Two articles appeared recently in the China Daily on heritage preservation in Hong Kong. Below are short quotes and links to the articles.
Historic deal
By Zhao Xu in the HK Edition of the China Daily on 2008-09-30
Ask anyone who has been following the news to name issues that have steadily gained momentum over the past few years, heritage protection is bound to be one of them. A change of mentality toward heritage conservation has taken place in Hong Kong over the past few years. It is the government's responsibility to ask the public how much they are willing to pay to preserve the city's history. Click here for the full article
Treasure our past
By Zhao Xu in the HK Edition of the China Daily on 2008-10-01
In a move designed to show that it has taken the matter into its own hands, and to pull the teeth out of what has become an increasingly politicized issue, the government announced in February the launch of the Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme. The Commissioner for Heritage's Office was subsequently established to oversee this and other future projects on heritage conservation. His office has just launched a new initiative to offer grants to owners of private graded historic buildings in need of upkeep and repair. The ceiling for each application is kept at HK$600,000. And the commissioner admitted that right now there's nothing that the government can do if the owner of a private heritage building decides to let his building languish without doing anything. "But this is ridiculous," said Brooke. "In the UK, if your building is listed, then you cannot change any part of it without government permission. You certainly cannot pull it down. And you'll have to maintain the building, with grants provided by the government." Click here for the full article
Historic deal
By Zhao Xu in the HK Edition of the China Daily on 2008-09-30
Ask anyone who has been following the news to name issues that have steadily gained momentum over the past few years, heritage protection is bound to be one of them. A change of mentality toward heritage conservation has taken place in Hong Kong over the past few years. It is the government's responsibility to ask the public how much they are willing to pay to preserve the city's history. Click here for the full article
Treasure our past
By Zhao Xu in the HK Edition of the China Daily on 2008-10-01
In a move designed to show that it has taken the matter into its own hands, and to pull the teeth out of what has become an increasingly politicized issue, the government announced in February the launch of the Revitalizing Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme. The Commissioner for Heritage's Office was subsequently established to oversee this and other future projects on heritage conservation. His office has just launched a new initiative to offer grants to owners of private graded historic buildings in need of upkeep and repair. The ceiling for each application is kept at HK$600,000. And the commissioner admitted that right now there's nothing that the government can do if the owner of a private heritage building decides to let his building languish without doing anything. "But this is ridiculous," said Brooke. "In the UK, if your building is listed, then you cannot change any part of it without government permission. You certainly cannot pull it down. And you'll have to maintain the building, with grants provided by the government." Click here for the full article