It turns out to have been built by the Sha Tin District Council in 2016-17 as part of the government’s Signature Project Scheme, which gave each district a one-off HK$100 million grant to build “one to two projects which would address local needs, and have a visible and lasting impact on the community”. 

Different districts spent the money on different things, from a musical fountain in Kwun Tong to free eye tests for older residents in Southern District. Sha Tin’s opted to spend HK$59 million to refurbish the Shing Mun River Promenade, and HK$81 million to second to build a football pitch over the Tai Wai Nullah. As the total budget exceeded HK$100 million, additional funding was contributed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club. 

The football deck was justified as a remedy for the lack of public open space in Tai Wai. As the project brief explained:

“Among the three town centres in Sha Tin District, (namely Tai Wai, Sha Tin and Ma On Shan), Tai Wai was developed the earliest. In tandem with the further population growth in recent years, the local community and the Sha Tin District Council have been urging for more open space and community facilities in the developed area of Tai Wai…however it is difficult to identify a vacant site in this fully developed area.”

Let us unpack this paragraph.

“Tai Wai was developed the earliest”?

Tai Wai Village is the oldest and largest walled village in Sha Tin, having been founded in the late 16th Century. Though the original buildings and fortification walls are long gone, the village still occupies a central place in Tai Wai. 

However, it is more accurate to say that the present-day new towns of Sha Tin and Tai Wai were developed at roughly the same time. In the mid-1970s, while Lek Yuen Estate was being built in Sha Tin, several blocks of six-storey tong lau were built around the old village in Tai Wai. Sha Tin New Town Plaza was built in the early 1980s, at around the same time that Mei Lam Estate was built in Tai Wai. In any case, Tai Wai was not as comprehensively planned out as Sha Tin, which was mostly built on reclaimed land. Little open space was preserved around Tai Wai’s town centre. 

“Urging for more open space and community facilities”

Tai Wai’s town centre has only two smallish sitting-out areas and a hard court football pitch at Tai Wai Playground. However, from the 1980s until 2001, Tai Wai’s recreational needs were met by temporary facilities which have since been redeveloped.

The Kowloon-Canton Railway used to go straight from Yau Ma Tei (now called Mong Kok East Station) to Sha Tin, only stopping in Tai Wai near Che Kung Temple on festival days. When a permanent station was built in Tai Wai in 1983, the government reserved a large strip of land nearby for future expansion of the railway to Ma On Shan. For nearly two decades, this land was occupied by short term leases or land allocations, including the Hong Kong School of Motoring, a full sized football pitch, a bicycle park run by the Sha Tin Sports Association, and a small amusement park called the Happy Dragon Recreation Park.

The bicycle park, where numerous children learned to cycle in the 1980s and 1990s, consisted simply of 14 bike rental sheds arranged around a large empty space. The amusement park was too small to compete with Ocean Park or the Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park (which closed in 1997), but was a major source of entertainment for Sha Tin residents. It had a pool with water slides, fairground rides, game stalls, and a performance stage. After a change of ownership in 1991, the swimming pool was drained and used as a barbecue area. In 2001, all of these uses were removed for the construction of the Ma On Shan line. In 2007, the KCRC was merged with the MTRC, and the MTRC subsequently developed the sites into highrises. 

“Further population growth in recent years”

On the larger site to the west of Tai Wai Station, the MTR built a train maintenance depot above which sits a 12-tower residential complex Festival City. Near the station on the former site of the amusement park, it built a shopping mall, The Wai, and a residential complex, The Pavilia Farm. Nearby at Che Kung Temple Station (on the Ma On Shan line), another residential development called The Riverpark was built by New World Development. These three MTR-related properties added over 8,300 housing units to Tai Wai, and between 2001 and 2021, the population rose from around 180,000 to 190,000 people. 

It was these changes in the district that led to the nullah decking proposal. It was deemed technically feasible because the upstream dams of the Shing Mun Reservoir limit the nullah’s water flow to a very low level; the vast majority of the time, there is only enough water to fill the narrow low-flow channel that runs down the centre of the stream bed. As long as the deck is raised slightly above the level of the nullah’s banks, it would not be at risk of flooding or impeding stormwater drainage. Now, the pitch is used by the Hong Kong Football Association for five-a-side matches. However, the story does not end here. 

We’re going to need a bigger deck

In the end, the football deck will not increase the available public open space in Tai Wai, because the adjacent football pitch, Tai Wai Playground will be closed in September 2025 and be redeveloped into public housing and community facilities. This was the intention all along. When the district council discussed the decking project back in 2013, they framed it as an opportunity to release the old football pitch to provide other community facilities. The land it sits on is zoned for high-density housing, and in 2022, the Housing Department announced plans to build 500 public housing units along with a library, clinic, social welfare services, government offices, and four floors of public car parking. 

When the redevelopment was first announced, the government had no intention to provide compensatory open space because there were already two football pitches and some sitting-out areas nearby. However, the playground’s loss would have left Tai Wai Village without a space to hold the Tai Ping Ching Jiu, a major Taoist festival that takes place in Sha Tin once every 10 years.

In 2024 the Sha Tin District Office announced a proposal to extend the deck by 50% (an additional 1,000m2) to add a sitting-out area to the football pitch. Architectural sketches presented to the district council depicted a colourfully paved open area with outdoor gym equipment, shaded benches, and flower beds around the sides. No trees were included, likely due to the deck’s weight limitations. The works are expected to be carried out between 2025 and 2028. District council members greeted this news positively, especially the rural committee representative, who was satisfied that the enlarged deck would be able to accommodate the festival. 

Real estate or recreational waterway?

As the last undeveloped space in Tai Wai’s town centre, it is unsurprising that nullah is seen as the solution to the district’s space constraints. One district council member suggested extending the deck even further to address Tai Wai’s shortage of parking spaces. However, it is unlikely to end up completely covered up like so many other waterways in Hong Kong.  

Since 2019, the Drainage Services Department has been planning to revitalize the Tai Wai Nullah by resurfacing the channel bed to introduce more “natural” riffles, pools and plants. They are also planning to build 3 km of walking trails along the length of the channel bed, to be accessed by stairs and ramps. An advance warning system will be installed to tell people to leave the channel in the rare event of flooding.

While some experts argue that nullah revitalization projects like this are not worthwhile from an environmental point of view given the high costs and the absence of any natural ecosystem left to restore (see Part 2 of our Lost Streams series), it would transform the nullah from a dead zone into a community asset. What do you think should be done with the Tai Wai Nullah?

Sources:

Sha Tin District Council, “Signature Project Scheme in Sha Tin District”, 17 December 2014. 

Sha Tin District Council, “Summary of Minutes of Special Meeting of Sha Tin District Council”, 14 March 2013. 

Home Affairs Department, “Signature Project Scheme Projects of Wong Tai Sin District, Sham Shui Po District, Tsuen Wan District and Sha Tin District”, Legislative Council Panel on Home Affairs, LC Paper No. CB(2)1167/14-15(05), 10 April 2015.

Sha Tin District Council, “Sha Tin District Council Minutes of the 6th Meeting of the District Facilities and Works Committee in 2024”, DFWC Minutes 6/2024, 29 October 2024.

Sha Tin District Council, 《沙田區議會地區設施及工程委員會：沙田大圍明渠上方休憩處設置工 程》, DFWC25 / 2024, 29 October 2024. 

Deloitte,《沙田區議會：地區設施及工程委員會—沙田大圍明渠上方休憩處設置工程》presented at Sha Tin District Council District Facilities and Works Committee, 29 October 2024. 

Jack Chan, “LCQ21: Proposed Joint-user Complex at Tsuen Nam Road, Tai Wai”, 8 June 2022, Information Services Department, HKSAR Government. 

Housing Department, “S16 Planning Application: Proposed Public Vehicle Park (Excluding Container Vehicle) at the Government Complex co-locating with the Permitted Public Housing Development at Tsuen Nam Road, Tai Wai”, Town Planning Board, July 2024.

Sha Tin District Council, 《沙田區議會：大圍村南道聯用綜合大樓》, STDC13/2024, 21 March 2024. 

Drainage Services Department, “Project Profile for Revitalisation of Tai Wai Nullah”, Environmental Impact Assessment Application, Environmental Protection Department, July 2019.

Census and Statistics Department, 2021 Census, “District Profiles—Tertiary Planning Unit”. 

Census and Statistics Deparment, 2011 Census, “2011 Population Census (Statistics and Boundaries of Large Tertiary Planning Unit Groups”.

Lilly Zhang, “Alarm Bells Ring in Bicycle Town”, South China Morning Post, 24 August 2012.