Word: kais
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Chris Armstrong, an engineer who now lives in Britain, worked in Hong Kong for more than three years and many of his weekends were spent at Kai Tak. "I arrived for the first time in Hong Kong via a Runway 13 approach, and it never ceased to amaze me how close you got to the houses," he says. "It's a special place. There is nowhere in the world to equal it." Meanwhile, his friend David England had worked on the design of the Airport Railway Link and his Kowloon Bay office overlooked Kai Tak's southern runway. "I kept...
...With Kai Tak gone, many Hong Kong residents are understandably proud of its replacement, Chek Lap Kok (its drab proper name is the Hong Kong International Airport). It is undoubtedly a well-designed, efficient, world-class facility. Inside it is everything Kai Tak wasn't?spacious, airy and, with an inventive use of natural light, a little too bright for some when the morning sun catches those check-in desks. But it's also like so many international airports nowadays: somewhat soulless and homogenized. You could be in Schipol or Singapore. One reason Kai Tak is still held in such...
...Kai Tak was a busy airport right in the middle of town and loved by all," says Armstrong. "Chek Lap Kok is like any other airport?straight in approach, and boring. It simply doesn't generate the same fun, excitement or mystery that the old airport did. Long live Kai...
...Chek Lap Kok is] too far away and is just a standard international airport," says Nevin Lim, a freelance tour guide in Hong Kong who gave up his hobby of plane spotting when Kai Tak closed. "It takes the fun out of flying. Kai Tak was so exciting because the planes flew so close to the city. There was always a possibility that there might be a problem of some sort. Of course, no one wanted anything to go wrong, but it was this element of danger that made Kai Tak so exhilarating...
...Meanwhile, back at Kai Tak, David England still works in an office in Kowloon Bay that overlooks the old airport's runway. From his window he can see a fleet of double-deckers in a Kowloon Motor Bus livery, on the site where Concordes used to park. "That," he sighs, "is not really the same...