Through the hard working of the committee in the 1st half year, most of the major activities, which were on our plan of this year, have been rolling out since August 2011. Activities include CPD events, the Surveyor League 2011, YSG Study Tour 2011 as well as the YSG Annual Dinner.
YSG prepared a lot of activities for you every weekend in September. I hope you would enjoy the Eco Tour, Site Visit and the Surveyors League that we organized for you this month. In the coming month, we have another key event of the year. Please keep an eye on our report about the study tour to Chongqing in the next issue of Surveyors Times.
Site Visit to TaiKoo Hui
There are 46 members attended the site visit to TaiKoo Hui, a major mixed development project in Guangzhou under Swire, on 3 September 2011. It is our pleasure to have Mr Peter Kok, the general manager of TaiKoo Hui, to give us an introduction before he guided us to the newly completed shopping arcade in the complex. Mr Kok did not only share with us the background, planning, design, delivery, leasing and management of this project but also the difficulties they have encountered in the development process. It was definitely one of our CPDs of the year that you should not miss if you are interested in retail development or China
properties development. I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere thanks to Mr Peter Kok and Mr Gary Leung from Swire and our Jeff Chan and Hazel Tee.
The Surveyors League 2011
After 12 exciting 1st round and 4 playoff games, the Surveyors League, which nearly a hundred HKIS basketball players have been participated into, came to an end on 25 September 2011. TBC finally won the championship title while Mr Leung Siu Chung was crowned as the top scorer of the league by scoring a total of 56 points in 5 matches. A presentation ceremony was held subsequent to the League's Final. It is our honor to have the Institute's President, Mr Wong Bay, to award the players of championship team, 1st runner up team and 2nd runner up team in the ceremony.
Please check out the highlights of these exciting games on the back cover of the Surveyors Times!
Thanks a lot for the support from all basketball lovers! Jerry, Hazel, Iris, Jeff, Mandy, Rex, Sylvia, Angela & Simon, thanks a lot for all of your great effort to make this amazing and memorable event happens!
新界東北地質公園及海岸公園生態導賞團
The eco tour was successfully held on 10 September 2011. A total of 50 members from different divisions joined us and visited the HK National Geopark in Wong Chuk Kok Tsui (黃竹角咀), Lai Chi Wo (荔枝窩), Kat O (吉澳) and Ap Chau (鴨洲) to explore the natural environment.
Led by professional eco-guides, we visited the mangroves in Lai Chi Wo and got to know how important these muddy wetlands are to the ecosystems. They explained to us in detail how different kinds of rocks, including volcanic rocks and sedimentary rocks, were formed. We have also learnt the formation of the coastal landforms, like wave-cut platforms, sea arch (the duck’s eye of Ap Chau) and headlands.
Throughout the whole journey, the eco-guides demonstrated their passion and enthusiasm towards the nature by sharing with us a lot of interesting information and knowledge about trees and insects species.
7 days after this tour, the UNESCO announced its acceptance of Hong Kong Geopark's application for membership of the Global Geopark Network (GGN). Since then, Hong Kong Geopark is officially named "Hong Kong Global Geopark of China". Let us contribute to the conversation of our beautiful natural environment together! MK, thanks a lot for your great effort!
Site Visit to MTR West Island Line Contract 704
On 10 September 2011, over 25 members joined the site visit to MTR West Island Line Contract 704. West Island Line is an extension of the existing MTR Island Line from Sheung Wan to Kennedy Town and the 3km alignment runs beneath the densely populated areas of Western District. Contract 704, which was awarded to Gammon Nishimatsu WIL Joint Venture in Year 2010, is the largest project of the West Island Line Extension. It comprises the construction of Sai Ying Pun and Hong Kong University Stations, an associated network of pedestrian adits with a total length of 3km, a twin running tunnel with a total length of 1.1km and a bridge connection from the shaft entrances to the University of Hong Kong.
Mr Stephen Lee, Senior Construction Manager of Gammon Nishimatsu WIL Joint Venture, was invited to give us a briefing on this complex project including introduction of a large number of sustainable construction methods and engineering solutions that are employed to build this underground railway under such a densely populated area to minimize the impact to the neighbourhood, the traffic and the environment. Thank you, Mr Lee from Gammon Nishimatsu WIL JV and Rex!
Reverse Mortgage Programme in Hong Kong by Mr Patrick Wong
On 14 September 2011, over 60 members joined this CPD event. Reverse Mortgage is a loan arrangement which enables the elderly to use their self-occupied residential property in Hong Kong as security to borrow from a participating bank under the HKMC's programme. In Hong Kong, it is an innovative measure for the senior citizen to obtain some financial assistance in the rest of their lives. During the CPD, Mr Patrick Wong from The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited shared with us the background, procedure, requirements, cost and many useful details of this newly launched Reverse Mortgage Programme by the HKMC. The content of the CPD also helped us to understand more about the role of the Surveyors under this new programme. Again, thank Mr Patrick Wong and Ms Kathy Yip from the HKMC for delivering
this informative talk to us and thank Kason and Phyllis for the great effort!
Upcoming Events
We will organize the following CPD and social events in the coming October and November:-
CPD
- YSG Study Tour 2011
- You are what you eat!
- What building professional should know toward "the path to sustainable future"
Social Event
- Bread Making Class
- 螢火蟲生態夜遊嚐有機晚餐
- 老饕團PART2大閘蟹
- YSG Annual Dinner
Don't miss the chance to learn and have fun together! We look forward to seeing you in our events!
WE NEED YOU!
For the success of YSG, we need your support advice and participation in our upcoming events and our committee. If you are interested in becoming part of us or you have any enquiry about YSG, please email us at hkis.ysg.gmail.com. In addition, you may consider to attend our next YSG meetings in October and November on 10 October 2011 and 14 November 2011 respectively, 7:00pm at HKIS.
