At one of the recent public meetings on sustainable development, a member of the audience lamented the rapid pace of development in Bermuda. "Do you want to live in Hong Kong?" he asked.

"Stop kidding yourselves," wailed another man. "Hong Kong is here already."

If only that were true. Bermuda may share some of the same pressures on its open space as Hong Kong, along with a colonial history and a similar climate. But as far as sustainable development is concerned, we could learn a lot from our Asian cousin.

If you've never been there, you probably imagine Hong Kong to be a modern-day Gotham City ? a hot, dirty, smelly place where millions of inhabitants live cheek-by-jowl in tottering skyscrapers, while Triad gangs divide up the dark, narrow streets below. I certainly used to.

That's why when my company sent me there for nine months several years ago, I didn't want to go. At the time I lived in a pleasant town in London's commuter belt, with easy access to the countryside. Hong Kong sounded like the antithesis of much of what I loved about my home. I hadn't even eaten Chinese food before.

When I arrived, I discovered that Hong Kong was indeed hot, dirty and smelly. I hated it. Foetid smells hung thickly in the polluted air.

The locals were rude and my expat colleagues did nothing but work and drink.

I found myself toiling late into the night, and having to contend with lizards and cockroaches when I finally made it back to my tiny, sweaty apartment.

Over time, however, my misconceptions dissolved. Hong Kong is no Gotham City. Yes, there are Triads and organised crime, but street crime is very low.

The city has the most awe-inspiring skyline in the world. No exaggeration. I've stood for hours on the promenade that runs along the southern edge of Kowloon, gazing across the harbour towards the skyscrapers lining the north side of Hong Kong Island and the undulating, tree-cloaked hills behind. It's a breathtaking panorama, equally impressive at night: proof that a forest of glass and concrete Redwoods does not have to be ugly.

But one of the most surprising things about Hong Kong is how much open space it has. And I'm not talking about the roadside strips of grass that pass for parks in Bermuda. Despite the impression you may have of Hong Kong as an urban hell, its built-up area is actually concentrated in a relatively small area. The rest is open space. And decent open space to boot, the kind you can go hiking in.

Consider Hong Kong Island. At roughly 31 square miles, three of which is reclaimed land, it's only a little bigger than Bermuda. In 2003, 1.26 million people lived there.

Yet its interior is filled with forest and the occasional reservoir, through which wind hiking trails of varying difficulties. Except for the places where the trails crest the mountainous spine that runs down the Island's back, there's not a skyscraper in sight. Most of the time you wouldn't believe that you're hiking in one of the most densely populated parts of the world.

Our problem is not that we're too much like Hong Kong, it's that we're not enough like it.

We want to have our cake and eat it too. We don't want to build on our open space, but we don't want to live in an apartment block. Instead, we cover our Island with low houses whose growth sometimes only seems constrained by the borders of our golf courses. About the only building-free vista to be had in Bermuda is from the Queen's bedroom in Government House.

Something has to give. If we really want to preserve our open space, as the recent furore about the location of the new hospital suggests we do, then we need to start building up.

The first step is to get rid of the archaic restriction that no building in Hamilton may be taller than the eaves of the Anglican cathedral. The second is to start building some attractive high-rise housing there.

This should be aimed at young Bermudians and expats and should be straightforward and cheap ? no need for gyms, swimming pools or in-house delis. As I discovered in Hong Kong, the single expat spends little time at home. Many would probably prefer to be only a short walk from the office in the morning and a drunken stagger back from the bars at night. Some will already be accustomed to apartment block living. It would certainly be better for Bermuda if they were not occupying one- or two-storey family homes in the outlying parishes.

We can either watch as our remaining open space disappears, or start building up. Hong Kong seems like a pretty good model to follow to me.