How Hong Kong might have looked: the landmarks that didn’t get off the ground
From drawing board to dustbin, the schemes that never materialised, as well as some that made the leap from concept to reality

We are going on a tour of a Hong Kong that could have been. During our trip, we’ll travel the 10km from Sai Kung to the High Island Reservoir in a cable car, passing above golf courses, theme parks, pristine countryside and quiet waterways; we’ll dine 300 metres above Victoria Harbour, in a restaurant built into a bridge, as passenger ships, sampans and freighters sail beneath; we’ll watch the evening light show from a giant Ferris wheel atop Ocean Terminal, on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront; then we’ll take another cable car, from The Peak to Aberdeen, before riding back to our homes and hotels on a series of covered escalators.
If you think this journey sounds like a flight of fancy, you’d be only half right. All of these projects – and many more like them – have at some time been considered as potential tourist attractions or infrastructure endeavours for the city and surrounding countryside.
Many made it past the concept stage, coming under consideration by the Buildings Department. One, a 75-metre Ferris wheel with swinging gondola-like capsules proposed for the top of Ocean Terminal, was all set to go ahead until some last-minute wrangling over a lease put a stop to the project.
103-metre-tall Ferris wheel in Tsim Sha Tsui
However, the city isn’t backward when it comes to putting forward audacious construction plans, as the contentious designs for West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD), including Norman Foster’s glass canopy and the sweeping, undulating curves of Hong Kong Museum Complex conceived by Frank Gehry, testify.