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News report, Wah Kiu Yat Po, 1957

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I n order to accommodate cityd e v e l o p m e n t i n t h e N e wTerritories, the supply of water and

electricity has been greatly improved.Fluorescent lamps have been installed fromYuen Long to Ping Shan Road. There is nowsufficient water for domestic and industrialuse in the Castle Peak area.” Thisnewspaper heading from the newspaperWah Kiu Yat Po, dated 29 December 1957,demonstrates that Yuen Long was in theforefront of the Rural ElectrificationScheme in the New Territories.

Yuen Long

Yuen Long received electricity as early as1931. In the beginning, electricity came fromAu Tau to Yuen Long Market, though itcould only reach the major markets. Mr. TaiKuen of Shap Pat Heung Rural Committeetells how in the past, when there was noelectricity, the shops had to be illuminatedby kerosene lamps. There were still norefrigerators, and so, in order to preservemeat, people had to put it in bamboo basketsand hang them from the ceiling, or else theywould use salt to preserve it. Before the war,CLP had a power station in today’s CastlePeak Road (near the present KentuckyFried Chicken [KFC] Restaurant). Theground floor was the power station and theupper floors were residences. Mr. Tai stillremembers that when electricity supplycame to his house, the whole family was sohappy. However, his mother did not wantto pay too much for it. In order to limit theuse of electricity, the bulbs his family usedwere only 10-15W.

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The Au Tau Substation in Yuen Long in 1959 was the most important of its kind in thewestern part of the New Territories

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Lau Fau Shan is famous for its seafood cuisine in Hong Kong

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Local philanthropists founded PokOi Hospital in 1919 and it beganto offer Western medical services

in 1950. Mr. Tsang Yuen Hung of theHospital believes that this was a landmarkin the development of the region. In the pastonly Chinese medicine was practised.Nowadays the medical services combineboth Western and Chinese methods and arefree of charge. As for the new services, theelectricity supply obviously played animportant role.

For the food and drink industry and forcommercial activities, Yuen Long has beenfamous for its “three treasures”: rice, gobymullet and oysters. These three thingsattracted many tourists to Yuen Long fromthe urban areas on holidays. As alreadymentioned, when electricity reached LauFau Shan in the early 1960s, business wasvery good and the shops were illuminatedevery night. Mr. Tang Chi Cheung of HaTsuen Rural Committee still remembershow there was no air-conditioning in thefamous Yue Wo Tong at the beginning.They had to remove some electric fans froman old ship and install them in Yue WoTong. These old fans still functioned andwere very useful at that time.

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Parade at Castle Peak Road, Yuen Long, 1979

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Hang Heung Restaurant, Yuen Long, 1950

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Another famous product of YuenLong is the “wife cakes” ofHang Heung Cake Shop. Mr.

Cheng Hung Kit remembers when the shopwas opened in 1926, it was originally arestaurant. In those days a restaurant hadto serve meals, tea, and also make cakes.Cakes were made for weddings and for theMid-Autumn Festival. Usually the dim-sumcooks made the cakes. Since the elderlyowner was rather thrifty, the restauranthired very few workers. When many peoplecame for meals, they had to wait a long time.When they began to get hungry, therestaurant provided them with some “wifecakes.” People found the cakes so tasty andhence the fame of these cakes wasestablished.

In the early times the cakes were made in abrick oven, heated by burning wood. Theamount of cakes made depended on thenumber of orders. When his father passedaway, Mr. Cheng decided to use electricovens. At first, they used 4-cable electricitywith only 25A. But this supply of electricitywas not sufficient for installing air-conditioners. Later, technicians helpedupgrade the current to 100A to fit the needs.The electric ovens also evolved from drawerovens to tunnel ovens. This not onlyimproved the efficiency, but also met withhygiene standards.

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Celebrities of Yuen Long, 1940

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Mobile cash collection office in Yuen Long, early 1970s

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Electricity brought new products,and improvements to localproducts.

Apart from the food and drink industry, theentertainment business also benefited fromhaving a sufficient supply of electricity.According to newspaper reports in the late1950s, Ping Shan, the then centre for newfarms in the New Territories, had apopulation of over 20,000. Ordinary farmerswere busy in the daytime and they couldonly have leisure time at night to go tomovies in Yuen Long, to dine at restaurants,or to find other means of entertainment. Butthe bus service stopped at 10 pm and theyhad to go by bicycle or on foot. This wasvery inconvenient, since there were no streetlamps along the road. Then CLP installednew fluorescent lamps, thus linking YuenLong and Ping Shan, and made people’slives more agreeable.

In the early 1960s a large entertainmentplace named Tung Lok Theatre was built atNam Pin Wai. This illustrates how people’scultural lives were also enriched. Thedevelopment of Yuen Long really wentahead very rapidly.

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Yuen Long Highway helped the development of Yuen Long and Ping Shan

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Yeung Uk Tsuen at Shap Pat Heung, Yuen Long

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In Yuen Long the process of ruralelectrification had many storiesattached to it. Mr. Tang Shing Shi of

Ping Shan remembers, in the time beforeelectricity how wealthy people used electrictorches at night, while the poor wouldencounter snakes when going out at nightwithout any kind of light. This was reallydangerous.

After the installation of electric lamps,people’s habit of going to bed early alsochanged. When they started going to bedlater, an interesting thing began to happen:the electr ic lamps attracted many“osmanthus cicada.” (nicknamed “wo meilung”, a kind of flying insect). These tinycreatures would fly around the lamps andthen fall down or fly off to another lamp.People saw this and would wait every nightto collect them and then eat them deep-fried. They were so delicious that peoplewould even wait up until 11 pm or midnight.Because of this kind of activities, drivers hadto be careful, since quite a few people wouldwait under the lamp posts on the road sidesat night.

At first the rural people were conservativeabout the use of electricity. Mr. Man PingNam of San Tin Rural Committeeremembers how at the beginning CLP sentofficers to enter the village and introducethe use of electricity. The poor would cometo see the electric lamps installed in richpeople’s houses before they decided toinstall their own. In 1963 Mr. Man came backto Hong Kong from Britain. Starting fromthat time, his home had installed a Germanblack and white television set. Neighboursall came to watch television. At that timepeople’s favourite programme waswrestling. This showed how the relationshipsamong rural people were very good.

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The development of Shap Pat Heung, Yuen Long,was helped by an expanded electricity supply

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Yuen Long Soccer Team wonthe FA cup, Sir David Akers-Jones congratulating the teammembers, 1979

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A 1988 football match held by Yuen Long District Sports Association

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During the course of the ir

planning and erection, there

was considerable argument

over the placing of the huge

towers in various parts of the

countryside. Villagers wanted

their “pound of flesh” when

t h e s e s u b s t a n t i a l s t e e l

structures had to be erected on

private instead of crown land,

and there were further concerns

among e n v i r o n m e n t a l i s t s

about siting them in prominent

positions in country parks. The

Heung Yee Kuk, representing

t h e v i l l a g e r s , w a s c l o s e l y

involved in the negotiations.

—Sir David Akers-Jones

NRO

This spirit of mutual aid was alsoevident when power supplyreached the place. The family of

Mr. Tang Kwan Shing of Ha Tsuen RuralCommittee was the first to apply forelectricity in his village. After that the otherresidents of the village followed. Since theTang family had paid for the pole fee whenit was constructed, the neighbours had noneed to pay more and could apply for theirown electricity supply. At first the Tangswere reluctant to accept this because theyhad paid a great deal for the constructionfee. However, based on the rural sense ofsharing, the Tangs decided not to make itan issue.

The villagers called the poles “tung”. Mr.Tsang Ma Ming of Yuen Long SportsAssociation recalls the scene when CLPdistributed electricity to his village: At thebeginning CLP wanted to erect posts infarmland. The rural people worried thatthey would damage the feng-shui of thevillage and disagreed with this. But laterthey agreed to let CLP do so afternegotiations among villagers. In the ruralareas, these poles provided a place forchildren to play. One of the children’s gameswas to climb up the poles. Electricity notonly brought convenience to the villagers,it also brought new interests.

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Shui Tau Village at Kam Tin received its power supply in the 1960s