1.
MTR
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The Mass Transit Railway is the rapid transit railway system of Hong Kong. Opened in 1979, the system now includes 218.2 km of rail with 161 stations, operated by the MTR Corporation Limited, the MTR is one of the most profitable metro systems in the world, with a high farebox recovery ratio of 186%. Under the governments rail-led transport policy, the MTR system is a mode of public transport in Hong Kong. It consistently achieves a 99. 9% on-time rate on its train journeys, as of 2014, the MTR has a 48. 1% market share of the franchised public transport market, making it the most popular transport option in Hong Kong. The integration of the Octopus smart card fare-payment technology into the MTR system in September 1997 has further enhanced the ease of commuting on the MTR, construction started soon after the release of the study, and the first line opened in 1979. The MTR was immediately popular with residents of Hong Kong, as a result, there are continual debates regarding how and where to expand the MTR network. As a successful operation, the MTR has served as a model for other newly built systems in the world. During the 1960s, the government of Hong Kong saw a need to accommodate increasing traffic as Hong Kongs economy continued to grow strongly. In 1966, British transportation consultants Freeman, Fox, Wilbur Smith & Associates were appointed to study the system of Hong Kong. The study was based on the projection of the population of Hong Kong for 1986, on 1 September 1967, the consultants submitted the Hong Kong Mass Transport Study to the government, which recommended the construction of a 40-mile rapid transit rail system in Hong Kong. The study suggested that four rail lines be developed in six stages, detailed positions of lines and stations were presented in the study. These four lines were the Kwun Tong Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Island Line, the study was submitted to the Legislative Council on 14 February 1968. The consultants received new data from the 1966 by-census on 6 March 1968, a short supplementary report was submitted on 22 March 1968 and amended in June 1968. The by-census indicated that the projected 1986 population was reduced by more than one million from the estimate to 5,647,000. The dramatic reduction affected town planning, the population distribution was largely different from the original study. The projected 1986 populations of Castle Peak New Town, Sha Tin New Town, and, to an extent, Tsuen Wan New Town, were revised downward. In this updated scenario, the reduced the scale of the recommended system. The other lines would be placed in the list of extensions and this report led to the final study in 1970
2.
Rapid transit
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Rapid transit, also known as heavy rail, metro, subway, tube, or underground, is a type of high-capacity public transport generally found in urban areas. The stations typically have high platforms, without steps inside the trains and they are typically integrated with other public transport and often operated by the same public transport authorities. However, some transit systems have at-grade intersections between a rapid transit line and a road or between two rapid transit lines. It is unchallenged in its ability to transport large numbers of people quickly over short distances with little use of land, variations of rapid transit include people movers, small-scale light metro, and the commuter rail hybrid S-Bahn. The worlds first rapid-transit system was the partially underground Metropolitan Railway which opened as a railway in 1863. In 1868, New York opened the elevated West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, china has the largest number of rapid transit systems in the world. The worlds longest single-operator rapid transit system by length is the Shanghai Metro. The worlds largest single rapid transit service provider by both length of revenue track (665 miles and number of stations is the New York City Subway. The busiest rapid transit systems in the world by annual ridership are the Tokyo subway system, the Seoul Metropolitan Subway, the Moscow Metro, the Beijing Subway, Metro is the most common term for underground rapid transit systems used by non-native English speakers. One of these terms may apply to a system, even if a large part of the network runs at ground level. In Scotland, however, the Glasgow Subway underground rapid transit system is known as the Subway, in the US, underground mass transit systems are primarily known as subways, whereas the term metro is a shortened reference to a metropolitan area. In that vein, Chicagos commuter rail system, serving the area, is called Metra. Exceptions in naming rapid transit systems are Washington DCs subway system the Washington Metro, Los Angeles Metro Rail, and the Miami Metrorail, the opening of Londons steam-hauled Metropolitan Railway in 1863 marked the beginning of rapid transit. Initial experiences with steam engines, despite ventilation, were unpleasant, experiments with pneumatic railways failed in their extended adoption by cities. Electric traction was more efficient, faster and cleaner than steam, in 1890 the City & South London Railway was the first electric-traction rapid transit railway, which was also fully underground. Both railways were merged into London Underground. The 1893 Liverpool Overhead Railway was designed to use electric traction from the outset, budapest in Hungary and Glasgow, Chicago and New York all converted or purpose-designed and built electric rail services. Advancements in technology have allowed new automated services, hybrid solutions have also evolved, such as tram-train and premetro, which incorporate some of the features of rapid transit systems
3.
Tai Wai
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Tai Wai /ˌtaɪ ˈwaɪ/ is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong, located between Sha Tin New Town and the Lion Rock. It is the largest part of the Sha Tin District, Tai Wai occupies the southwestern end of the Sha Tin Valley. The Sha Tin area is located directly northeast of Tai Wai, Hill ranges separate Tai Wai from Kowloon in the south, and from Tsuen Wan in the west. The Tai Wai Nullah, sometimes referred to as the stream of Shing Mun River, flows through Tai Wai. The Shing Mun River then flows in a southwest-northeast direction across the Sha Tin Valley toward Tolo Harbour, few factory buildings are still in use, mostly as warehouses. The current urbanization of the area is the consequence of the development of Sha Tin New Town that started in the 1970s, Tai Wai village, where the name of the area came from, was the largest and oldest walled village in Sha Tin. It was built in 1574 during the Ming Dynasty, and was called Chik Chuen Wai at the time. It was originally made up of 16 families, Wai, Chan, Ng, Yeung, Wong, Lee, Hui, Cheng, Tong, Yuen, Yau, Lam, Lok, Tam, Mok and Choy. The Han descendants changed their surname into Wai by splitting the word Han in two halves and took up the character on the hand side. The Cheng family, on the hand, originated from a place called Xingyang in Zhengzhou. It is also the birthplace of Li Shangyin, one of the most famous poets in the late Tang Dynasty, the first public housing estate built in the area was Mei Lam Estate, with the first two blocks of its Phase 1 completed in 1981. Tai Wai Station opened in August 1983, Tai Wai covers 11 of the 38 electoral constituencies in Sha Tin District, as defined at the time of the 2015 Hong Kong District Council elections. They are, Chun Fung, Sun Tin Wai, Chui Tin, Hin Ka, Lower Shing Mun, Wan Shing, Keng Hau, Tin Sum, Chui Ka, Tai Wai, Chung Tin. Tai Wai has a population of approximately 91,300 It is composed largely of low to medium income households of different ethnic backgrounds ranging from local Chinese to Westerners, a large part of the population of Tai Wai lives in public housing estates. Privately owned apartment blocks are common and higher income luxury housing is also available in various parts of Tai Wai. Hundreds of three storey village houses can be found in the villages of the area, the table below lists all the public housing estates in Tai Wai, including Public Rental Housing, Home Ownership Scheme, Tenants Purchase Scheme and Private Sector Participation Scheme. Festival City is a HK$20 billion residential-commercial development project by Cheung Kong, Phase I was completed in September 2010, Phase II in October 2011, and Phase III in August 2012. The plan was to build 12 50-stories high residential towers with a construction area of 313,955 square meters as well as 25,890 square meters for the general publics use
4.
Sha Tin District
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Sha Tin District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. As one of the 9 districts located in the New Territories, it covers the areas of Sha Tin, Tai Wai, Ma On Shan, Fo Tan, Siu Lek Yuen and Ma Liu Shui. The district is the most populous district in Hong Kong, with a population of 630,273, the Sha Tin District covers approximately 69.4 km², including Sha Tin New Town and several country parks. Built mostly on reclaimed land in Sha Tin Hoi, the well-developed Sha Tin New Town comprises mainly residential areas along the banks of the Shing Mun River Channel, in the early 1970s it was a rural township of about 30,000 people. After Sha Tins first public housing estate, Lek Yuen Estate, was completed in 1976, today, about 65% of the districts population live in public rental housing, housing under Hong Kongs Tenants Purchase Scheme, or Home Ownership Scheme. Sha Tin was formerly named Lek Yuen, literally meaning the source of trickling or source of clear water, the area of the present day Sha Tin was populated before the Ming Dynasty. As the Shing Mun River runs across the district, most local residents were farmers, in 1579, Tai Wai Village, the oldest and largest walled village in the district was built. Several other villages were built along the river after Tai Wai Village, Sha Tin started to be administered by the British Hong Kong government since the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory was signed. The establishment of the Sha Tin Station of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in 1910 caused Sha Tin to be the common name for the area. Sha Tin was a market town at the present location of Sha Tin Centre Street. Sha Tin Town was the batch of satellite towns, or new town, to be built in the New Territories. In addition to the areas, there are four industrial areas for light industries, Tai Wai, Fo Tan, Siu Lek Yuen. The Chinese University of Hong Kong is also located in Sha Tin, people typically travel there via the MTR East Rail Line and get off at University station. A minibus service operates on campus, Sha Tin is the location for Hong Kongs second equestrian racecourse which has a capacity of 85,000. This course hosted the events during the 2008 Summer Olympics. The Olympics were hosted by Beijing, but there was concern over proper quarantine, penfold Park is located inside the racecourse and closed on race days. It is best accessed via the Fo Tan Station, Sha Tin Park is another major park located in Sha Tin. The Shing Mun River is a 7 km long, 200m wide channel originating at the Shing Mun Reservoir that runs as a river from the Tai Wai area and it has three main tributaries, namely Tai Wai Nullah, Fo Tan Nullah and Siu Lek Yuen Nullah
5.
Hong Kong
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Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, is an autonomous territory on the Pearl River Delta of East Asia. Macau lies across the delta to the west, and the Chinese province of Guangdong borders the territory to the north. With a total area of 1,106 square kilometres. Hong Kong was later occupied by Japan during World War II until British control resumed in 1945, under the principle of one country, two systems, Hong Kong maintains a separate political and economic system from China. Except in military defence and foreign affairs, Hong Kong maintains its independent executive, legislative, in addition, Hong Kong develops relations directly with foreign states and international organisations in a broad range of appropriate fields. Hong Kong is one of the worlds most significant financial centres, with the highest Financial Development Index score and consistently ranks as the worlds most competitive and freest economic entity. As the worlds 8th largest trading entity, its legal tender, Hong Kongs tertiary sector dominated economy is characterised by simple taxation with a competitive level of corporate tax and supported by its independent judiciary system. However, while Hong Kong has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and it has a very high Human Development Index ranking and the worlds longest life expectancy. Over 90% of the population use of well-developed public transportation. Seasonal air pollution with origins from neighbouring areas of Mainland China. Hong Kong was officially recorded in the 1842 Treaty of Nanking to encompass the entirety of the island, before 1842, the name referred to a small inlet—now Aberdeen Harbour, literally means Little Hong Kong)—between Aberdeen Island and the southern coast of Hong Kong Island. Aberdeen was a point of contact between British sailors and local fishermen. Detailed and accurate romanisation systems for Cantonese were available and in use at the time, fragrance may refer to the sweet taste of the harbours fresh water estuarine influx of the Pearl River or to the incense from factories lining the coast of northern Kowloon. The incense was stored near Aberdeen Harbour for export before Hong Kong developed Victoria Harbour, the name had often been written as the single word Hongkong until the government adopted the current form in 1926. Nevertheless, a number of century-old institutions still retain the form, such as the Hongkong Post, Hongkong Electric. As of 1997, its name is the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China. This is the title as mentioned in the Hong Kong Basic Law. Hong Kong has carried many nicknames, the most famous among those is the Pearl of the Orient, which reflected the impressive nightscape of the citys light decorations on the skyscrapers along both sides of the Victoria Harbour
6.
Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation
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On 2 December 2007, the MTR Corporation Limited, another railway operator in Hong Kong, took over the operation of the KCR network under a 50-year service concession agreement, which can be extended. Under the service concession, KCRC retains ownership of the KCR network with the MTR Corporation Limited making annual payments to KCRC for the right to operate the network, from 1910 to 1982, the KCR network was operated as a department of the Hong Kong Government. The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation was created in December 1982 after the government decided to corporatise its railway department, until 2007, the KCR owned and operated a network of heavy rail, light rail and feeder bus routes within Kowloon and the New Territories. It was also a developer by utilising its property development rights atop and around railway stations. In December 2007, it ceased operations, with its business becoming primarily that of earning revenue from being the holder of railway assets. While it continues to own the network, the network is operated by the MTR Corporation under a 50-year service concession. The events leading to the present day KCR go back one hundred years. During the 19th century, the colonial powers competed with each other to establish. Hong Kong held a position in protecting British trading interests in South China. It took a further 30 years before the idea of building a railway from Hong Kong to China was again given serious consideration, and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. These concessions included the right to construct and operate a railway from Kowloon to Canton that would link to the Peking-Hankow-Canton line. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, the Hong Kong Government under the leadership of the governor, Sir Henry Blake. The arrangements were ratified by the Hong Kong Governments passage of the Railway Loans Ordinance in 1905. It took until 1907, however, for the agreement for the Chinese Section to be concluded. It was a question of preserving the predominance of Hong Kong and it was a question of seeing that the final outlet of the main trunk railway should be at Kowloon, and at no other place. Following a detailed survey in 1905, the route was proposed. The initial estimate for the project was HK$5,053,274, the most difficult part of the project was the construction of the Beacon Hill Tunnel, which ended up costing about one quarter of the whole project. This decision, although it might have seemed unnecessarily costly at the time, the railway was formally opened on Saturday,1 October 1910, but without a terminus, this event being officially recorded by way of a notice in the following Fridays Hong Kong Government Gazette
7.
Sha Tin to Central Link
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The Sha Tin to Central Link is an under-construction expansion of the MTR rapid transit network in Hong Kong. Its route is divided two sections. The first section is from Tai Wai Station in the New Territories to Hung Hom Station in Kowloon, the Tai Wai – Hung Hom segment will connect the Ma On Shan Line and West Rail Line forming the East West Corridor. In anticipation of the East West Corridor, the existing Kwun Tong Line was extended from its previous terminus at Yau Ma Tei Station to Whampoa Station and this extension includes the new Ho Man Tin Station to provide interchange with the East West Corridor. The Kwun Tong Line Extension was opened on 23 October 2016, the second section of the Sha Tin to Central Link is from Hung Hom Station to Admiralty Station on Hong Kong Island. The Hung Hom–Admiralty segment will be an extension of the East Rail Line to form the North South Corridor and this cross-harbour extension is scheduled to be completed in 2021. The proposed route of the Sha Tin to Central Link roughly follows the scheme of the original East Kowloon Line, the Shatin to Central Link was included as one of the Priority Railway Schemes in the Hong Kong governments Railway Development Strategy 2000. On 25 June 2002, the government announced that the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation had won its bid against the MTR Corporation to build, the route was originally planned to go from Tai Wai Station to Central West Station, as an extension of the then-under-construction KCR Ma On Shan Rail. Mong Kok Station would have relocated, joining a new tunnel to a deeper Hung Hom station platform connecting to the cross-harbour section. Additionally, stations at Tsz Wan Shan and Whampoa Garden were removed from the proposal, however, the KCRCs proposal had not yet been finalised. At the same time, the MTRC submitted a new proposal to the government, on 11 April 2006, MTRC signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the government of Hong Kong, the owner of KCRC, to merge the operations of the territorys two railway networks. According to the memorandum, the MTRC-owned MTR lines will be integrated with the Shatin to Central Link. The government also intended to choose the KCRCs modified proposal to build the railway, however, final decisions were not made before conducting further studies on the proposal with the MTRC. The new proposal was announced jointly by both companies on 12 July 2007, before the merger of the two networks on 2 December that year. Under this proposal, the depot for the Sha Tin to Central Link would have been built underneath the former Tai Hom Village site between Kai Tak and Diamond Hill stations. The people movers were omitted, Causeway Bay North station was removed from the proposal due to potential adverse effects on road traffic during construction. The MTRC announced a proposal on 11 March 2008. The government would fund all of the required HK$37.4 billion for construction, the Executive Council approved the construction cost of HK$79.8 billion in March 2012 and construction began on 22 June 2012
8.
East Rail Line
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The East Rail Line is one of eleven railway lines of the Mass Transit Railway system in Hong Kong. It used to be one of the three lines of the Kowloon–Canton Railway network and it was known as the KCR British Section from 1910 to 1996, and the KCR East Rail from 1996 to 2007. The railway line starts at Hung Hom Station in Kowloon and branches in the north at Sheung Shui to terminate at Lo Wu or Lok Ma Chau stations, both are boundary crossing points into Shenzhen. The East Rail was the railway line of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation before the construction of KCR West Rail. The same railway is used for passenger and freight services crossing the boundary to other cities, including Guangzhou, Shanghai and these longer distance passenger services start at Hung Hom and end at their termini in the mainland. The line is double tracked and electrified, except for certain goods sheds. Immigration and customs facilities are available at Hung Hom and Lo Wu/Lok Ma Chau stations, the railway line was operated by Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation prior to the MTR-KCR merger and has since been taken over by MTR Corporation on 2 December 2007 after the merger was completed. The line is coloured blue on the MTR map. The distance between Hung Hom and Lo Wu stations is 34 km, the total distance of the line is approximately 41 km, making it the longest line in total distance within the system network. The United Kingdom and China signed an agreement to cooperate on the construction of a railway from Kowloon to Canton, the whole project was 87 miles long, with 22 miles in the British Section and 65 miles for the Chinese Section. However, the English could earn 65% of the income while China could only earn 35% of it, the most difficult section was the approx. 7200 feet long Beacon Hill Tunnel, and about a hundred workers died in the construction, the construction was mainly done by Chinese. The government built camps in Kowloon to support the construction, most of the railway were flat land, so construction was relatively easy in those places. However, the construction of the Beacon Hill Tunnel involved digging and blasting, the two ends were of soft soil, but the centre was granite. This caused a delay in construction as it was not suitable to use explosives at the two ends while the explosives could not blast off a lot of rock in the centre. The railway line to the Chinese border, then called the Kowloon-Canton Railway, the remaining section from Lo Wu to Canton was called the Chinese Section. Initially, service was provided from Yau Ma Tei station to Fanling station with a tunnel through Beacon Hill. After the Chinese Section was completed, through service became available to Canton
9.
Ma On Shan Line
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The Ma On Shan Line is a branch line of the MTR East Rail Line in Hong Kong. It is coloured brown on the MTR map, before 2 December 2007, the railway was operated by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation as Ma On Shan Rail. Since the KCRCs merger of operations with the MTR Corporation, the line has one of the ten lines of the MTR. KCRC estimated the construction cost of Ma On Shan Rail would be HK$10 billion, the line starts at Tai Wai station in Tai Wai, Shatin and ends at Wu Kai Sha Station, Wu Kai Sha, totalling 11.4 km or 16 minutes of journey time. It has nine stations, with a depot at Tai Wai. Construction began on 12 February 2001 and the line opened on 21 December 2004,3 days earlier than the opening date. A trip from either line to the other counted as one ride, most of the line, including stations, was built on a viaduct on land which had been reserved for the purpose of a railway from the outset of the development of Ma On Shan New Town. In June 2016, using the ubiquitous Octopus stored-value card, the fare for a trip on the line ranged from HK$3.7 to HK$5.3 depending on the distance travelled. The fare from Ma On Shan to East Rail Line stations in Kowloon ranged from HK$5.3 to HK$10.2, over a thousand passengers went to Tai Wai to take the first train on the first day of service. However, just an hour after service commenced, one train suffered minor door defects, after the opening of the Ma On Shan Line, the usage of buses and taxis in the area decreased by as much as 50%. It was reported that some bus routes operated by KMB saw a decrease of ridership by one-third just a few days after the railway opened, road and rail traffic in Hong Kong move on the left, but Ma On Shan Line is an exception. This line is aligned to the east of East Rail Line, and this design is to speed up passenger interchange to the East Rail Line to Kowloon during the morning commute. Therefore, the Ma On Shan Line moves on the right, KCRC initially ordered 18 sets of Kinki Sharyo EMU SP1950 trains, built by Kinki Sharyo, which have run in a four-car configuration since the line commenced service. The train is the model as the one used on the high capacity East Rail Line and West Rail Line. In March 2017, two 8-car sets of the East West Line Train, manufactured by CRRC Changchun, entered service on the line, trains on the line are serviced at Tai Wai Depot. Two sets of 8-car trains were introduced on 15 January 2017 as part of works for the Sha Tin to Central Link, passengers have to pay attention to the platform LCD screens and announcements to queue at the right part of the platforms. The first two of 14 new trains, ordered by MTR, made by CRRC Changchun, entered service in March 2017, the following is a list of the stations on the Ma On Shan Line. Since the early planning stages of the Ma On Shan Line, according to the latest modified proposal of the Sha Tin to Central Link, the Ma On Shan Line will be extended from Tai Wai Station to Hung Hom Station via East Kowloon
10.
Aedas
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Aedas is an international architectural firm, which is one of the worlds largest. It is world renowned for several projects, such as the Pentominium. Aedas was established in 2002 and has grown from 550 employees in 2002 to over 1,000 in 2008 when it became the seventh largest architectural practicesin the world. In 2014, Aedas employs 1,400 staff at 13 offices in eight countries, in the beginning of 2015, Aedas acquired UK practice RHWL and Arts Team. Aedas has completed more than 100 projects totalling over 100 million square feet of space around the world
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