Calling this place a shopping centre seems at odds with its actual spatial character. Of the 104 public and cooked food markets operated by the FEHD, Kwu Tung’s is the only one with “shopping centre” in its name. Why is that? The answer can be traced back to the clearance and resettlement of Kwu Tung’s main road during the construction of the New Territories Circular Road in the 1980s.

Kwu Tung Main Road

Kwu Tung is a broad area in the far northern New Territories located between San Tin and Sheung Shui. Its commercial activity centred around the Kwu Tung portion of Castle Peak Road (informally known as Kwu Tung Main Road), which was lined with shops and restaurants. Many of these businesses were housed in wooden buildings that sprung up in the 1960s and 1970s that were legally classified as squatter structures.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the government set out to develop new towns in the New Territories, and to that end, began planning the New Territories Circular Road to link them to the urban area. Yuen Long and Sheung Shui were to be linked by the Yuen Long Highway and San Tin Highway, which mostly followed the alignment of the old Castle Peak Road and would supplant it with a new six lane expressway. 

As construction ramped up, in 1985, the shops and squatter structures along Kwu Tung Main Road were slated for clearance. According to government records and news articles from the period, the clearance affected local squatter shop operators and at least 92 hawkers, leading to the disbandment of the original market.

A New Market

To relocate businesses affected by the highway project, the government built a new building at 42 Kwu Tung Road. Newspapers at the time referred to it as the “Kwu Tung Market Building.” To distinguish it from the original market on Kwu Tung Main Road (the “old market”), local residents came to call it the “new market”. 

Standard municipal market buildings featured terrazzo counters for wet-goods stalls selling fish, meat, and vegetables. However, this design was unable to accommodate the types of businesses relocated from Kwu Tung Main Road, such as hardware stores, tailors, dry goods stores and teahouses, etc. These businesses needed four walls, a roller shutter door, and an electricity supply to operate. 

Therefore, to accommodate the wide range of displaced trades, the government departed from the standard market layout in favour of a mixed-use configuration. 

The ground floor is divided into two zones. The western section, taking up about a third of the floor area, is a traditional wet market. On the eastern side, the remaining two-thirds was laid out as an indoor shopping arcade, partitioned into self-contained shop units with metal shutters to accommodate former roadside businesses such as hardware stores, seed suppliers, tailors, corner shops, and small workshops. 

Choi Fat Lung, a seed supplier on the ground floor, has been there since the market was built. It was originally one of the businesses located along Kwu Tung Main Road. According to the current shop operator, their old location was better, as they received business from the surrounding farms. However, the new market was built in a more remote location, separated from many of its former customers by the new expressway. Over time, as the amount of nearby farmland declined, their customer base shifted towards home gardeners. Today, with the ongoing development of Kwu Tung North, many former growers have moved into high rise flats, leading to declining foot traffic at the market.  

The first floor of Kwu Tung Market Shopping Centre was designated as a cooked food centre to accommodate the teahouses and dai pai dongs that had previously operated along the main drag. These establishments typically open early in the morning and long played an important role as a space for villagers to gather and dine.  

One example is On Wo Café, which also relocated from Kwu Tung Main Road. According to its current operator, many of the eateries in the cooked food centre have changed hands many times, so while they retain their original signboards, they are no longer run by the original people. 

Essentially, the market building combined traditional market stalls, independent retailers and food and beverage outlets into a single rural retail point. As its role was more than that of an ordinary market, it was named a “shopping centre”. 

With the opening of the New Territories Circular Road, Kwu Tung’s transport network was fundamentally reshaped. Yet after almost 40 years, the market complex largely retains the configuration it had in 1985, with some of its ground-floor shops and first floor-food stalls still run by their original owners. 

When the new becomes the old

Initially dubbed the “new market” by villagers, the complex stood on the outskirts of Kwu Tung, away from the more densely inhabited parts of Kwu Tung North. During its early years, it was surrounded by the construction site for the New Territories Circular Road, so villagers found it less convenient to get to than the old market on Kwu Tung Main Road. Even though the market was equipped with a car park, some residents figured that if they had to travel, they might as well go to Sheung Shui where there were more choices available.

Initially dubbed the “new market” by villagers, the complex stood on the outskirts of Kwu Tung, away from the more densely inhabited parts of Kwu Tung North. During its early years, it was surrounded by the construction site for the New Territories Circular Road, so villagers found it less convenient to get to than the old market on Kwu Tung Main Road. Even though the market was equipped with a car park, some residents figured that if they had to travel, they might as well go to Sheung Shui where there were more choices available.   

Under the Kwu Tung North New Development Area plan, a new market is set to be built, and the “new market” will eventually become the “old market.” While no official plans for its demolition or redevelopment have been announced, some tenants have heard that the existing site may be cleared once the new facility is completed. Whether this unique “market shopping centre”, the only one of its kind in Hong Kong, will be retained as part of the broader Northern Metropolis development, or take on a new form remains uncertain.

This article was written by contract researcher Ng Cheuk Hang.