Hong Kong Express Rail Link controversy

Guangzhou–Hong Kong high-speed rail controversy

Villagers of the to-be-demolished Tsoi Yuen Chuen in front of HK Government offices in November 2009
Date	Mid-2009 – early 2010
Location	Legislative Council Building, Central Government Offices, Hong Kong
Participants	HK Govt., LegCo, Pan-democrats, people of Hong Kong

The Guangzhou–Hong Kong high-speed rail controversy (Chinese: 反高鐵運動; literally: "Anti-High Speed Rail Movement"), is a movement and period of civil discontent in Hong Kong between mid-2009 and early 2010. Select groups of Hong Kong residents protested at the proposed Hong Kong section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link (abbreviated XRL), a high-speed railway that would link Hong Kong with mainland China's growing high-speed rail network.

Segments of the general public and various interest groups opposed to certain aspects of the Hong Kong section of the project mobilised through petitions, marches, hunger-strikes, rallies to show their discontent at government insistence on pushing through the project. They cited cost, noise pollution, customs and border control complications, and existing rail links as main reasons for the opposition.

Pan-democracy legislators made the most of their limited opportunity within committee to question the project rationale within the Legislative Council of Hong Kong (LegCo), while civil groups kept vigil outside LegCo during the debate. The January protest has also been called the "siege of Legco" by local media. Ultimately, the movement was unsuccessful in impeding the government's plans to build the railway.

On 29 November, a demonstration of more than 1,000 people protesting against the construction of the Express Rail link gained the attention of the local media when a group of 100 people engaged in a sit-in protest in front of the government headquarters in Central.

On 18 December, the funding application was debated in the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. A demonstration of an estimated 1,000 to 2,000 people was staged around the Legislative Council Building. The debate was put on hold and the funding was not yet finalised.

A group performed a "prostrating walk" (苦行) imitating Tibetan pilgrims, dubbing it the "Prostrating Walk of the Five Districts", in which participants kneel down and touch the ground with their heads every 26 steps (to symbolise the length of the rail link), from 5 to 8 January. Protesters also walked around the LegCo building in a similar fashion during the protest from 15 to 16 January.