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Hong Kong-Macau Bridge to be Built

by Josh Lew (RSS feed) on Aug 6th 2008 at 11:30AM

Hong Kong is now connected to Macau by ferry. Long-running negotiations for a bridge connection between the two cities, and their mainland neighbor Zhuhai, have led to nothing but hurt feelings and finger pointing. Enter Beijing. The government of China has a rare chance to play the good guy in the former colonies. And it will only cost them a few billion dollars. According to The Standard, Beijing has stepped in to take over the project and will spend 7 billion yuan (HK$ 8 billion) to get things off the ground.

The result: in 6-7 years it will be possible to drive from the mainland to Macau to Hong Kong without having to board a ferry or even get out of your car. Impatient compulsive gamblers will not have to deal with sea-sickness or tardy ferryboat captains on the way to Macau. The bridge will also do wonders for the mainland, turning an already crazy shopping scene into an orgy of consumerism and name-brand knockoffs.

But what about the storied ferry service? Will it disappear? Probably not. When the tunnel was built under Victoria Harbor, ferries continued to do a brisk business up above. The same would probably be true for the HK-Macau service. Emphasis on probably.

Filed under: China, News

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

jb Aug 6th 2008 9:55PM

The hour-long ferry to Macau is expensive (USD15-30) and after the first 15 minutes a bore. The cattle car experience and horrible immigration facilities is another big downer.

The ferries from TST to HK Island have survived because it's a 10 minute ride costing 25 cents(US), and is almost exclusively taken by tourists.

A more apt comparison is the Chunnel: how have the ferry companies fared since then?

-J

PS: The increasing number of ads on Gadling is also a bore and a downer. Keep it up and your Loyal Readers will likely gad onto the TNBT.