During the reclamation debates of the mid-1990s, in countless planning seminars and government-public contact meetings, a fundamental issue raised by environmental advocates was: ‘What use will the proposed reclamation be put to?’ Inevitably, this meshed with debates about port development and transport policy. For, in almost every major reclamation, very large areas were set aside for road development, despite compelling evidence that the future environment would be better served by rail transport, and actively discouraging road traffic. It was also suggested, as the modern photos below indicate, that much of Hong Kong’s reclamation was ill designed and poorly finished – despite the harbour’s majestic natural setting.
 
When Hedda Morrison captured the view opposite, of the western harbour, Stonecutter’s Island, the lizard-like island in the background, remained – an island. Today it is connected by a land bridge to western Kowloon. When Morrison was here the western harbour was its outlying area, with most commercial shipping concentrated in the harbour’s central reaches. Today, the western harbour, with its vast container port, is the focus of shipping.