【明報專訊】The greatest cities in the world have always been built close to water. Centuries ago when boat travel was the only means of communication, port cities were the gateways to commercial and cultural metropolises - where a nation met the rest of the world, where the familiar met the exotic, and where the known met the unknown. But in times where planes make travelling to the farthest destination a matter of hours and railways spider-web the continents, what place do ports cities still have in our modern world?