LOCAL

Runway revamp

Take a walk on the Iconic Kai Tak Runway. Christopher Alexander reports.

After almost a quarter of a century in retirement, one of Hong Kong’s most famous landmarks, the Kai Tak runway has opened as a public park.

Kai Tak was Hong Kong’s international airport from 1925 until 1998, when it was officially decommissioned. The 1.4-kilometre landing strip, which juts out at 90 degrees from Kowloon Bay like a jetty, was famous among pilots and passengers for its challenging approach.

With water on three sides, mountains to the north-east and tall buildings surrounding Victoria Harbour, flyers described the famed “Hong Kong Turn” as one of the hardest manoeuvres a pilot could expect to face. The strip once featured on the History Channel’s Most Extreme Airports programme, where it was ranked as the sixth most dangerous in the world.

When Hong Kong outgrew its quirky airport towards the end of the twentieth century, Kai Tak was consigned to the scrapheap. But now, thanks to an ambitious new development project that pays homage to the location’s aviation heritage, Kai Tak is ready to soar once more into the public consciousness.

“We’ve adopted the structure in an elongated form to resemble the body and wings of an airplane,” says Keith Chu, senior engineer on the team responsible for developing the site. “We’ve also incorporated lighting along the garden to recreate the atmosphere and ambience of the former airport runway at night-time,” he says.

The reincarnated airstrip features a Sky Garden, which lets people stroll along the full length of the runway while enjoying panoramic views of the city skyline. The park’s designers have also created an augmented reality app, so visitors can relive the experience of planes coming in to land overhead.

With its stunning location, unique backstory and cutting-edge new attractions, the airstrip is set to become one of Hong Kong’s premier attractions in the months ahead. After almost 25 years in the hangar, Kai Tak is ready for another turn in Hong Kong.

The redevelopment of the wider Kai Tak area is expected to be completed by 2025.