Green envy: Hong Kong's grey urban environment put to shame by lush Singapore
Oren Tatcher laments our barren urban areas, which stand in stark contrast to the city greenery in Singapore, and on the mainland
Just as the green oasis of Singapore was getting ready for its 50th birthday celebration - part of it involving the mass planting of trees - the Hong Kong government cut down four beautiful, mature Chinese banyan trees on Bonham Road, which offered a rare green respite in the Mid-Levels' concrete jungle. Perhaps it was meant to send a defiant message to our eternal rival to the south: you have your ways, we have ours.
You don't have to be a fan of Singapore to be envious of its remarkable, ongoing greening project: tree-lined boulevards, lush parks, well-manicured potted plants. In fact, we don't even need to go so far afield as Singapore to get green envy: right across the border and all over the mainland, well-designed and well-maintained street landscaping and urban parks offer a beautiful antidote to the otherwise drab urban environment of modern Chinese cities.
These efforts stand in stark contrast to our own barren urban environment, much of it designed and managed by the Highways Department, for which smooth traffic flow is the top priority and the concept of pedestrian comfort is not a shading tree, but a footbridge leading to the nearest air-conditioned shopping mall.
Our government officials often boast in international forums how much of Hong Kong's land area is green, referring to our outstanding country parks. Focusing on country parks disguises the abysmal reality of our urban parks, which are much more relevant to the daily lives of a majority of Hong Kong's residents.
There, we face not only a scarcity - far less park space per resident than one would encounter in other major cities - but also very poor quality: our government's concept of an urban park appears to be a facility where tiles far outnumber leaves, and where plants, selected for their low-maintenance value, must be kept behind fences, presumably to protect them, and perhaps us, too.
But what's at stake in this case is street trees. Contrary to what many people think, we do have them in abundance, mostly in new urban areas - except we no longer have streets in those parts, only wide roads connecting mega developments, and therefore of less enjoyment to pedestrians.