didn't know the road, I rode my bicycle towards a place with many buildings. As a result, I walked from the New Territories to the Special Administrative Region and was arrested by the border police.

This is not Lei Weidong's fabrication but a true story. It was reported by the Xiangjiang website. It seems that a man from Jiangsu Province in the Mainland smuggled into Xiangjiang. After smuggling into Xiangjiang, he fell into financial difficulties because he had no connections. In order to survive, he made a self-made

He had a copycat bomb and was going to carry out a robbery in Hong Kong Central.

Because he was unfamiliar with the place and didn't know the way to Central from the New Territories, so after setting off, he headed towards a place with many buildings, thinking that as long as he got to a place with many buildings, he would be able to reach Central, which is full of gold.

What he didn't expect was that after decades of development, high-rise buildings had risen from the ground, and the area was colorful, noisy and prosperous, giving it the look of a metropolis.

However, places such as the Hong Kong New Territories have always maintained a simple rural style due to land privatization.

This led the man to head towards the multi-story building, but he ended up going in the wrong direction. He was thinking about going to Central, but ended up going to the Special Administrative Region. When he passed the checkpoint, he was suspected by the police because he was acting suspiciously, so he stopped him and checked him.

As a result, a suspicious bomb-like object was found in his bag.

Although this report is somewhat ridiculous, it also shows that Xiangjiang is no longer unique, and the Special Administrative Region and other places have caught up.

The green mountains and green waters cannot be moved. If they are moved, let alone the landowners who do not agree, even if they agree, the high land compensation will cause a headache for the Xiangjiang government.

As a last resort, the Hong Kong government had no choice but to turn the ship around and ask for land from the sea.

The biggest reason why successive Hong Kong governments like to reclaim land from the sea is that the land in the sea is owned by the public. Not to mention the high cost of reclamation, one acre of land costs hundreds of thousands or even millions.

But the money is nothing compared to the hassle of developing private land.

Therefore, from the day when Xiangjiang was opened, in order to solve the problem of dense population and less land but more people, Xiangjiang built tall buildings on one side and asked for land from the sea on the other.

Over the past few decades, 75 square kilometers have been gained from reclamation, which is larger than the area of ​​two Haojiang rivers and close to 6.7% of Hong Kong's land area.

The Kai Tak Airport next to the Kowloon Walled City was created through reclamation.

It turns out that Kai Tak Airport was originally an Eagle Army Air Force Base and was converted into a dual-use airport in 1936.

Later, after several rounds of reclamation, the size of Kai Tak Airport gradually expanded.

In 1958, a new runway with a length of 2,194 meters extending from Kowloon Bay to Victoria Harbor was opened. In 1970, in order to accommodate the takeoff and landing of a new generation of large passenger aircraft, such as the Boeing 747, the runway was increased to 2,541 meters, and then the length of the runway was extended to 3,390 meters.

meters, its area reaches 2.14 square kilometers.

but!

Because Kai Tak Airport has already extended into Victoria Harbor, considering the safety of the waterway, Kai Tak Airport cannot be expanded indefinitely.

So the Hong Kong government started the international airport project, which was also a land reclamation project.

It is located on an artificial island in the north of Lantau Island. The artificial island was formed by leveling Chek Lap Kok and filling in the adjacent seabed.

After the completion of the international airport, it not only added 9.38 square kilometers of land to Hong Kong, but also brought great economic value, making Hong Kong's passenger and cargo volume climb to the forefront of the world.

Another representative work of Hong Kong reclamation is the Kwai Chung Container Terminal. The birth of the Kwai Chung Container Terminal is a sign that Hong Kong shipping has entered the container era.

In 1985, the throughput of Kwai Chung Container Terminal successfully ranked among the three largest container ports in the world.

In 1986, it surpassed New York Port and ranked second. In 1987, it surpassed Rotterdam and ranked first in the world.

Later, in order to solve the contradiction between the surge in cargo volume and the relatively lagging port facilities, Kwai Chung Port continued to reclaim land and built the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth piers successively, making it the busiest terminal in Hong Kong and even Asia.

In addition to industrial and commercial land, reclamation in Xiangjiang has also improved the living environment of residents.

Since the 1970s, in order to alleviate the dense population situation in the old urban areas, large-scale new town construction activities have been launched in the coastal areas of the New Territories.

Most of these newly established towns were built on land reclamation, and the most representative ones are Tsuen Wan, Sha Tin and Tuen Mun.

For example, of the total area of ​​17 square kilometers in Shatin urban area, more than a quarter of the land is reclaimed from the sea.

In addition, many places for residents to rest and entertain themselves were also created from land reclamation. For example, Victoria Park, the largest park on Hong Kong Island, is located in the Causeway Bay reclamation area.

In short, the development of Xiangjiang is inseparable from the reclamation project. It not only provides a large amount of urban land, but also meets the needs of the upgrading of important facilities such as airports, ports and land channels.
To be continued...