Guided Tours for Schools to the West Kowloon Cultural District Site to view the 2009 Hong Kong and Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture
Teachers and students have high hopes for West Kowloon Cultural District
To give students firsthand experience on the planning of this mega cultural project, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) organized some 30 guided tours at the WKCD site for secondary school students during the month of February 2010. Participating students were offered a talk on the planning and development of the WKCD, and a tour of the 2009 Hong Kong and Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, an exhibition currently being held at the WKCD site. Students have high hopes for the WKCD—an arts and cultural district designed for the community and for them—and this was reflected in the many enthusiastic and thoughtful comments they made following the tours.
Teachers and students were very appreciative of the tour. Being physically present at the WKCD site, they felt, was more illuminating than all the literature that they had read and gave them a keener sense of what they want from the WKCD and what they hope it will become. A common sentiment was the dream that this cultural district, located on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbour, will become a future landmark of Hong Kong and serve not only as a showcase of the city’s culture to the world, but also a meeting place for all art forms and a platform for creativity and cultural interaction.
The students presented many interesting and innovative ideas, such as constructing a floating exhibition hall, starting an organic farm, building a large leisure and entertainment park, planting flowers on sprawling grass lawns, opening up a space for street performances, putting up models that narrate events in Chinese history, and designing rest areas with special features and themes. However, the one thing that they agreed on was that the WKCD should be completed as soon as possible to enable Hong Kong and the world to enjoy everything that it can offer.
To give students firsthand experience on the planning of this mega cultural project, the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) organized some 30 guided tours at the WKCD site for secondary school students during the month of February 2010. Participating students were offered a talk on the planning and development of the WKCD, and a tour of the 2009 Hong Kong and Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture, an exhibition currently being held at the WKCD site. Students have high hopes for the WKCD—an arts and cultural district designed for the community and for them—and this was reflected in the many enthusiastic and thoughtful comments they made following the tours.
Teachers and students were very appreciative of the tour. Being physically present at the WKCD site, they felt, was more illuminating than all the literature that they had read and gave them a keener sense of what they want from the WKCD and what they hope it will become. A common sentiment was the dream that this cultural district, located on the waterfront of the Victoria Harbour, will become a future landmark of Hong Kong and serve not only as a showcase of the city’s culture to the world, but also a meeting place for all art forms and a platform for creativity and cultural interaction.
