Hike - northern NT

Today a bunch of us hiked a string of hills from Lok Ma Chau to Sheung Shui.  

One thing that struck me again and again, of course, is the contrast between the high rises of Shenzhen, to the north of the Shenzhen River, and the fields and fish ponds of northern New Territories, to the south of the river.  

The other image that stuck in my mind is the undulating little hills and valleys all around the route.  

Why do people keep saying there is no land in Hong Kong?  That we have to spend billions and billions of dollars to create new land by filling in the harbour?  Presumably so that we can build more high rises?

Why can’t we develop some of these land instead?  And build high rises here?  wouldn’t that be cheaper?  We probably want to keep some of the fish ponds, green fields, ...  But there is still a lot of brown fields, underused lands, ...

Surely there are issues such as ownership, environmental impact, infrastructure, etc.   Those require a lot of political will and skills to tackle.  But wouldn’t filling in the harbour create its own set of challenges?

It would appear that we may not have a shortage of land.  But rather a shortage of will and skill.