圖：譯者2010/2/27撮於大浪西灣，想不到是見它完好的最後一面......
說到香港，你不會想起自然勝景，是的，我們的確住在石屎森林，人煙稠密。但事實上，香港有約75%的土地屬於郊野，未經發展，林木蔥蔥，是野牛、蟒蛇、猴子的安樂窩。
我喜歡郊野，因此，當我看到今天的《南華早報》（香港一份英文大報），心情非常沉重。它的頭版報導了，香港最美麗的一角、以湛藍海水與雪白幼沙聞名的大浪灣，慘被褻瀆。本地商人、蒙古能源主席魯連城以約2百萬美元，購入了一些村地，準備大興土木，建其私人大宅。他已派出推土車進駐西灣，開始清除植被。其公司的一名發言人表示，魯氏並無任何「大規模的工程計劃」，並說由於魯氏本人「非常綠色」，會低調開發這個項目。
福無雙至。在香港，只要有錢，便能濫用各種法律漏洞。魯氏看來也廢了一番功夫，才完成收集所有零碎的土地，湊拼成其大宅地盤，期間政府竟然沒有相關部門留意到這些交易，實在異乎尋常。這教我想起近期本地地產市場一些玩弄黑暗手段的醜聞（譯者按：例如天匯事件），令人倍感沮喪。
香港早應有更嚴謹的法例，來保育這些珍貴的天然財產。但願這是最後一個可以用錢收買、據為己有的全天然公眾沙灘。
2010/7/16，《時代雜誌》，KRISTA MAHR撰文，謝冠東撮譯
In Hong Kong, One Paradise Lost
You might not think of Hong Kong as a trove of natural serenity, but actually, the seven million people living here are squished into a remarkably small area. We all live piled on top of each other and jockey for space on impossibly narrow sidewalks while about 75% of the land of the Special Administrative Region is undeveloped, lush countryside, full of creatures like wild cows, (dog-eating) pythons and aggressive monkeys that I advise you not look in the eye. From an evolutionary perspective, humans are really losing the battle in this little semi-autonomous chunk of China.
Personally, I like it that way. So it was with a heavy heart that I picked up today's South China Morning Post (Hong Kong's big English daily) to read a front page story on the desecration of one of the finest untouched corners of the city. Tai Long Wan beach, whose Cantonese name translates roughly as "big wave bay," is a sweeping crescent of white sand lapped by clear blue waters. It takes some serious effort (and, in summer, an unspeakable amount of sweat) to get out there by subway, bus, taxi and foot, and that is what, until now, has kept it so good. That, and the fact that it's part of Sai Kung East Country Park, an area set aside for nature conservation.
Or so we thought. Through a zoning loophole, the SCMP reported today that a large private residence is now under construction directly behind Tai Long Wan. Local businessman Simon Lo Lin-shing, chairman of Mongolia Energy Corporation and Vision Values Holdings, has acquired several plots of an abandoned village for a total of about $2 milion in a small area that falls outside the park zoning laws, and therefore is not subject to planning regulations or EIAs.
The bulldozers he has hired to start building there have already started clearing land. An unnamed spokeswoman for Vision Values Holdings told the paper that there were no plans for any "large-scale works," and that because the owner was "very green" himself, the land would be developed in a low-profile way.
Sigh. There's nothing illegal necessarily going on here, but it's always depressing when loopholes like these can be found at the right price. It sounds like the property buyer worked fairly hard to piece together this land from its original owners, and it's hard to imagine that at some point along the way, his efforts didn't come to the attention of somebody in public office who could have raised a red flag. It's particularly bleak news when a totally separate scandal involving the wheelings-and-dealings of the local property market has been unfolding.
Anyway, this is not the first project in Hong Kong to crop up in areas that should be under stricter development laws, and it won't be the last. But let's hope it is the last unspoiled public beach that somebody with enough cash gets to put in their own backyard.
The monkeys, for their part, are not going to be amused.
2010/7/16, Time, By KRISTA MAHR
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2010/07/16/in-hong-kong-one-paradise-lost/