I have visited Hong Kong many times, once via Kai Tak. The new airport is a wonder of style, efficiency, engineering, and usefulness. It is the best airport in the world for shopping and dining.
Man, who did finance this mega project? Unbelievable. In the country where I was born corruption is so bad that they spend 10 years to build a simple 10 km bike lane! Congratulations on this outstanding achievement, both British people and the people of Hong Kong.
Financed by HK itself. The Chinese didn't like it, saying it's too expensive and would empty the treasury of HK rendering it useless for a handover. They threatened to halt the construction once they became in charge after 1997. Hence the super lengthy negotiations behind the scenes to allow the airport's completion date be extended to 1998.
Hk was worth 19% of china's total gdp in 1997....so it still had political power and voice with the one country, two system policy.... Which has all now but eroded away now hk is only worth 2.9% of china's gpd and political voice gradually silenced.
I am not an Engineer, but can only admire the due-diligence of the engineers. Salute to the daring engineers, who built up this structure against all odds. A brilliant presentation Indeed!
I remembered the discussion of constructing a new airport for the longest time in my latter days of my childhood living in Hong Kong, as every single flipping 747s flew over where I used to live, but China’s persistent demand threatened to derail the project altogether by falsely accusing the the British government of wasting taxpayer money, yet in truth, China had absolutely no idea about how to properly manage the city unless it’s to plunder all their wealth.
The biggest problem of Chek Lap Kok airport is that its location selection and runway direction impact Shenzhen and Macau's future aviation development. For the HK's local interest, it might make sense, but for neighbor cities, it's very disgusting.
@@coryplum5375 and with all that hooplah of climate change and water levels rising, that will be interesting to see what will happen in the future.. Put a 5 m high wall around the whole airport?
Had to head to school via Tseung Kwan O Line , Island Line, transer from Central to Hong Kong Station, and Tung Chung Line back when i was in secondary school.
I gave up on this video after four minutes and forty six seconds. Under siege from the air, every flight into Kai Tak a white knuckle flirtation with disaster - what nonsense. I lived in Hong Kong as a teenager between 1976 and 1979 and flew in and out of Kai Tak on many occasions, and from the balcony of our apartment in Mid-Levels on Hong Kong island I spent many hours watching airliners landing at this legendary airport. Kai Tak was one of the most dangerous airports in the world, which is precisely why it was one of the safest airports in the world with an enviable accident free track record. The narration of this video is cheap sensationalist over the top melodramatic nonsense, just give me the facts without the drama queen click bait lies and foolishness.
Nice video….. I believe that the cruise ship facility failed due to the fact that not a lot of ship were unable to birth at the terminal because the Kowloon to HK island under sea road tunnel prevented a lot of cruise ships from getting to the new terminal!!!! Not enough water above the tunnel to let boat float through!!!!! Regards Ian 👨🎤🇳🇿👍😂😂
I was flying through the days it opened and the computers crashed . Beyond what they mentioned about flight boards crashing doors down gangways opened or unlocked so had Chinese armed police and military posted at them . I went to the gate it first said and waited for a long layover to be told my plane was boarding the opposite end of the huge airport so had a mad dash to make it in time and all the travelator moving footpath escalator things stopped working too so had to dash a mile in a minute to try get my connecting flight , was an exciting day ! But ten times better than the old airport .
Hello, Geoff, do you happen to still keep up with Westerners who worked in Saudi or Bahrain during the late 70s and 80s? I'm research the time and place and am collecting oral testimonies.
Год назад
Cat 10 typhoon. Never heard. Highest category is 5 Super Typhoon. But otherwise really an interesting documentation. I flew from/to both HKG airports.
It's the Hong Kong's meteorological classification. We categorize typhoons as signal no. 1, 3, 8, 9 and 10. Signal no. 10 starts at 118 kph winds, which is Cat 1 on the SSHS. This is because the city itself is very well sheltered from typhoons, being protected on all sides by mountains. So local recorded wind speeds don't necessarily correspond to the actual typhoon wind speeds. So sometimes a Cat 3 could hit HK and we only get a no.8, other times a Cat 1 would cause no.10
Год назад
@@yatsumleung8618 thank you verymuch for your information about Hong Kong's typhoon classification.
well most of the world has Centigrades...One or two are using Fahrenheit. So the HK weatherford's have their own classifications? Maybe for easier and better understanding?
This was originally a low def TV show so it might be from VHS tape. But the show was also sold on DVD. I have one of the DVDs. Nothing was HD back in those days.
One of the best in the world in terms of passenger travel and the world's busiest cargo hub.They have since expanded with a 3rd runway and have a massive entertainment centre being built connected to the airport.
Nicola Simcox, as per what was the narrative in this video, mainland China was not involved whatsoever. The narrator even said that the British government was so worried about it because Britain was about to give Hong Kong back to China in 1998 as part of the 100-year agreement. Therefore, the two parts involved were Britain and the people of Hong Kong.
Ah yes. When the "Extreme Engineering" show was actually about extreme engineering and let the story tell the story via narrator rather than dragging in someone to host the show and attempt to interpret the story. I miss hearing Greg Stebner narrate things.
As it was in British hands at the time of construction, Am I correct in thinking that this huge project was actually financed using billions of British Tax Payers pounds?
God I hate American documentaries, they sensationalise everything. Kai Tak was NEVER dangerous. it was a skilled and challenging approach, but NEVER dangerous!
I remember when " made in Hongkong " was a derogatory remark indicating POOR quality , this project blows that remark out of the water literally!! 🌏✈🚦🏝🚇🏙🌃🏦🚖🚔🛩🛑
