History
The village settlements in the area, Sheung Yuen Leng (上元嶺) and Ha Yuen Leng (下元嶺), predated British colonization, and may have been established as early as the early eighteenth century.
There were squatter dwellings (shanties) up and down the hill that were demolished after years effort by the Hong Kong Government. The squatter population peaked at around 50,000 people. Parts of the squatter settlement were demolished over the years, including for expansion of the Kai Tak Airport during the Japanese occupation, construction of the Mass Transit Railway, Lung Cheung Road, and the Tate's Cairn Tunnel. Due to the dramatic shortage of public housing available for resettlement, the final sections were only demolished in 2001.
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Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.”
—Aristotle (384–322 B.C.)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)