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Sham Shui Po District

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This article is about the district that covers Cheung Sha Wan, Lai Chi Kok, Mei Foo Sun Chuen, Sham Shui Po, Shek Kip Mei, So Uk, etc. See Sham Shui Po for the article on the area.

Sham Shui Po District (深水埗區) is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong. It includes Sham Shui Po, Cheung Sha Wan and Lai Chi Kok of New Kowloon. The district covers an area of about 10.47 km² with population about 372,200 as of 2000.

Areas

Demographics and housing

Two old women having their lunch-box meals in masses of paper scraps. The common scenario in the streets indicates ageing is a burning problem to Sham Shui Po.

Sham Shui Po was already a densely populated district in 1950s and 1960s. It is most heavily poverty-stricken, having the lowest median monthly domestic household income among the 18 districts. It has the highest percentage of elderly over 65 years. The percentage of new immigrants is also very high.

Private housing Mei Foo Sun Chuen in Lai Chi Kok, which was built in 1966, was Hong Kong's first large-scale private housing estate, comprising 8 phases with a total of 99 blocks.

Politics

Partly because of the large presence of the low-income group in Sham Shui Po, the area has bred many pro-grassroots politicians. The current chairman of the Sham Shui Po District Council, Mr Tam Kwok-kiu, is a veteran local politician fighting for the interests of public housing tenants for many years.

Sham Shui Po is the stronghold of Tam's political party, the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood. Of the 26 District Councillors in Sham Shui Po, nine belong to his group, including party chief Frederick Fung Kin-kee. Fung was returned to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong in 2000 by direct election in the geographical constituency of Kowloon West, in which Sham Shui Po is the biggest area.

However, Hong Kong's largest pro-government and pro-Beijing party, the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), has gained a foothold in Sham Shui Po too. In 2000, Tsang Yok-sing, the then chairman of DAB and member of the Executive Council, Hong Kong SAR chief executive Tung Chee-hwa's inner cabinet, won a seat in the Legislative Council representing the Kowloon West constituency, which includes Sham Shui Po.

DAB members Chan Wai Ming, representative of So Uk, Fu Shu-wan, a representative of Lei Cheng Uk, and Cheung Man-to, a representative of Nam Cheong Central are District Councillors in Sham Shui Po.

The Democrats have been less successful at canvassing grass-roots support. Pro-Beijing politicans have won favour in Sham Shui Po by organizing such things as free banquets and tours to southern China.

Transport

There are four railway lines serving Sham Shui Po District:

MTR

People leaning against a fence in front of an MTR station.

KCR

Buses

There are also various bus route serving the district. Most of them are operated by Kowloon Motor Bus, and some by New World First Bus and Citybus. These three companies also jointly operate some routes, most of these crossing the harbour to the Hong Kong Island.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sham Shui Po.


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