Hongkongers protest vote on high-speed rail

• Source: Global Times
• [03:07 January 18 2010]
• Comments

Earlier, the Post 80s Anti-Express Railway Group invited villagers to watch Avatar, the latest Hollywood hit, at a theater in Times Square because they believed their plight was mirrored in the film, the South China Morning Post reported earlier this month.

Opponents also suggested that Hong Kong's legislators approved the project without properly consulting the public, and they called the project overpriced.

Olive Psui, a 26-year-old Hongkonger, insisted that the government can't provide concrete and convincing evidence to prove that building the extravagant high-speed railway is better than not building it.

"Not only is this a costly project, it is a land-wasting one. Also, I don't think it will culturally benefit us at all," Psui told the Global Times.

However, Hong Kong officials said a majority of the public supports the project.

Matthew Cheung, secretary for the Hong Kong Labour and Welfare Bureau, has said the project could create 11,000 jobs over the next five years, benefiting the catering, hotel, tourism, conference and exhibition, and retail industries.

The project will also plug Hong Kong into the Chinese mainland's high-speed-railway network, slicing the travel time between Hong Kong and Beijing by two-thirds, to eight hours.

Beijing is planning to build 12,000 kilometers of high-speed rail lines to link the major cities across the country by 2020, with speeds averaging over 200 kilometers per hour.

After the Beijing-Tianjin rail – at speeds of 350 kilometers an hour – went into operation before the 2008 Olympics, another stretch of 1,068 kilometers, linking central China's Wuhan and south China's Guangzhou provinces, was finished by the end of last year.

The Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is expected to carry 99,000 passengers daily and bring 1.1 billion yuan in operating revenue to Hong Kong in 2016 alone. It could bring HK$85 billion to Hong Kong over 50 years, beyond revenue from tourism and investment, the government said.

But polls suggest Hongkongers are still divided on the project. In a survey, commissioned by the University of Hong Kong and released Thursday, among 1,008 locals polled, 50 percent backed the project and 44 percent either opposed it or wanted to delay it for further scrutiny.

Guo Shiping, adviser of the State National Development and Reform Commission, told the Global Times that one of the underlying concerns of those who oppose the line is that property prices in Hong Kong could plunge after the project is completed.

"Many people buy property in Hong Kong for investment. The shortened travel time between Hong Kong and Shen-zhen and Guangzhou will drag down the real estate price in Hong Kong," he said. "The value of Hong Kong homeowners' assets will shrink."

Mo Pak-hung, an associate professor in the Department of Economics at Hong Kong Baptist University, regarded the project as the lifeblood of Hong Kong's economy.

"Without the railway, Hong Kong's economy will meet a dead end," he said. "Hong Kong's economic growth can't be separated from the railway."

Guo Qiang and Yin Hang contributed to this story