The Taikoo Valley cultural landscape : understanding and conserving a unique industrial cultural landscape in Hong Kong

Abstract

The author is a field officer of Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) of Hong Kong Government who is responsible for management of the country parks in Hong Kong Island, she has been working in Mount Parker for over ten years. In recent years, the author has faced the new challenge of balancing the needs of heritage conservation, nature conservation and visitor hiking safety for these recent-discovered less-easily reached heritage sites, involving the remnants of Taikoo Sugar Refinery’s related facilities on Mount Parker. Given these issues, it is necessary to develop a systematic approach to these structures that can have a strong application and basis for sustainable heritage conservation of and can be applied more universally to all less-easily reached heritage sites with high cultural significance in Hong Kong Country Parks. In addition, as a manager of the country park, the author experienced first-hand the unique management challenges brought about by the unprecedented situation of a global pandemic. This experience will form the latter part of this dissertation to demonstrate the importance of management as a form of heritage protection. The study area is Taikoo Valley of Mount Parker, Quarry Bay, Hong Kong. Taikoo Valley is set amidst the peaks of Mount Parker, Mount Butler and Braemar Hill, and its boundary is defined by its topographical feature. Today, Taikoo Valley is not shown in any maps, and most of the vegetated area of Taikoo Valley is covered by Tai Tam Country Park and its Quarry Bay Extension. The study area of this dissertation covers the land of Taikoo Valley where within and adjacent to Tai Tam Country Park and its Quarry Bay extension. This dissertation will identify and document the current status of the remnants of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery’s related facilities located in Taikoo Valley of Mount Parker which adjacent to Tai Tam Country Park and its Quarry Bay extension, in order to understand the heritage values of Taikoo Valley as a cultural landscape and to provide conservation recommendations for the site. Additionally, this dissertation will be a reference case for future study for the conservation of less-easily reached heritage sites within country park areas in Hong Kong.