This is an HSBC advertisement from an early seventies newspaper clipping. It was announced that HSBC had opened a branch in the newly finished Wah Fu estate in the western district of Hong Kong Island. Unfortunately, I cut off the part of the advertisement with the HSBC logo in it.
Wah Fu is a large public housing project completed in the early seventies. While both families and businesses were moving into this community, HSBC decided to open a new branch there. I still remember that at the beginning people had some reservations about moving to this location for two main reasons. First, it was quite remote and there was no direct bus service. Before China Motor Bus dedicated a bus line to Wah Fu from Central, residents there had to take the No. 7 bus, got off at Shek Pai Wan Road, and took a long walk to their apartments. Second, part of this piece of land that Wah Fu built on used to be an abandoned Chinese burial ground (Kai Lung Wan cemetery). So, superstitions were another factor.
Though the Wah Fu estate was not completed until March 1971, people were allowed to move to the completed sections as early as 1968. So, CMB extended the Queen Mary Hospital No. 4 bus line to Wah Fu in October 1968 to facilitate people commuting to work from there. With more and more shops, restaurants, and supermarkets opened there, Wah Fu estate became a self-sufficient community. The reservations then gradually disappeared and the superstitions of living near a burial ground fainted away too.
This MAP shows the locations of individual buildings in the Wah Fu estate and the names of the buildings in both English and Chinese. It also shows the location of the town center and the bus stop. The location of the HSBC branch is near Wah Hong House. The following Wah Fu estate statistics are from the HK Government Public Housing Authorities document: Area occupied is 24 acres; Number of flats is 7792; Population Capacity is 53945; Total capital cost is $81,657,000; Official completion date is March 1971.
I first hiked around this estate back in 1968 when most of the buildings along the main entrance were already completed. Recently I learned from the news from HK that, after almost 55 years, the HK Government decided to renovate some of the buildings there as they are getting rundown. How time flies.