The painted checkerboard had faded over the years to the point where it was hard to see. Then a few months ago slope maintenance work began, stripping away the last signs of the checkerboard. I thought that was it gone for good, but I had a good surprise walking past there today:
Time will tell, but it looks as though a new checkerboard is in the process of being painted on to the fresh concrete.
The website "Kai Tak Old Neighbor" shows photos of the history of the airport. In the part Legend of the Concrete Forest the caption of a photo reads:
Kai Tak Aiport after extension
In 1962 the new Kai Tak Airport was up and running. The landing and takeoff path now ran across the centre of Kowloon City. Kowloon Tsai Hill, as we can see in the top left corner of the photo, had been largely levelled and an air corridor was spared above the new flat land, which would become the Kowloon Tsai Park, with facilities including a sport ground, a swimming pool and several pitches. The remaining mound was marked with a checkerboard in red and white and installed with apparatus for aircraft navigation. Since then it was commonly known as “Checkerboard Hill”. On the right of the photo, the nullah inside the apron was exactly the one that existed as early as the 1910s when the area was reclaimed, and that separated the Kai Tak Bund residential district from the airport in the 1920s.
Perhaps Kaitak is to be reopened since nobody is using Donald Tsang's "white elephant" Cruise Terminal . Chek Lap Kok can then be used for housing .................
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The checkerboard returns?
The painted checkerboard had faded over the years to the point where it was hard to see. Then a few months ago slope maintenance work began, stripping away the last signs of the checkerboard. I thought that was it gone for good, but I had a good surprise walking past there today:
Time will tell, but it looks as though a new checkerboard is in the process of being painted on to the fresh concrete.
It's back ...
We walked past the hill yesterday afternoon, and the red squares have been filled in, completing the checkerboard:
1962 Checkerboard Hill
The website "Kai Tak Old Neighbor" shows photos of the history of the airport. In the part Legend of the Concrete Forest the caption of a photo reads:
Kai Tak Aiport after extension
In 1962 the new Kai Tak Airport was up and running. The landing and takeoff path now ran across the centre of Kowloon City. Kowloon Tsai Hill, as we can see in the top left corner of the photo, had been largely levelled and an air corridor was spared above the new flat land, which would become the Kowloon Tsai Park, with facilities including a sport ground, a swimming pool and several pitches. The remaining mound was marked with a checkerboard in red and white and installed with apparatus for aircraft navigation. Since then it was commonly known as “Checkerboard Hill”. On the right of the photo, the nullah inside the apron was exactly the one that existed as early as the 1910s when the area was reclaimed, and that separated the Kai Tak Bund residential district from the airport in the 1920s.
Probably Checkerboard Hill "opened" in 1962.
Checker Board Repainted
Perhaps Kaitak is to be reopened since nobody is using Donald Tsang's "white elephant" Cruise Terminal . Chek Lap Kok can then be used for housing .................