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1. Natural wonders captured to entice tourists

2. KCRC welcomes authorisation of Kowloon Southern Link

1. Natural wonders captured to entice tourists
CHEUNG CHI-FAI, SCMP 25 June 2005

Country park rangers toiled up and down hills with heavy cameras and criss-crossed Hong Kong in helicopters in a two-year mission to portray the city's natural wonders in a new book.

The book, entitled 88 Hong Kong Natural Wonders, features more than 500 pictures taken by 12 park rangers from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department.

Some pictures were chosen from the department's photo archive containing 20,000 photos of landscapes, villages, plants, animals and insects.

"This is the most comprehensive picture book, aimed at overseas tourists, of the city's natural landscape ever produced locally," said Ngar Yuen-ngor, a country parks ranger officer in charge of the publication.

About 20,000 overseas delegates of the 88th Lions Club International Convention will next week be among the first guests to possess the books.

The book cost $1 million to produce and print - including 30 hours of helicopter flights at $10,000 an hour.

"Some may say such helicopter trips are really fun. But they aren't unless you carefully plan the trip and learn the basics. Otherwise, you will easily get lost," said park ranger Li Fung-leung.

Apart from flying, they also climbed mountains such as Sunset Peak on Lantau with heavy equipment several times to capture sunset views.

"We started one journey late at night and climbed to the peak only to find that a thick cloud completely blocked the sunset," ranger Li Chun-foon said.

Mr Li and his team later took another climb but it was spoiled by heavy rain.

The book, with picture captions and brief introductions of the landscape in Chinese and English, will hit main bookstores next week. Hardback editions are priced at $250 each while softbacks are $180.

2. KCRC welcomes authorisation of Kowloon Southern Link
KCRC Press Release, 24 June 2005

The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) today welcomed the authorisation of the Kowloon Southern Link (KSL) by the Chief Executive in Council.

Mr Lee Kang Kuen, Senior Director - Capital Projects of KCRC, said, “The authorisation represents a big step forward in the implementation of this important project which will connect the two strategic railways of East Rail and West Rail, to improve the access to the north west New Territories and strengthen the railway network of Hong Kong. ”

The 3.8 km long railway will connect Nam Cheong Station, the southern terminus of West Rail with East Tsim Sha Tsui Station of East Rail, with an intermediate station at West Kowloon. Upon its completion in 2009, passengers will only take 30 minutes to travel from Tin Shui Wai to Tsim Sha Tsui East.

The total construction cost of the project is about HK$8.3 billion, to be wholly funded by the Corporation. The construction of the KSL is expected to commence in the third quarter of 2005.