ON THE OTHER SIDE

維港對岸

AS A NICKNAME, it could hardly be less appropriate. Kowloon, the glittering, crowded, electric conurbation on the north side of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, is still referred to by some Hong Kong Islanders as ‘ The Dark Side’.

That phrase is a manifestation of expat insularity – that somehow the seven-minute Star Ferry ride across the harbour remains a journey into the unknown.

It’s not unusual for cities’ main hubs to denigrate their other halves. There’s still a trope in London that taxi drivers won’t go ‘south of the river’. Manhattanites and San Franciscans patronise ‘bridge and tunnel’ incomers. In Paris, the Rive Gauche, or Left Bank, was long known as a haunt of artists and other undesirables.

The Left Bank has long eclipsed the other side of the Seine for the wealth of its inhabitants and the opulence of its apartments (and the fame of a certain iron tower). Similarly, the waterfront stretch of Kowloon is coming to rival the glitz of the opposite bank. The newly minted Victoria Dockside houses Hong Kong’s most high-profile new luxury hotel, the Rosewood Hong Kong, opening next month. The InterContinental is being reborn as another Hong Kong classic, The Regent. And this month, the Avenue of Stars begins to shine again.

Time to explore properly. That’s what Fionnuala McHugh does on page 56.

Mark Jones Editorial director 位於香港島維多利亞港北岸的九龍，是一片繁華熱鬧的市區，充滿各種精采吸引的事物，可惜有些港島居民仍然將這個別具魅力的地方稱為「黑暗的一面」。

用這種方式來稱呼九龍區，很大程度反映了外籍人士的偏狹：對他們來說，乘搭全程七分鐘的天星小輪橫渡維港，始終是一趟航向未知的旅程。

其實很多城市都有這種現象，居住在繁華鬧區的人會對其他區域加以貶抑。在倫敦有個說法，指的士司機不會去「河南岸」。曼克頓人和三藩市人至今仍然不屑經由「大橋和隧道」進城的外來人。至於巴黎的河左岸，向來被視為賣藝人及各種不受歡迎人物出沒的地方。

河左岸現在豪華公寓大樓林立，居民家境富裕，加上著名的鐵塔，早已將塞納河對岸的風頭搶去。同樣，九龍海旁的黃金地段，亦將與維港對岸的繁榮景象一較高下。新落成的Victoria Dockside內開設了城中最備受注目的全新豪華酒店香港瑰麗酒店，即將於下月隆重開幕。而洲際酒店則在重新裝修後，回復為香港昔日經典麗晶酒店。此外，星光大道經過翻新後，亦於本月重開。

現在正宜前往探索一番，請參閱56頁的封面故事，隨Fionnuala McHugh暢遊煥然一新的九龍海旁。 Mark Jones編輯總監