Media

Public forum at HKU: Mechanisms to unleash development potential of privately owned land in the New Territories
Due to various land management and historical problems, development rights of more than 4,000ha. privately owned land in the New Territories have been held up in the past decades. This public forum aims to explore some possible fair and transparent mechanisms to unleash the development potentials in the New Territories.

Invited speakers and participants will discuss, inter alia, two institutional innovations namely "land readjustment" and "land bonds". Comments received in the public forum will form an integral part of a report to be submitted to the Task Force on Land Supply.

Media representatives are cordially invited to cover the event.

Date : August 18, 2018 (Saturday)
Time : 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. [Media Registration starts at 2:00 p.m.]
Venue : Lecture Theatre, Room 419, Knowles Building, University of Hong Kong
Language : The Forum will be conducted in English
Speakers :
- Sr Tong T.N. Chan, Member of Executive Committee, Heung Yee Kuk N.T.
- Prof. K.W. Chau, Head & Chair Professor, Dept of Real Estate & Construction, HKU
& Director, HKU Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research
- Mr. Donald W.H. Choi, Chief Executive Officer, Chinachem Group
- Prof. S. H. Goo, Professor, Faculty of Law, HKU & Deputy Director, HKU Ronald Coase Centre for Property Rights Research
- Prof. Jimmy C.F. Leung, Adjunct Professor, Dept of Geography & Resource Management, CUHK
- Dr. Albert C.H. So, Managing Director, Albert So Surveyors Ltd.
- Prof. Erwin Van der Krabben, Professor, Dept of Planning, Radboud University & Honorary Professor, Dept of Urban Planning & Design, HKU
- Dr. Edward C.Y. Yiu, Founder, Real Estate Development Building Research & Information Centre

For enquiries, please feel free to contact Ms Irene Chow (Tel.: 9839 4474 or email: ckirene@hku.hk).

UMAG exhibition
Continuing the Iznik Tradition Contemporary Blue-and-White: Turkish Ceramics by Mehmet Gürsoy and Nida Olçar

Period: Now till August 19, 2018 (Sunday)

İznik pottery is named after the town of İznik, where these finely decorated ceramics have been manufactured since the last quarter of the 15th century. Local craftsmen developed simple earthenware pottery into a more sophisticated manufacture of high-quality ceramics painted with cobalt blue patterns and coated with a colourless glaze.

This modern form of production developed under the patronage of the Ottoman court in Istanbul, which traded with China and greatly valued Chinese blue-and-white porcelain. Consequently, the iconography of İznik ceramics combined traditional Ottoman arabesque patterns with Chinese motifs. Today, contemporary artists remain true to traditional design sources by creating objects that relate to cultural exchanges from the time of the Ming dynasty.

Venue: 2/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam

Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 (Monday to Saturday)
13:00 – 18:00 (Sunday)
Closed on University and Public Holidays
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free
Website: www.umag.hku.hk/en/

Connect with UMAG on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umag.hku
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UMAG_HKU

Media enquiries:
UMAG Senior Communications Officer Ms Elena Cheung, Tel: (852) 2241 5512, Email: elenac@hku.hk
UMAG Programme Assistant Miss Chelsea Choi, Tel: (852) 2241 5509, Email: cchelsea@hku.hk

HKU Stephen Hui Geological Museum exhibition to launch on Endangered Species Day 2018 “Hong Kong’s Living Fossils” – the evolution of horseshoe crabs

Period: Now till November 4, 2018

This special exhibition will showcase horseshoe crab as old as 475 million years, together with other living fossils to understand their evolution and lifestyle, including their body plan, life cycle and habitats in the geological past and in Hong Kong today. Visitors will have the valuable opportunity to see up-close live juvenile horseshoe crabs and observe the body part functions and lifestyle in action which have helped them to successfully cope with environmental changes for hundreds of millions of years.

While horseshoe crabs were once common in Hong Kong and evenly distributed over all intertidal beaches and mudflats, their wild population has dropped significantly by 90% between 2000 and 2009, caused by human activities such as coastal development, clam digging and fishing. Horseshoe crabs will face the threat of extinction in Hong Kong and the legend of the “Living Fossil” will not be sustained if no urgent protection measures are implemented.

Apart from the horseshoe crab, fossils of two other living fossils living largely unnoticed in the coastal environments of Hong Kong, namely the primitive brachiopod Lingula and the small eel-like Amphioxus (also known as Lancelet), will also be shown in the exhibition.

Venue: G/F, Stephen Hui Geological Museum, James Hsioung Lee Science Building, Main Campus, the University of Hong Kong Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Closed on Saturdays and Sundays, University and Public Holidays
Free Admission
Special Weekend Openings from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on: September 8/9, October 6/7 and November 3/4, 2018.
Guided Tours: Venue: The Stephen Hui Geological Museum, Main Campus, HKU, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (Map) Free guided tours during the special weekend openings will be arranged at 2p.m. Free of charge. No registration required.

General Enquiries: Tel: (852) 22415472 / Email: shmuseum@hku.hk

Website: Stephen Hui Geological Museum website: http://www.earthsciences.hku.hk/shmuseum/

Media Enquiries: Ms Rashida Suffiad, Senior Manager (Media)
Tel: (852) 2857 8555 Fax: (852) 2858 4986 Email: rsuffiad@hku.hk
Communications and Public Affairs Office, The University of Hong Kong