Chung Mei is an area on the Tsing Yi Island in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It is also the name of a village on the island.

Name

Chung Mei means the end () of a

stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a strea ...

(), in

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

. It might refer the stream of Liu To or a much shorter where the former villages sited. Both streams are located near the Tsing Yi Lagoon.

History

The original Chung Mei was located on the valley at the present-day Lam Tin Resite Village, below Tiger's Head (). Chung Mei was two villages. One was Ha Chung Mei (), namely "lower Chung Mei". Another was Sheung Chung Mei (), namely "upper Chung Mei". While Ha Chung Mei was sited near the Tsing Yi Lagoon, Sheung Chung Mei was sited higher on valley. The position of Ha Chung Mei is close to present-day TWGHs S. C. Gaw Memorial College. The stream of Liu To and Sheung Chung Mei made cultivation available. According to James Hayes, the cultivation on the island was mainly

rice Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...

and

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a Tropical vegetation, tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been culti ...

. Along the shore of Tsing Yi Lagoon, from the villages, to the east was Sheung Ko Tan and to the north was Tai Wong Ha. The Tsing Yi Town was at the northeast of Chung Mei, across the

lagoon A lagoon is a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by a narrow landform, such as reefs, barrier islands, barrier peninsulas, or isthmuses. Lagoons are commonly divided into ''coastal lagoons'' (or ''barrier lagoons'') an ...

. In the 1980s, the villages were forced to re-site during the expansion of

Tsuen Wan New Town Tsuen Wan New Town is a new town in Hong Kong. It spans Tsuen Wan, Kwai Chung and the eastern part of Tsing Yi Island. Traditionally, the administrative officials of Tsuen Wan managed the area of Tsuen Wan proper, Kwai Chung, Tsing Yi Is ...

. The original Chung Mei and its surrounding was flatten and reclaimed for re-siting four villages on the Tsing Yi Island. The villages of Chung Mei was combined with Lo Uk () and relocated east on the higher ground above Sheung Ko Tan. The resited villages was named Chung Mei Lo Uk Tsuen () though they are administrated separately. Apart from villages, owing to the destruction of old Tsing Yi Town, many retailers have moved their shops into this village and formed a market. The market still operates everyday even though many new markets were built on the island. As the new establishment of the village, the name of Chung Mei also commonly refers to its present site and surrounding villages, rather than its former location.

Administration

The original Chung Mei Tsuen was composed of indigenous inhabitants of Chan () family. They have representatives in the Tsing Yi Rural Committee, a composition organisation of

Heung Yee Kuk The Heung Yee Kuk, officially the Heung Yee Kuk N.T., is a statutory advisory body representing establishment interests in the New Territories, Hong Kong. The council is a powerful organisation comprising heads of rural committees which repre ...

. But after the relocation, many outsiders moved in. The villages thus also has to create one representative for non-indigenous inhabitants. The villages of Chung Mei and Lo Uk are recognized villages under the

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

Small House Policy The Small House Policy (SHP, ) was introduced in 1972 in Hong Kong. The objective was to improve the then prevailing low standard of housing in the rural areas of the New Territories. The policy allows an indigenous male villager who is 18 ye ...

Surroundings

West of Chung Mei is an unnamed valley. To its east is resite village of Sheung Ko Tan and Tsing Yi Lutheran Village. There is one road named after the village, namely Chung Mei Road. The road connects Ching Hong Road and

Tsing Yi Heung Sze Wui Road Tsing Yi Heung Sze Wui Road () is one of the oldest roads on the Tsing Yi Island, in Hong Kong. It was built to connect Tsing Yi Town and Tsing Yi Bridge when the bridge was being built. The name "Tsing Yi Heung Sze Wui" derives from the loca ...

. It is one of major roads of the island. Across Chung Mei Road is

Cheung Hong Estate The following is an overview of public housing estates on Tsing Yi, Hong Kong including Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS), Flat-for-Sale Scheme (FFSS), Tenant Purchase Scheme (TPS) and Subsidised Sale F ...

, the largest

public housing estate Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

s on the island.

References

External links

Delineation of area of existing village Chung Mei Tsuen (Tsing Yi) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)

Delineation of area of existing village Lo Uk Tsuen (Tsing Yi) for election of resident representative (2019 to 2022)
{{coord, 22.351366, N, 114.10497, E, type:city, display=title Tsing Yi Villages in Kwai Tsing District, Hong Kong