By Song Shengxia

Approval by Hong Kong legislators of a new high-speed railway was met with protests over the weekend, and many villagers vowed not to leave their homes to make way for the HK$66.9 billion ($8.6 billion) project.

The controversial line is set to link Hong Kong to the mainland by rail, slashing travel times.
Lawmakers approved the project Saturday by a 31-21 vote, showing that it had its dissenters both inside and outside, as many people showed up outside the Legislative Council and protested at all entrances and exits, going as far as attempting to keep legislators from leaving afterward.

The project had been delayed twice amid objections about the plan's cost and relocation requirements, as well as environmental concerns.

Eva Cheng, secretary for transport and housing in Hong Kong, said after the meeting that the construction of the high-speed railway "is in the best long-term interests of Hong Kong," and she promised to strictly control the expenditure and carefully spend public dollars.

Ko Chun-heung, one of the protesters who is now serving as the chairwoman of a concern group, said building the express railway would ruin her homeland.

"The construction of the railway is unfair to villagers who have built their own village through hard labor and dedication," she told the Global Times. "We have made up our minds not to relocate."

She said that government compensation, no matter how much it is, won't soften the blow of ruining the village.

After Saturday's meeting, Cheng suggested that the deadline for residents in Choi Yuen Tsuen, a village in the New Territories, to apply for relocation compensation could be extended to the end of next month.

The railway, which will link Hong Kong to Shenzhen and Guangzhou in the neighboring Guangdong Province by 2015, will travel at speeds of up to 350 kilometers an hour, cutting the travel time between Hong Kong and Guangzhou in half, to 48 minutes.

The project includes a HK$ 55-billion railway construction fund, HK$ 11.8-billion non-railway construction fund and HK$ 86-million relocation fee.

More than 1,000 protesters, mostly students and young professionals, surrounded the legislature Saturday night and refused to let Eva Cheng and other government officials leave, demanding the government review the project.

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