Fast-forward a few decades, and Victoria Harbour is still busy. But – space-starved Hong Kong is a sucker for reclamation – it has shrunk. After years of planners encroaching upon public access to its 73-kilometre waterfront, there are signs that Hong Kong’s centrepiece is getting a new lease of life.

Nicholas Brooke, who heads up the Harbourfront Commission, says: ‘The harbour’s water is a lot cleaner nowadays – the annual cross-harbour swim is back on the calendar – and there are some brilliant schemes being put into action, such as the watersports facility next to the old Kai Tak runway, and the boardwalk that’s going to be hung beneath the expressway between Causeway Bay and North Point.

‘Victoria Harbour’s the jewel in Hong Kong’s crown, and we need to keep it that way.’

While projects like the new cruise terminal on the site of the old Kai Tak airport – which juts out into the water near Kowloon City – have yet to fully hit their stride, Victoria Harbour has an economic value far beyond that of the goods and vessels that continue to rely on it. Some 55 million visitors come to Hong Kong every year, taking at least as many photographs of its most prized asset. For its interplay of water, architecture, energy and light there is nowhere in the world to rival Victoria Harbour. Try putting a price on that.

Hero image: John Thomson / Hulton Archive / Getty Images