Fung Kwong-ming, 70, always remembers what his acupuncturists told him: 'You don't have to visit any more, all you need to do is have regular exercise. If you make this a regular habit, your muscles will gradually regain strength.'
In the seven years since he received that advice, the retired Mandarin Oriental baker has walked in the corridor in front of his home for 30 minutes twice a day to strengthen his left arm and leg paralysed by a stroke in 1991. None of the exercises ever took place in a park or a playground.
Mr Fung is living in a 10-storey public housing block in Tsuen Wan. The building, completed in 1975, has no elevator. 'I'm living on the sixth floor. Climbing six storeys is too much. I only go downstairs when I need to see my doctor,' Mr Fung said.
He hopes the Housing Authority will install lifts in his building to make his life easier. And he is not alone. Many of the estate's elderly residents, including his neighbour, 83-year-old Ho Hui-chai, also confine most of their activities to their homes and to the public corridor.
Mrs Ho, a mother of nine, was a construction worker in her youth. She was forced to find work as a dim sum waitress when she could no longer stand the physical work demanded by the building industry.
'Every time I go to the market, I try to buy as much as I can, so I don't have to shop for food every day,' she said. 'But the problem is I can't carry much.