HONG KONG 1841 → 2026 | 3D City Evolution Timelapse

In 1841 Hong Kong Island was a steep, quiet hillside with a few villages. Then the city started filling in the sea. Watch Victoria Harbour narrow and Hong Kong grow from a handful of streets into one of the densest skylines on Earth, in one continuous 3D timelapse. Real terrain, from Victoria Peak to Lion Rock, and nearly 58,000 real buildings, each appearing in the year it was built. You'll see the Praya reclamations, the Peak Tram, the trams, Kai Tak's runway pushing into Kowloon Bay, the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the Bank of China Tower, Central Plaza, Two IFC and the 484 m ICC. ⏱️ CHAPTERS 0:00 Hong Kong today 0:21 1841 – Possession Point 0:45 1860 – Kowloon 1:15 1888 – The Peak Tram 1:23 1890 – The Praya Reclamation 1:41 1904 – Trams 2:03 1925 – Kai Tak airfield 2:19 1941 – Occupation 2:43 1953 – Shek Kip Mei fire and public housing 2:53 1958 – Kai Tak's runway into Kowloon Bay 3:17 1972 – Cross-Harbour Tunnel 3:37 1979 – The MTR opens 3:54 1985 – HSBC Main Building 4:14 1990 – Bank of China Tower 4:49 1997 – Tsing Ma Bridge and the handover 5:07 1998 – Kai Tak closes 5:39 2003 – Two IFC 6:27 2010 – ICC, Hong Kong's tallest 7:42 2021 – M+ 8:21 2025 – Kai Tak Sports Park 8:49 Hong Kong at night Which city should we build next? Tell us in the comments 👇 📊 DATA SOURCES Buildings © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) – openstreetmap.org/copyright, and 3D-GloBFP (Che et al., 2024, Earth Syst. Sci. Data 16, 5357–5374), CC BY 4.0 Terrain: Copernicus DEM GLO-30 © DLR e.V. 2010–2014 and © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014–2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA Construction years: DLR World Settlement Footprint Evolution, EC JRC Global Human Settlement Layer, Wikidata Landmark dates and heights from official records. Shorelines before 1975 follow the historic praya streets and are approximate; ordinary building years are satellite estimates. Music and sound effects are original, generated for this video. #HongKong #Timelapse #3DAnimation #CityEvolution #VictoriaHarbour #KaiTak #History