Bulletin No. 2, 2011

An Unusual Study Tour  27  Ip Yuk-wai York Geography and Resource Management, Year 4 Having been to London as a tourist, Ip Yuk- wai York said, 'On this trip, I saw things I had never seen. The last time I was there, I visited Tate Modern but I knew nothing about the neighbourhood. This time we went to see how the locals saved their neighbourhood from being developed into hotels and offices … and how they wrangled with the government, and succeeded!' York was talking about the story of the residents of Coin Street who campaigned against the planned development of their neighbourhood, which he found very encouraging. 'It urged me to ask: is it possible that this too can happen in Hong Kong? … It is true that the pressure for urban renewal is great here. But it doesn't mean that it won't happen in Hong Kong. You have to push hard to bring about the conditions where it can work.' The students also visited Renaissance, an organization that aims to empower school dropouts or teenagers labelled as unsuccessful. York said, ‘Its founder is a young person who is only two or three years older than us. Seeing a person who is about the same age as we are doing such things, I couldn’t help but ask myself: will we have enough guts to do what he is doing?’
 York opined that the curriculum covers the full spectrum of viewpoints, enabling him to see things from a more comprehensive perspective. A geography major, he now can see the issues of urban planning from the perspectives of public administration or political science.