Villagers facing eviction under Hong Kong new town projects enjoy final new year banquet together
- At least four of five villages which are part of annual event will be affected by government’s Kwu Tung North and Fanling North development
- Some residents express concern for their elders, who may not take well to relocation, while most lament the loss of close community ties
As diners poured tea, laid chopsticks and exchanged red packets, 60-year-old Chan Oi-ling wondered if she would miss the warmth of what could be their final feast.
She was among some 100 elderly residents from five villages in northern Hong Kong who attended their annual Lunar New Year banquet on Saturday.
But Chan’s village, Ma Shi Po in Fanling, will be affected by the first phase of the government’s Kwu Tung North and Fanling North new town development, which means residents could be evicted as early as the second half of the year.
“The banquet is for squatter villages in north Fanling, but this year, people in our village will have to move to new places and get used to the new environment,” Chan said wistfully. “We will gradually grow apart, and we will never come back.”
The decades-old new town projects, which the government this year promised to push through, will displace some 1,500 households to provide 71,800 flats by 2031. The move is one of the measures to increase housing supply for a city crippled by unaffordable properties and overcrowding.