Can Hong Kong’s tech hubs and new towns coexist with squatter huts in rural New Territories?
Village communities have for years been bulldozed to make way for high-rise government developments, but a shift in policy is on the cards that could see the two intermingle in a curious mix of old and new
For the past seven years, Yeung Koon-ping has lived with a nagging fear that the village house his family has called home for more than half a century will be torn down.
The 400 sq ft squatter home in Ping Yeung San Tsuen in the rural New Territories is nestled among large swathes of abandoned farmland and scrapyards, in an area the Hong Kong government has been eyeing for years as the site of a planned new town.
A bus driver in his 40s, Yeung spent weeks in 2012 protesting against plans to build high-rise communities that would replace his home with luxury flats he would never be able to afford.
A surprise U-turn by officials offered Yeung a reprieve in 2013, when the development of the area around his village was postponed and subjected to further study.
But he knew it was a looming nightmare that was bound to come back and haunt him.
“I don’t feel like we’ve dodged a bullet. It’s only a matter of time before the government comes back for us,” Yeung said.