Kennedy Town MTR station opens but not everyone is happy with the pace of change
Kennedy Town has a shiny new MTR station, but not everyone is happy with the pace of change
This morning, Kennedy Town commuters will troop onto the MTR's new West Island Line, ready to enjoy a smooth, seamless ride to their offices in the city. But long before that maiden journey, the city had already arrived in their corner of the island, in the form of ubiquitous shops and restaurants.
New residents, as well as restaurants, have been lured to the area, attracted by the prospect of the HK$18.5 billion MTR project. In the process, long-term locals have been left with mixed feelings at the pace of change.
With new homes and new businesses, rents have risen, squeezing out those unable to catch up and modernise. In 2011, the biggest casualty was the traditional Sun Chung Wah (or "New China") dim sum restaurant that had been in Kennedy Town for 60 years. It was dubbed one of the "three treasures" by locals in Western district. The other two "treasures" are a traditional tea cafe or cha chaan teng, Cheung Heung Yuen, and a congee restaurant, Cheuk Kee.
Cheung Heung Yuen, which opened in 1967 just opposite the now closed Sun Chung Wah on Belcher's Street, is famous for its egg tarts, cocktail and pineapple buns and milk tea.
Sixty-nine-year-old owner Chow Sek-fung recalled that when he took over the business in 1978, the Western district was a bustling hive of activity. Kennedy Town represented island life in the raw - vegetable and poultry wholesale markets, slaughterhouses with associated smells making their way into neighbouring streets, gritty factories responsible for everything from sweaters to sharks' fins, and seedy bars and brothels.
With development, many of these establishments have been relocated, along with the poorer inhabitants of the area - a number of whom have ended up in public housing in the New Territories. As a result, the working-class neighbourhood - which got its name from Hong Kong's seventh British governor Arthur Edward Kennedy, who served from 1872 to 1877 and reclaimed the strip of land along the harbour - has shrunk.