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1. Greens blast flat demolition

2. Developers to flatten Hunghom Peninsula

3. Greens to protest against demolition

4. Rubble and Strife

5. Dust cloud feared by students at primary school

6. 100 million to die of bird flu in worst-case scenario

7. Heart starter

8. Mainland craze for the biggest and best outstrips demand

9. Government statement on the demolition of Hunghom Peninsula

1. Greens blast flat demolition
Raymond Wang and Sylvia Hui, The Standard 30 November 2004

The decision to tear down a seven-tower housing project that was completed just two years ago and never occupied has outraged environmentalists, who consider it a classic example of developers' greed at work.

They are sceptical, too, of the developers' claims that the rubble from the demolition can be so thoroughly recycled that only a tiny percentage will find its way into the territory's bursting-at-the-seams landfills.

Joint developers New World Development and Sun Hung Kai Properties said on Monday they will knock down their harbourfront Hung Hom Peninsula - a subsidised ``sandwich class'' project built under the government's ill-fated Private Sector Participation Scheme - to make way for a vastly more profitable luxury development.

But for green groups, the demolition will be an environmental disaster.

``Avoiding waste is one of the most basic principles of environmental protection. The demolition will set a bad example for our children and distort social values,''said Edwin Lau, assistant director of Friends of the Earth.

The government on Monday tried to offer the environmentalists some comfort, saying it had asked the developers to submit a comprehensive waste management plan, to use methods that minimise the amount of construction waste and to encourage recycling and reuse of materials.

The developers said they would implement a construction materials recycling programme for the redevelopment.

``Up to 95 per cent of the construction materials will be recycled to minimise waste,'' New World executive director Stewart Leung said.

Instead of conventional jackhammers, hydraulic crushers will be used to reduce noise and dust from the demolition works, which are expected to begin in mid-2005 and last nine months.

Leung said proceeds of up to HK$3 million from the sale of recyclable and reusable materials would be donated to environmental projects.

Reusable items such as sinks, bathtubs and air conditioners will be donated to charity, while steel, aluminium and wood will be recycled into mainland construction projects. Green groups are also dismayed that the government's new construction waste disposal charging plan may not apply to the Hung Hom development, since the required legislation is not expected to take effect before January.

Not to worry, say the developers, who promised to donate an amount equivalent to an estimated landfill charge of about HK$125 per tonne to support greening projects.

That is not enough, said Lau of Friends of the Earth who called the compensation ``disproportionate''. ``There is no way such a decision could be compensated for,'' he said. Greenpeace is equally angry. Demolishing flats that are in perfect condition is ``unacceptable,'' group spokesman Edward Chan said. ``There is no need. Environmental damage is inevitable and we believe that no method of demolition could be entirely environmentally friendly.''

The developers say that the demolition will create 190,000 tonnes of construction debris, but only 6,000 tonnes will reach Hong Kong's landfills - about one one-thousandth of the waste handled by landfills last year.

Local landfills are expected to reach maximum capacity in about 10 years.

Sources said under the redevelopment plan, the developers would build fewer than 2,000 flats measuring from 800 square feet to 2,000 sq ft. The succcessor development would also have seven blocks, but the towers would be slightly taller to give better seaviews.

New World's Leung declined to give details of the redevelopment.

Alvin Lam, a chartered surveyor at Midland Realty, said that the new development could generate as much as HK$6.7 billion in profit, twice as much than if the developers had decided to renovate Hung Hom Peninsula.

The developers considered alternatives to demolition - selling the existing units as they are, or carrying out extensive renovation and reconfiguration to upgrade the flats. They have already invested about HK$3.4 billion in the project. The existing gross floor area is about 1.55 million square feet.

If the project was only renovated, further costs of about HK$1 billion would result, bringing the total cost to HK$4.4 billion, Midland's Lam said.

"Assuming a selling price of HK$5,000 per square foot under this plan, the project could reap HK$7.8 billion in revenue for the developers and the profit would be only HK$3.4 billion," he said. With demolition, the additional costs will be about HK$2.3 billion and total investment would hit HK$5.7 billion. But the selling price could go as high as HK$8,000 psf, for potential sales of HK$12.4 billion.

2. Developers to flatten Hunghom Peninsula
GARY CHEUNG, SCMP 30 November 2004

They've never been occupied and now they never will be. The fate of seven new blocks in a harbour-front Hunghom housing estate has been decided - they will be torn down for redevelopment into luxury flats that are likely to bring a windfall of nearly $6 billion for the developers.

New World Development and Sun Hung Kai Properties announced yesterday that Hunghom Peninsula would be demolished - using environmentally friendly methods that they claim will see up to 95 per cent of the 190,000 tonnes of construction debris recycled.

It will be the largest-ever demolition of new buildings in the world.

Green groups and educators criticised the decision to tear down the blocks, saying it sent the wrong message to Hong Kong's young that profits were more important than environmental protection.

The demolition, expected to take about 10 months, is likely to start next June. The redevelopment will then take another three years.

Stewart Leung Chi-kin, executive director of New World Development, said the redevelopment would bring huge social and economic benefits to Hong Kong.

Mr Leung said three options had been considered for the site - selling the flats as they are, extensive renovation or reconstruction.

"Redevelopment will help create more than 1,000 new job opportunities and raise government revenues from increased stamp duty," Mr Leung said.

He said it would be a "massive waste" if the site of the estate - built as a Home Ownership Scheme project to help meet government housing supply targets, left vacant to stabilise property prices, then sold to developers - was not used to its full potential.

"In correcting the mismatch in land resources, we demonstrate to our next generation that if a mistake is made, one should have the courage to put it right," he said.

Kwan Chuk-fai, spokesman for NWS Holdings, a subsidiary of New World Development, said: "It will be Hong Kong's biggest environmental project and a new learning process for our students."

Surveyors estimate the redeveloped flats could be sold at $8,000 to $9,000 per square foot, earning the developers a net profit of nearly $6 billion.

Company sources said flats would range from 900 to 1,000 sq ft, with penthouses about 2,000 sq ft.

Eric Tung Chi-ho, executive director of Sun Hung Kai Real Estate Agency, said hydraulic crushers, instead of jackhammers, would be used to reduce noise and dust from the demolition. Concrete would be crushed for reclamation, while other materials would be donated to charity or recycled.

Mr Tung said only a few thousand tonnes of construction debris would be dumped into landfills. In compensation for that waste, money would be donated for green purposes. A concern group would also be set up to monitor the project.

A spokeswoman for the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said no waste management plan for the demolition had yet been received from the developers.

She said the bureau was concerned about the demolition plan, including its environmental impact and construction waste.

The government would consult the Advisory Council on the Environment on the demolition application, she said.

It's a knockdown
Nov 2002 A New World Development and Wai Kee Holdings joint venture, First Star Development, finishes building Hunghom Peninsula for sale under the Home Ownership Scheme.

Nov 13 Housing minister Michael Suen Ming-yeung announces suspension of flat sales under the scheme.

Feb 2004 First Star forfeits its contractual right to receive $1.914 billion from the Housing Authority for its failure to sell the 2,470 flats, and agrees to pay a land premium of $864 million to be allowed to sell the flats itself. Legislators and authority members challenge the "knock-down" price. Wai Kee then sells its 50 per cent stake in First Star to Sun Hung Kai Properties for $593 million.

Mar 18 New World Development says First Star will demolish Hunghom Peninsula and build luxury blocks with gross floor area of 1.55 million sq ft.

Nov 29 New World Development and Sun Hung Kai Properties confirm the demolition of the never-occupied blocks.

3. Greens to protest against demolition
WINNIE YEUNG, SCMP 30 November 2004

Enraged environmentalists say they will complain to the ombudsman over the government's "serious error" in allowing the demolition of the Hunghom Peninsula estate.

Friends of the Earth director Mei Ng Fong Siu-mei pledged this action yesterday before meeting the developers who plan to pull down the former subsidised housing estate to make way for luxury flats.

"This incident shows that the government has gone out of control," Ms Ng said. "It has committed a serious error in letting developers demolish the buildings."

The environmental group has already nominated developers Sun Hung Kai Properties and New World Development for the "irresponsible corporate behaviour award" issued by Swiss-based group Public Eye on Davos, and has applied to have the demolition listed in the Guinness World Records.

Democrat legislator Cheung Man-kwong, who is also president of the Professional Teachers Union, said he would call for Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands Michael Suen Ming-yeung to step down.

Mr Cheung said he would make the demand when fellow Democrat James To Kun-sun moved a motion condemning the government's handling of the project. No date has been set for the motion.

"I think ... Michael Suen bears the most responsibility," he said.

The Professional Teachers Union and Friends of the Earth said the demolition would twist the moral and educational values of future generations.

"We've spent decades to build up a sense of no-waste in the public mind," said the green group's assistant director Edwin Lau Che-feng. "But now it's all destroyed."

Mr Cheung said the decision had shown how greedy and reckless the developers were and showed disrespect for the Earth by turning new materials into waste.

He and the green group both hoped that the decision could still be overturned.

"I don't know how to stop the demolition by legal action," Mr Cheung said. "But I hope our request would be upheld by social justice."

The environmentalists poured scorn on efforts by the developers to make the demolition "green".

"They are not only deceiving us, they are deceiving themselves," Ms Ng said. "No matter what green method they use, the demolition is already a big waste."

Both groups will refuse to join the Hunghom Peninsula Concern Group, that the developers are setting up to allow the public to monitor the demolition, saying it was "a public-relations trick".

"The demolition is wrong in the first place," Ms Ng said. "So we won't participate in this kind of immoral activity."

Mr Cheung said: "It's the most humiliating negative teaching material ever. We might not be able to stop the demolition, though we'll try our best. But we can turn this into something with educational value." He said a drawing competition would be held on Sunday for children to capture the images of the Hunghom Peninsula. The green group and the union also invited all families to take part in a walkathon on December 12, that will feature checkpoints reminding people of the demolition's impact and take participants past the residential estate.

Friends of the Earth said the walkathon was a non-violent protest and the groups would develop teaching kits for schools to discuss the demolition with their students.

4. Rubble and Strife
SCMP, 30 November 2004

Source: SCMP Graphic

5. Dust cloud feared by students at primary school
WINNIE YEUNG, SCMP 30 November 2004

About 30 students at a nearby school were honing their track-and-field skills when plans to demolish the Hunghom Peninsula housing development were announced yesterday.

Ma Tau Chung Government Primary School will be badly affected by the 10-month demolition project, which is scheduled to start in June.

"We might not be able to hold our classes because of all the noise and dust [after the demolition starts]," Primary Four student Chan Chak-ming said while taking a break after a run.

Primary One student Don Wong Ching-long said he was worried that the dust generated by the demolition work would be blown into the school.

"I'll wear a mask to school when the demolition starts," said the six-year-old.

"And I'm also worried that things might accidentally fall off the buildings and hit us."

School headmistress Agnes Choi Sook-chun said representatives of the developers went to the school yesterday morning to explain the decision to her and some of her students' parents.

"I knew they would tell me that they would go ahead with the demolition," she said.

"I am bothered by this because I'm an educator and I find it difficult to teach my students the right values when resources are being totally wasted right next to our school."

Ms Choi said she would continue to work with Friends of the Earth and the Hong Kong Professional Teachers' Union to minimise the effect of the demolition work on her school.

6. 100 million to die of bird flu in worst-case scenario
MARY ANN BENITEZ, SCMP 30 November 2004

The bird flu virus will be more lethal than Sars, killing up to 100 million people in the worst-case scenario of a flu pandemic, a visiting World Health Organisation official said yesterday.

Shigeru Omi, regional director of the WHO Western Pacific office, said a vaccine against the H5N1 virus would not avert a pandemic that could rage for five to six months before one was made available.

Dr Omi repeated his claim that the WHO's estimate of two million to seven million people dying from bird flu was conservative.

"We are talking at least of 7 million [deaths], but maybe more - 10 million, 20 million and the worst case 100 million," Dr Omi said. "If it happens, it will just be incomparable with the Sars situation."

Dr Omi was among top WHO officials who hosted an emergency meeting which ended on Friday with health ministers of 13 Asian countries pledging to boost co-operation to head off the threat of a flu pandemic.

Dr Omi said bird flu would pose more challenges to the WHO and the international community than Sars.

"Sars is primarily an urban disease. It started in hospitals where the level of surveillance is quite high quality," he said. "Avian flu is a disease which affects rural areas where surveillance is rudimentary and surveillance of animals is non-existent."

Dr Omi said a vaccine was not a panacea or a "magic bullet" against a pandemic.

"Vaccine development is very important and it certainly helps the health burden on the individuals. But unfortunately a vaccine alone will not avert a pandemic, especially for the first five to six months when we would have to do without any vaccine," he said.

He said it was important for all countries to come up with a pandemic-preparedness plan which would include stockpiling of antiviral drugs, isolation and public health measures, and contingency measures for essential public services that would be disrupted.

Dr Omi added it was possible the region would experience Sars cases this winter, but he did not think a large outbreak was likely.

Bird flu has infected 44 people this year, killing 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam. More than 100 million chickens have been destroyed in nine countries across Asia.

Meanwhile, Secretary for Health Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said setting up regional slaughterhouses was a more feasible short-term solution to fighting bird flu than having one central unit.

"We have not been able to identify a suitable area for establishing a central slaughterhouse. There is a higher chance of regional slaughtering being put into practice in the short term as we can set up slaughterhouses in deserted wet markets, existing slaughterhouses and other areas controlled by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department," he said.

7. Heart starter
ELLA LEE, SCMP 30 November 2004

Great Eagle Holdings deputy chairman Lo Ka-shui says his $11 billion Langham Place complex has transformed a seedy part of Mongkok into a thriving business area. Photo Dickson Lee

It was about a decade ago when Lo Ka-shui first set foot in the old Bird Street, in Mongkok. The tiny shops, squeezed into rundown buildings, were packed and smelly. The property developer says he rushed through the narrow alleys, looking to escape, worried that he might have breathed in some fatal virus.

Earlier this month, the deputy chairman and managing director of Great Eagle Holdings revisited the area near Portland and Shanghai streets. But this time, everything had changed. He smiled in front of dozens of cameras and flashlights, feeling proud and excited at the opening of Langham Place - the group's giant office, retail and hotel complex.

The $11 billion project, which involved the tearing down of four city blocks and the old Bird Street in Hong Lok Street, took 15 years to complete. The giant structure encompasses a 600,000-sq-ft, 300-shop mall, a 665-room five-star hotel, and a 59-storey office tower.

The opening of the 15-floor shopping mall has transformed the area into a new hangout for teenagers, with upmarket shops such as the 20,000-sq-ft Seibu, fashion store I.T., and retail shop Muji all opening in Mongkok for the first time.

Special features include two 40-metre-long "expresscalators", the longest unsupported indoor escalators in Hong Kong; a grand atrium and a "digital sky" spanning the entire length of the mall, with visual effects including everything from psychedelic swirls to rolling clouds.

"During the weekend, it was jammed and packed," Dr Lo says. "There are lines at all food and beverage outlets, from 11am to 11pm. Everybody is very happy. The shops are enjoying very good business." Tourists who used to stay in Tsim Sha Tsui or Central are being wooed to the new hotel to enjoy the uniqueness of Mongkok - a fusion of new and old urban Hong Kong.

Dr Lo - a cardiologist who practised in the US two decades ago - says his medical training has given him a "scientific and intellectual mind" for making commercial decisions.

"I believe in research and evidence," he says. "For the Langham project, we conducted three big marketing researches to understand what young people want. More than a decade ago, we identified our targeted customers - people aged 20 to 45 who want to spend time in a happy environment."

Respondents to the marketing research said they wanted international and upmarket brands in Mongkok, which was formerly saturated with low-priced products - bargain clothing, watches and pirate CDs at the Ladies' Market on Tung Choi Street.

In order to learn what teenagers want, the father of four says he has his "private consultants".

"I asked my young daughter what she likes, and she told me it is most important for young people to be happy at the mall, a place where they will stay for a long time," Dr Lo says. "In fact, many studies say the longer shoppers stay, the more they will buy."

But the opening of Langham Place has not been without controversy. Other shop owners in the district say they have serious concerns with the development and are worried about a drop in their business. And according to the owners of nearby restaurants, their landlords are set to increase their rents by up to 70 per cent as a result of the opening.

Alexis Chan Kin-shing, Yau Tsim Mong district councillor, says electrical-appliances shops in Sai Yeung Choi Street worry that they will lose customers to the new attraction. He says rent hikes are also forcing the seedier industry of brothels in this red-light district to move out to cheaper areas. "Some boutiques in Shanghai Street and Portland Street used to sell deep-V tops and miniskirts to commercial sex workers - now they are selling OL [office lady] fashion," Mr Chan says.

Dr Lo says he is surprised that anyone would say Langham Place is having a negative effect on the district. "We brought so many people to the area," he says. "It's a fortune for them [other shops]. It is time they upgraded themselves. I don't think we will draw all the customers. There are so many people coming to this area and we cannot take all of them."

The battle for his Mongkok facelift has been long and hard - the 15 years spent on the Langham project is the longest time ever spent on a development in Hong Kong. Dr Lo says it was a struggle for himself and his company.

The group originally expected the joint project with the former Land Development Council to be completed before the handover in 1997. But a delay in land resumptions took another seven years. The project became a burden to the group, who faced a barrage of strong criticism from investors and financial analysts that it had become strangled in bureaucratic red tape.

"The most difficult thing for us was we set aside a sum of money [for the project] and we waited, and waited," Dr Lo says. "We have a good reputation of catching the market at the right time. But at the time, we were holding the money and could not spend it elsewhere, even though there were other chances."

Dr Lo says urban redevelopment is crucial to society, improving the city's appearance and people's quality of life. He recalls how shocked he was when he visited the previous slum area in Mongkok. "The hygiene of the old buildings was ridiculous," Dr Lo says. "The caged homes should not have become homes for human beings. Witnessing the sad living conditions of some of these `cage people' was a gloomy experience.

"Some people say Bird Street was something historical, but that's not true. The place was so dirty. Birds can spread many diseases. I am a doctor and I am very alert. I was worried when I took a breath there. If bird flu had broken out in that area, there would have been a disaster."

In 1997, Bird Street eventually moved to Yuen Po Street in Prince Edward to give way to the redevelopment.

Dr Lo, who is also the vice-president of the Real Estate Developers' Association, says the government should be determined in carrying out urban renewal, but that does not mean going against community views.

He calls on the government to think twice about the controversial West Kowloon project, which aims to turn 40 hectares of reclaimed land into a regional cultural hub. Critics from the pro-democracy camp and the culture and arts sector are concerned that the project, to be carried out in a single-tender deal, will be turned into another property project.

Dr Lo warns against using the land to subsidise other industries.

"Instead, the government should sell the land and use the revenue to support different industries according to proper prioritisation," he says. "The West Kowloon site is a very precious asset for all Hong Kong people. If you sell such a big piece of land, only one or two developers can afford it. And when you sell things to a monopoly or an oligopoly, you will sell things cheap."

He says the prices will be much higher if the government sells the land in smaller pieces. "When there is more competition, the price will be higher."

Dr Lo's father is Lo Ying-shek, the founder and chairman of the Great Eagle group, one of the medium-sized property developers in Hong Kong which also owns the Citibank Plaza in Central, Great Eagle Centre in Wan Chai, three hotels in Hong Kong and several overseas, in London, Boston and Melbourne, among other cities.

Born in 1947, Dr Lo graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from McGill University in Canada in 1970, and gained an MD from Cornell University in 1974. He was trained and specialised in internal medicine and cardiology and conducted research in nuclear cardiology at the University of Michigan Hospital in the US.

When he was 34, he gave up his medical practice and returned to Hong Kong after his father asked him to take over the family business. His dual role as a businessman and a doctor made him a popular choice for public posts. He was the Hospital Authority chairman from 2000 to 2002, and chairman of the Main Board Listing Committee between 1992 and 1996.

He is now a member of the Airport Authority and director of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing. Although he is busy with the family business, Dr Lo says he will continue to take up posts in public service.

"My mind needs some challenges," he says. "I can see more and learn more from a wider perspective."

Among his public duties, the chairmanship of the Hospital Authority was the one he liked the most. "I know the [health-care] system and doctors respect me, I know what I am talking about."

It is widely reported that he had differences of opinion with former health minister Yeoh Eng-kiong, and Dr Lo says that they had different philosophies, but insists that never affected their relationship. "He [Dr Yeoh] is a socialist but I am more a capitalist - I believe that those who can afford more should pay more," he says. "We have different philosophies but we are very good friends."

He says years of experience in two careers have also made him realise that practising medicine is far easier than being a businessman. "When you are a doctor, your patient always listens to you," he says.

8. Mainland craze for the biggest and best outstrips demand
SCMP, 30 November 2004

The largest mall in the world has been built in Beijing but shoppers are in short supply, writes Robert Marquand.

For sale: everything. Goat-leather motorcycle jackets, Italian bathroom sinks, hand-made violins, grandfather clocks, colonial-style desks, jaguars, diapers. And that's barely getting started.

It takes about two days to explore Beijing's new Golden Resources Shopping Mall - the world's largest. Minnesota's "Mall of America" is four million square feet. Golden Resources, built in an impressive 20 months and opened on October 24, is six million sq ft.
With 230 escalators, more than 1,000 shops, restaurant space the size of two football fields, and a skating rink, the Art Deco-style mall is a testament in glass and steel to the Communist Party's desire to create a stable, happy, middle-income consumer class.

China's big appetite for budding sales combined with major loans from its centralised banking system is one form of the expression "market Leninism", used by China expert Professor Perry Link, of Princeton University, to describe the mainland's hybrid red capitalism.

"From the beginning we wanted the largest shopping centre in the world," says Fu Yuehong, general manager of the New Yansha Group, which operates nearly half the mall. Ms Fu displays a huge map of the world in her office. "We are the country with the most people in the world. We have the fastest growing economy. The largest mall shows our progress as a society."

The "mall that will change your life", as it's advertised, sits in a forest of new high-rise apartments outside Beijing's third ring road. Many flats are empty, part of an overheated building spree. They stretch for blocks in a rebuilt district near Beijing's energetic "Silicon Valley", where most of China's ruling Standing Committee members live.

The mall, partly done by the Atlanta-based firm of Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart and Stewart, stems from the Communist Party's push for a xiao kang society, a term that picks up traditional mainland dreams of prosperity - a car in every garage, a chicken in every wok.
Malls, those US temples of consumerism, were once unknown on the mainland, but they mushroom so fast today that even Premier Wen Jiabao warned this summer of a "shopping mall craze".

Half a decade ago, only a few dozen malls existed. Now a ministry of commerce study counts 400 on the mainland, and a private sector study finds more than 500.

Shopping malls are seen as part fad, part pork barrel, and definitely one of a series of new big-ticket, semi-public "image projects" - something every self-respecting city argues for as essential for trade, tourism, and jobs. In developing China, that list includes airports, suburban townhouses, skyscrapers, golf courses, hotels and subways - all of which at one point were deemed a craze by officialdom. Beijing now has, for example, 24 golf courses - despite chronic public-water shortages.

Malls are often financed in speculative deals, according to state media and western experts, where family contacts are more important than a business plan, and where banks are loaded with the risk. Often, land is obtained in sweetheart deals. China's bank-loan default rates regularly run over 30 per cent. A pop-expression, "working mahjong", was coined to describe how developers can easily charm state bankers into big-dollar loans.

"A developer can get a large loan from state banks merely by showing a paper government licence to build a mall", pointed out an unusually frank Xinhua report that listed both the pros and cons of malls.

Because of Golden's scale and its "showcase" identity, developers conducted a more transparent approach. Three heavyweight corporate groups share the space and cost. The entire west wing is devotd to xiao kang-style home products for "easy living".

The observable problem with new shopping malls on the mainland, however, is that they have few shoppers. While Golden officials first estimated 50,000 people a day, only a tiny fraction of that figure can be seen.

On a recent Friday afternoon, only 20 shoppers were counted in one hour. There may be too many high-end malls, and not enough high-end earners, in urban China, some experts say. Pedigrees run from a Macy's-style department store to shops with names such as Ralph Lauren, Papa John's Pizza, and Chanel. (Wal-Mart was invited, but negotiations reportedly broke down after 30 minutes.)

A Beijing-based US executive suggests that name-brand shops regard non-earning stores as a form of advertising and "positioning for the future".

A deficit of shoppers has been in evidence for several years. Many Chinese visit fancy local malls that feature state-of-the-art buying environments with limpid pools of interior soft light and pale, polished floor tiles that glow pleasingly. But few cash registers ring. Mostly, ordinary Chinese buy 10-cent soft cones and have fun wandering amid the goods.

Disposable income is rising, but not nearly as fast as the new malls. At a cosmetics shop in Golden Resources, tiny tubes of face and eye cream were on sale for US$40 each. But an attendant admitted: no sales that day. Thousands of clerks staff Golden's floors, and managers race about with clipboards. Two professionally dressed young women, potential shoppers, said they came to visit a friend who worked there. "We like how we feel at this store, but we can't afford the clothes."

"We think it will take three to five years to start making a profit," Ms Fu says.
One successful move has been to put a regular-price supermarket, Lotus, in the basement.

The Christian Science Monitor

9. Government statement on the demolition of Hunghom Peninsula
Hong Kong Government, 29 November 2004

"The Government fully understands the public concerns about the possible environmental impact brought about by the demolition of the Hunghom Peninsula. As the developers hold the legal title of the land and own the property, it is the developers' commercial decision to carry out the demolition of the subject property," a Government spokesman said today (November 29).

"The demolition of a brand new development will cause wastage which contravenes the principle of environmental protection. The Government is very concerned about the demolition plan and has asked the developers to submit a comprehensive waste management plan to cope with the possible problems arising from the demolition," the spokesman said.

"The Government shares the same concern raised by the green groups about the environmental problems arising from the demolition. We believe that the developers will listen to and take into account the views from the green groups," he said.

The Government has also urged the developers to carefully plan the overall demolition process, such as adopting the method of "selective demolition", to minimise the amount of construction waste to be generated and make every effort to facilitate the recycling and reuse of the useful materials. This can also help minimise wastage and lessen further burden to our landfills and public fill facilities.

"The developers are required to meet all the existing statutory requirements as stipulated in the Air Pollution Control (Construction Dust) Regulation and the Noise Control Ordinance. They should also take into account the environmental, noise and traffic impact on the residents nearby," the spokesman added.