Make your way to the viewing platform behind Kai Tak Community Hall and the Trade & Industry Tower to see all that is left of what used to be Kai Tak - Hong Kong's former airport. The GZ is on the viewing platform, NOT the dead end through the construction gate. From this viewpoint, you can see that all of this site is now covered in various stages of construction. Hard to imagine and remember what it used to look like.
I first visited Hong Kong in 1999, too late to fly into this airport, made infamous for pilots and passengers being able to see directly into kitchen windows and seeing old grandmothers and their flaming woks. The list of accidents is long and tragic. However, the actual history of Kai Tak is fascinating. Here are a few brief historical highlights of Kai Tak's past.
- Kai Tak was originally reclaimed from the harbour in the 1910's not as an airport, but as land for business development which eventually failed.
- In the 1920's, the Colonial Government acquired the land and created a grassy runway for the RAF and several flying clubs. Seaplanes used a concrete slip that was constructed at the end of the runway in 1928.
- In 1942, the Imperial Japanese Army (which occupied Hong Kong) used forced POW labour to construct two concrete runways. They demolished the infamous wall of Kowloon City for building materials as well as other local landmarks.
- The runways were extended twice more in the 1950's and again in the 1970's.
- A plan to relocate the aiport began coalescing in the 1980's as Kai Tak was obviously incapable of growing any further.
- By 1996, Kai Tak was rated as the 3rd busiest aiport in the world for passenger traffic.
- Kai Tak was officially closed on July 6, 1998, ending its nearly 75 years of history.
In 1998, the Hong Kong Government began conducting plans on the future of this prime real estate near downtown Kowloon. Countless proposals and plans were approved, rejected, revised and hotly debated. In fact, when I returned to Hong Kong in 2004, the entire airport was still just as it was when I last saw it, but now rusting and covered in grafitti with high weeds growing through cracks in the runway.
Forward definite progress has been painfully slow, but finally in 2013, the Kai Tak Cruise Terminal was the first permanent project to be opened at the end of the runway. Followed by several public and private housing estates which have sprouted out of the reclaimed earth. More skyscraper housing complexes are destined to come. Furthermore, the Hong Kong SAR Government has made numerous promises about what Kai Tak's land will be used for in the future, but whether we will ever see a real sports stadium, a green central park and other niceties come into reality, who knows? Many people are skeptical and predict that more shopping malls will eventually arrive at Kai Tak. We shall just have to wait and see.
If you are interested in learning more about the history and future of Kai Tak, there are numerous sources easily found on the Internet.
The GZ is 24/7 and wheelchair accessible from the nearby lifts or the walkway from Mikiki shopping mall across Prince Edward Road. Parking is availabe there at Mikiki.
Please be aware of muggles and dog walkers on the viewing platform. There is CCTV on the platform, but it cannot actually see what you're doing in the exact GZ area, so don't worry about that.
The container is large enough for small tradeable items and trackables. Please return the container unobserved.