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Hong Kong achieved a major milestone late last year in its quest to promote a connected harbourfront space when it opened the long-awaited eastern section of the East Coast Boardwalk in December, linking North Point to Quarry Bay and thus providing a walkable harbourfront all the way from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan. Now, the sights are set on the Kowloon side, with ambitious goals to connect the waterfront by 2028.
Hot off the success of the Hong Kong Island waterfront development, Hong Kong’s secretary for development, Bernadette Linn, shared in a recent blog post that about 70 percent of Kowloon’s developable waterfront – more than 14 km out of an available 21 km – is already accessible to the public, but there are plans in the works to expand the waterfront connection to an even higher degree. With the completion of a number of anticipated promenade projects, the total length of pedestrian-friendly pathways on both the Hong Kong Island and Kowloon sides of Victoria Harbour will reach 34 km, creating connected, accessible, and inclusive urban waterfront areas.
Tsim Sha Tsui is already notably walkable, providing a path from the Star Ferry piers almost all the way to Hung Hom. Nearby, there’s also the Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade East, and the entirety of the West Kowloon Cultural District. Newly introduced is the walkable path between Shing Kai Road Garden and Kai Tak Sports Park Dining Cove and the GreenWay in Kai Tak, and coming soon this year, there will be an inclusive 13-km path for pedestrians and cyclists within the Kai Tak area as well. Additionally, a new pedestrian walkway linking Tai Kok Tsui to the West Kowloon Cultural District, a waterfront promenade by the New Acute Hospital in Kai Tak, and public spaces at the former Hung Hom Railway Freight Yard Pier are all scheduled to open in 2026.
In theory, a fully connected Kowloon harbourfront should include Nam Cheong, Tai Kok Tsui, West Kowloon Cultural District, Tsim Sha Tsui, East Tsim Sha Tsui, Hung Hom, Whampoa, To Kwa Wan, Ma Tau Kok, Kai Tak, Kwun Tong, and so on, though whether this is remotely possible all depends on how much of the existing waterfront sections in these neighbourhoods is developable. As it stands, no details of such grand plans have been released. Still, we hope that one day we can go on an epic stroll all the way from West Kowloon to East Kowloon – a neat way to clock 10,000 steps!
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