Checkerboard Hill

Checkerboard Hill – officially Kowloon Tsai Hill – in Hong Kong is a quirky relic of the legendary approach to the old Kai Tak airport, closed in 1998. To meet safety clearance for the notorious IGS curve onto runway 13, large portions of the hill had to be blasted off, leaving two nearly pyramidal cliff faces. A giant red-and-white checkerboard pattern was painted onto them as a visual marker for pilots – about 18 kilometres from threshold, jumbo jets banked hard right here onto final approach over Kowloon's rooftops. The manoeuvre was widely regarded as among the most demanding in commercial aviation. Even after the airport closed, the pattern has been repainted repeatedly and remains visible from the nearby road.