Harsh reality has arrived for Yuen Long villagers whose homes must make way for the HK$66.9 billion high-speed railway to Guangzhou.
Lands officers who arrived in the farming community of Tsoi Yuen yesterday to start taking back vacant properties told the remaining residents they must be out in two weeks.
'They told us they would come back on November 18 to take our houses. It is a standing line delivered to every villager,' said Ko Chun-heung, who has led a campaign to save her home from destruction since late 2008.
Hundreds of police, highways and lands officers moved into the village early yesterday in the first phase of the land resumption.
The villagers had been hoping they would be able to stay until new homes are built on nearby land they are seeking to buy, but that could take six months even if they can resolve a dispute that is holding up the deal. The Transport and Housing Bureau said the government could not wait endlessly for the villagers to move out.
It also said the railway project involved river realignment, so work must be carried out in the dry season.