Ma Liu Shui / University Station [1956- ]

Submitted by David on Wed, 04/06/2011 - 11:14
Current condition
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Date completed

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ma liu shui station in the 1950s with students and staff of Chung Chi college

university station backside 1956.jpg
university station backside 1950.jpg, by simtang

I remember when we first moved to Taipo Kau in 1952 there was no station at Ma Liu Shui, so the first stop after Shatin was Taipo Kau.

In those days the railway was single track from Yau Ma Tei (Now Mongkok) north up to the border, so the embankment at Ma Liu Shui had to be widened, which took some time as the train service was kept running while the work was in progress.

The land behind the embankment was quite swampy, as with all the embankments along the shore between Shatin and Tai Po Market stations. The upgrading of the Ma Liu Shui embankment created a fresh area of flat land at the bottom of the valley

As Chung Chi College transformed into a university, two blocks of flats were built on this land.

The children of the teachers who lived there would join us on the train to and from school in Kowloon.

I remember the first “Hong Kong Style” rainstorm not long after the flats were completed and occupied, the blocks sank into the ground, and the carports that were at ground level in typical HK design style, vanished into the mud. Landslips from the hillside behind the flats contributed to the mess.

The engineers must have found a way to stabilise the blocks as the residents eventually moved back in and the buildings are still there today.

You (palfreeman)  must be talking about the flats on the right side of this picture with 7 storeys near the train station. They are the staff quarters for Chung Chi College.

https://gwulo.com/media/43154

We can compare these flats in the 1960s and 2011.

1960s:

Lingnan Stadium 1960s
Lingnan Stadium 1960s, by simtang

2011:

2011 cu flats near train station
2011 cu flats near train station, by simtang

Yup, that’s them. Notice the granite facing on the front. A very popular design feature in the 60’s & 70’s

In the background is Ma On Shan. It was a bit of a rite of passage to climb Ma on Shan at least once. Sometime in the 60’s we got a kaido ferry from a rickety pier in the vicinity of the Shatin Floating Restaurant to the pier at Ma On Shan mine. We cheated a bit by hitching a lift in the back of an empty lorry driving back up to the mine entrance which was about 300 feet up, and then climbed the rest of the way to the top. By the time you get to the rock at the very top, you are exhausted and feel you must be the only person to have got that far, but when you go to the rock to scratch your initials on it, there is hardly any room, so many people got there before you ! The other two big walks were the whole length of the Pat Sin range from Plover Cover to Taipo and Taipo to Shatin at Shing Mun starting at the Red, White and Blue walks in TaiPo Kau. No TV or internet or Facebook in Taipo in those days !!