Netizens speculated: what were they?
One said they looked like concrete pineapples, another noted their igloo-esque appearance. An art installation, perhaps? Suggested others.
Turns out the awkward stone mounds, built recently under a flyover in Tuen Mun by the Transport Department (TD), were an effort to stop public mahjong playing in the area, which had irked locals.
It also turns out they were a waste of money — some HK$200,000 (US$25,000).
Because while the hillocks made gathering and playing mahjong in the secluded space between the Yau Oi Estate and Tsui Ning Gardens tricky, they also reminded residents of graves from a hillside cemetery, which upset them more than the gambling.
After receiving complaints about the spookiness of the structures, the Transport Department, which had ordered their installation, began removing them this week.
Well, they first covered them with black plastic, something that didn’t particularly help their sightliness.
“They were ugly,” said one female retiree, chatting to Coconuts HK.
Down by the last remaining mound yesterday, the local mahjong crowd had yet to reappear and retake their gathering spot.
Under Hong Kong’s gambling ordinance it’s illegal to gamble in public, though games like mahjong are permitted in private premises, so long as it’s not being run as a business.
The spot, according to Johnny Ip Chun-yuen, a lawyer and a member of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), had long been a problem area for illegal gambling.
“It’s an ideal place for people to gamble, mainly playing mahjong, because it’s very out of the way and well hidden, therefore hard for police to find,” he said.
The solution, however, was far from ideal, complained Tam Chun-yin, a Labour party district councillor for Tuen Mu, who, speaking to i-cable news, demanded to know whose thought it was appropriate to make them look like graves.
In a statement, the TD said the project — which followed consultation with the police and other departments — was still in progress but they were following up with the Works Department to “optimize the design”.
They probably should have learnt from the shenanigans over in Kwai Tsing district earlier this year.
There, authorities were forced to remove a HK$850,000 (US$108,000) art installation for the exact same reason.
May we suggest, the first item on the checklist for new public works projects: Does it look like a cemetery yes/no?
