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Islands

The Islands District provides HongKong with a vast green space. Inearly times people inhabited only

a few islands. Among them the best-knownare Cheung Chau and Tai O on LantauIsland; Mui Wo and Peng Chau are alsoimportant.

Mr. Charles Mok, former CLP OrganizationDevelopment Manager, and Mr. Cheng KaShing, former CLP Regional Manager, havebeen serving the people of the IslandsDistrict for many years. During the earlyyears of the 1960s, Lord Lawrence Kadoorieinitiated the expansion of the RuralElectrification Scheme to Lantau Island. Atthat time there were very few people (lessthan 30 families) living in Ngong Ping andaround Po Lin Monastery on Lantau Island.Ngong Ping got its electricity supplybetween 1964 and 1965, while the bungalowsat Tai O had received electricity supplyearlier. Since the bungalows were mainlybuilt with iron sheets, the installation ofelectricity was very difficult. The peoplethere used a kind of wood named “KunDian” as posts to hold the electric cables.

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Ngong Ping, where the great Buddha Statue is situated, is the centre of Hong Kong’s Buddhism

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Tai O was famous for its “bungalows”

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Village scene of Tai O

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The town of Tai O already has over200 years’ history. According toMr. Lee Chi Fung of the Tai O

Rural Committee, the Tai O Kwan TaiTemple was built during the Ming Dynasty(1368-1644). There is also an old herbal shopnamed “Kwong Chung Wo” with a longhistory in the Tai O Market. Tai O is one ofthe four great fishing ports in Hong Kongwith fishing and salt as its main industries.In the 1940s and 1950s, fishermen couldcatch several hundred catties of fish a day.The different kinds of fish were thentransferred to the Wholesale Fish Marketat Aberdeen for sale. There were also someseafood restaurants which bought fresh fishfrom Tai O directly. During the 1950s,tungsten ore was found in Sha Lo Wan, andfollowing this, three companies came tomine the ore. At that time many rural people(as many as 3,000 to 4,000 in the peakperiod) went to these areas to mine the oreand sold it to buyers. The price was 16dollars per catty. This made Tung Chungand Sha Lo Wan very busy towns. Later, thepolice came in to stop the collection oftungsten ore and the rural areas becametranquil again.

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Power supply for the construction of Shek Pik Reservoir, 1963

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CLP accounts office at Tai O, 1955

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T he “bungalows” have givenTai O the name of “Venice ofHong Kong”. These houses were

first built by the local inhabitants and theimmigrants from Panyu, Dongguan andTaiping in mainland China. Later in the1960s, because of the increasing number ofsuch houses, the government had to controlthem through the issuing of licences. Thedesign of the bungalows varied at differenttimes, first from dome-shaped to pyramid-shaped, then flat-roofed. The waterwaysbetween bungalows are called “fireemergency passages”. In the 1940s and1950s, an electric company suppliedelectricity to Tai O from one small powerstation. The company was named “Tai OUnion Electric Company”. But the outputwas small and electricity could only besupplied to the restaurants during daytime.People living there had to wait until nighttime when the electricity supply shifted todomestic use. This power station lasted onlyfor seven or eight years.

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A new cash register for the Company’s accounts office atTai O on Lantau Island arrived by sampan in 1960

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The CLP Substation at Tai O was thefirst on Lantau Island

In September 1955, CLP acquired the Tai OUnion Electric Company. Thereafter peopleliving there enjoyed whole-day electricitysupply. The fishing people in Tai O loveCantonese opera. When the electricitysupply became sufficient, it was easier toarrange such opera shows. The operaplayers no longer needed to carry with themthe large, heavy and noisy electricitygenerators. In 1968 the government gave asa gift a 20-inch television set to Sha Lo WanVillage of Tai O. On that occasion hundredsof people rushed to watch television andcreated a memorable scene. Upon therequest of the Tai O Rural Committee toraise safety standards, CLP changed theoriginally unified set of electricity metersinto individual meters and installed themseparately in each house. This not onlyhelped prevent fire, but also made theelectricity supply more convenient tomanage.

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The Cheung Chau Tai Ping Ching Chiu isone of the island’s most famous events

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While Tai O is famous for itsbungalows, the island ofCheung Chau is widely known

for its Bun Festival in the “Tai Ping ChingChiu” and paying their tributes to “Pak Tai”( God of the North ). Cheung Chau is themost populated among the places in theIslands District. Mr. Kwong Kwok Wai ofthe Cheung Chau Rural Committeedescribes how he witnessed the change ofCheung Chau from a small fishing villageto a favourite scenic spot for tourists: In the1920s and 30s, the people living on CheungChau, Peng Chau and also Lamma Islandand Mui Wo were closely related throughmarriage and trading activities. Later, dueto the individual development of the islandsand the small number of inter-island sailings,communication between Cheung Chau andother places was reduced.

In the 1950s, there were small factories ofleather, incense, paper, ice, ship-buildingand plastics on the island. Most of theinhabitants worked on the island andelectricity was supplied by the Cheung ChauElectric Company. Kerosene was the fuelfor electricity generation and thus the costwas high. Representing the inhabitants, Mr.Kwong Bing Yau, Mr. Kwong Kwok Wai’sfather, called on the government to improvethe electricity supply on the island. SirEdward Youde was at that time theGovernor of Hong Kong. He received Mr.Kwong Bing Yau’s appeal and was eager tosolve the problem. In 1984, CLP acquiredthe Cheung Chau Electric Company andreinstalled new machines to improve thesupply to Cheung Chau. The tariff wasunified with that of customers in Kowloonand the New Territories. This helped theCheung Chau people save over a milliondollars every month. This improvement ofthe electricity supply brought prosperity toCheung Chau. It also attracted manyforeigners who enjoy the atmosphere of afishing port, to live on the island.

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Lord Kadoorie attending theceremony to supply power toCheung Chau

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As Mr. Lam Wai Keung, GBS JP,of the Islands District Councilpoints out, it is often foggy in the

islands and hence a stable supply ofelectricity is extremely important to providesufficient lighting to guide ships. Besides, theelectricity supply helped the developmentof small scale industries and provided jobsfor the inhabitants. Take the island of PengChau as an example, the light industries onthe island include rattan work, chinawareand weaving. During the 1950s and 1960sindustrial developments were flourishing.The working population reached a total of2,000-3,000. Electrification not only raisedpeople’s living standards, it also broughtmore var ie ty to the cu l tura l andentertainment activities on the islands.

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Young faces light up when Peng Chau receives its power supply, 1955