North District’s Colonial Relics

The North District is a terrific place to explore Hong Kong’s 20th-century British colonial history. This part of the northern New Territories was the defence lynchpin for the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong in the 1960s and 70s. It was a very different city indeed: the Cold War was on, the end of the lease of the New Territories was looming, and Hong Kong faced major security issues, including riots, spies and terrorism. Skirmishes erupted every now and then along the China border, and a posting to this remote area, for either a civil servant or police officer, was not an exile but rather an important part of their professional development in Hong Kong.

Administrative and residential buildings large and small, and even military camps, are scattered about the district, tangible reminders of this other Hong Kong. Some have been rehabilitated for alternate uses, some are crumbling and forgotten, all are accessible to history buffs by Hong Kong’s superb network of MTR, bus, minibus, and on foot.

The best place to begin a tour of British colonial buildings is in Fanling, once the big city of North District. The faded 1950s art deco former market Luen Wo Hui (not to be confused with the current one on Wo Mun Street) attracted vendors from farms throughout the area, and is typical of the public amenities constructed by the British during this period. The Former Fanling Magistracy has been revitalised and is now The HKFYG Leadership Institute; book a guided tour or follow a mobile app for a self-guided tour to learn about the history of the Magistracy.

Fanling can be reached by MTR from Central in about 40 minutes, but in the 1960s, getting from a North District outpost to downtown was an all-day affair. “It could take two hours just to get to Sha Tin,” recalls the wife of a British police officer who lived in the district in the 1960s. “There was a little railway you could catch that ran where the Sha Tau Kok Road is now.” Civil servants and police families lived in British-designed houses that were engineered according to rank, with the best and largest facilities going to the highest levels.

On the walk there from MTR Sheung Shui Station another sprawling residence from the period can be spotted: the Oi Yuen Villa, originally built for the use of the executives of Jardine Matheson. Surrounded by construction sites that will soon be contemporary luxury housing for another generation of Hong Kongers, the mansion stands as a reminder of another era that is rapidly fading away.