Kuk Po Map: Produced by theKuk Po Visionproject team at the University of Hong Kong’s Center for Chinese Architecture and Urbanism.

Kuk Po is a Hakka village with a history of over three centuries. From the 17th to the 18th century, the Yangs, the Sungs, the Lees, the Hos, the Chengs, and others migrated to the village, building embankments, opening up paddy fields and constructing water gates and other hydraulic facilities. By the late Qing Dynasty, Kuk Po’s population exceeded five hundred. One of the closest villages to the Sha Tau Kok ferry pier, Kuk Po served as an important transportation hub of the Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角) inlet and Shuen Wan (船灣) north-eastern coastline. Kuk Po also had its own school and was independent of the ‘alliance of ten’ in Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角十約).

With the opening of Lo Keung Road in 1961, Kuk Po’s transportation hub status declined. In 1962, Typhoon Wanda struck Hong Kong, causing crop failures. In the following decade, electricity became available, and Plover Cove Reservoir (船灣淡水湖) was completed. Under the forces of industrialization and rapid urban development, residents moved away from Kuk Po. Leaving the farmlands unattended, the fallow fields near the coastal bay gradually turned into wetland marshes overgrown with mangroves. The only school in the village, Kai Choi School (啟才學校), ceased operations in 1993. Chung Kee Store (松記士多) opened in 2000, serving as a gathering spot for villagers and their friends.

(Excerpted from Kuk Po Vision Exhibition Handbook pp. 15, 17, 73. (2022), University of Hong Kong’s Center for Chinese Architecture/Urbanism.shorturl.at/nCUW5

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