China cruises: Hong Kong"s new cruise terminal

I wasn’t quite the first passenger to board, but I was perhaps the only one to

stand at the stern and gape at Kai Tak’s transmogrification. The new

terminal, which calls to mind an open-mouthed cigar tube topped with a roof

garden, sports five gangways and in time will be able to handle the largest

liners in the world.

A designer-label shopping mall and other parts of the terminal are some way

from being finished – Hong Kong’s trademark bamboo scaffolding is still much

in evidence, as are trestle tables and signage affixed by sticky tape –

while the rest of the former airport is still a construction site due to be

occupied by a mixture of hotels, housing, a park and a sports stadium.

The arrival of Mariner of the Seas marked the terminal’s soft opening. “The

terminal is due to open to the public in October when the next liner comes

into port,” said Beatrice Lee, senior public relations executive at the Hong

Kong Tourism Board (HKTB). “A second berth should be finished in July 2014,

while dredging will continue until the following year.”

For Hong Kong the new terminal is not so much just another infrastructure

project as a determined attempt to muscle in on a growing and lucrative

cruise market in Asia in the face of competition from other regional cruise

hubs such as Singapore and Shanghai. As China’s middle and upper classes

continue to expand, the demand for travel, especially luxury travel, is

expected to increase further, according to HKTB’s executive director,

Anthony Lau. “Many Chinese travellers will likely take to the seas, given

the novelty experience of cruise holidays.”

Planes used to fly in over Kowloon

Adding to the susurrus of gleeful hand-rubbing are the cruise operators, who

are swiftly adapting their ships and voyage plans to appeal to a freshly

sliced market segment. Kai Tak is named after the entrepreneurs Ho Kai and

Au Tak who started to reclaim the land in 1922 but ran out of money and

rented part of the site to an American, “Crazy” Harry Abbott, who opened an

aviation school in 1924. It seems the story has come full circle.

“We spent two years planning Mariner of the Seas’ arrival in Hong Kong to

coincide with the opening of the new terminal, and we spent $10 million

[£6.46 million] upgrading the shops and the casino on board,” said Zinan

Liu, regional vice-president for Miami-based Royal Caribbean International,

which took a 20 per cent stake in the consortium behind the terminal.

“The mainland Chinese market is in its infancy and will soon catch on to

cruising. This is one of the reasons we are redeploying Mariner of the Seas

and her sister ship, Voyager of the Seas, to Hong Kong.”

The docking of Voyager of the Seas in October will be followed by that of

Diamond Princess and, in December, of Celebrity Millennium. Hong Kong’s

original terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui will continue to serve smaller cruise

ships.

Hong Kong is the most dramatic port I have ever sailed into or out of;

compensation for the south China coast’s otherwise slightly unexciting, and

often air-polluted, landscape – there are no chic, Mediterranean-style ports

and fishing villages, or palm-fringed Caribbean shores in this part of the

world. Wherever their ship moors, cruise passengers sailing into or out of

Hong Kong can enjoy the thrill of taking centre stage in what is to all

intents and purposes an aqua amphitheatre. Skyscrapers festoon the harbour’s

shores, the skyline to the north is dominated by Lion Rock and ringed by a

series of other towering granite peaks, the water teems with lighters,

junks, packet boats, cargo ships and yachts, while the metropolis fairly

scintillates all around.

View over ships in Hong Kong Island

While Kai Tak is only semi-fledged, its opening – complete with the requisite

lion dancing and drumming – was greeted with enthusiasm across the city,

tempered with some caustic comment as scores of passengers queued for taxis

that took a long time to find their way to a venue that, until very

recently, was terra incognita.

Help design a PO ship – then sail on it

You could be part of an advisory panel helping to shape features on board a

new P  O Cruises ship. You would later be one of the first to

sail on the ship – the largest to be built and designed exclusively for

British passengers – following its launch in 2015.

Details of our competition to win a place on the panel will be published

during the next few weeks, so look out for an announcement on telegraph.co.uk/travel.

China cruises: Hong Kong"s new cruise terminal