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HONG KONG URBAN COUNCIL
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that the Council seek land along the coastline from the Hong Kong Government to construct a maritime museum in order to introduce the history of development and contribution of Hong Kong's maritime enterprise to the citizens and tourists.
He said (in Cantonese):- Mr. Chairman, Hong Kong has evolved from a fishing port to a world-famous metropolitan city and the contribution of our maritime enterprise is of notable importance. My motion seeks to ask the Council to strive to bid from the Government for land along the coastlines to construct a maritime museum in order to introduce to tourists and the people of Hong Kong the history of development and contribution of our maritime enterprises.
As we all know, Hong Kong is at the Pearl River estuary sheltered naturally by mountains. We have the natural advantage of a deep-water harbour. Our maritime traffic has always been busy and the lifestyles of our people are closely related to maritime activities. In the 19th century, the British became aware of our potential and made Hong Kong a stepping stone for the trans-shipment of opium to the Mainland. Eventually, the Opium War resulted in the separation of Hong Kong from her motherland. Meanwhile, our maritime trades and entrepot trades have continued to grow. Today, Hong Kong has become a world-famous metropolis with a prosperous economy.
From the above, one can see that maritime activities played an important role in determining the fate of Hong Kong. Maritime development has its significant position in Hong Kong's historical development. There is a section on maritime history in our museum, but due to the constraint of space and its nature, the display is superficial only. The Democratic Party would like to request the Council to construct a maritime museum in order to display the history and development of maritime activities in Hong Kong and to promote studies in the field. The future maritime museum should be planned along the following lines.
Firstly, Hong Kong has always been an important maritime hub. In ancient days, a lot of vessels made Hong Kong a shipping mark. Examples of stone carvings can be found on several small islands and on the cliff walls of the nearshore coastline, e.g., in Shek O and Tai Long Wan. Researchers believe that by linking up the stone carvings, a complete seafaring route can be established and they are evidence of the long history of maritime activities in Hong Kong. If we can have a museum specially for maritime development, further studies will be conducted to tell how Hong Kong was transformed from a fishing village to a leading container port of the modern day.
Secondly, we can display the pace of maritime development at the maritime museum. We will be able to see how traditional Chinese junks were transformed into mechanical steam vessels and then to large ocean liners and container ships. Representative replicas of vessels should be displayed at the