Cheung Chi Ying

When Cheung Tze Ying was 13 (Primary 6), his father moved his family to Wai Ching Street, Yau Ma Tei in order to go to work conveniently . The supervisor of Cheung’s father was aware of their overcrowded living environment. In 1965, he leased his 800 sq ft unit to them. Cheung Tze Ying got married in 1989. He then moved his home to an HOS flat in Tai Po. But he still worked in Yau Ma Tei. Besides residential purpose, Ah Ying’s home was also used a Kwun Hau (popular name for tallymen’s office) for jobs distribution. It could accommodate 60 to 70 people. Here staffs may play Health and Happiness Chess and table tennis. Every day at 3 am tallymen reported duty at the Kwun Hau (Also known as ‘roll call’, those who were called would board a lighter to start their works on cargo ships). They should arrive at the pier before 7:30am. Punctuality was a must. Originally, Cheung’s family had sub-leased two of their rooms to a shipping worker and a buyer from Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market. Later they gave up their sub-leasing business and their residence was adapted into a Kwun Hau. The company paid rents for the family as a compensation. Cheung Tze Ying had lived and worked in Yau Ma Tei. He regarded it as a money making place. He could not disconnect himself from it throughout his life. He always met colleagues of shipping industry throughout the district.

Title	Residence of a shipping family: home, subleasing, tallymen's office
Date	21/03/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	1m52s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Audio
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-CTY-HLT-001

Coolies scattered all over Canton Road. Some gambled and some settled at teahouses like Yen Yen Teahouse and Kam Shan Lau Restaurant, waiting to be called. Coolies may work for other headman temporarily when their company offered no job. As there were no telephone in the early days, headmen summoned their workers on streets. Therefore many coolies lived in Canton Road and Battery Street. Coolies’ residences had started to disperse when home phones, pagers, and public housing became popular. Ah Ying explained that Canton Road was full of tenements flat housed by lower class, and due to its low population and proximity to the pier, coolies crowded at Canton Road in order to go to work conveniently. After 1965, many electric boat companies and coolie clubs relocated their shop premises from Canton Road to Man Wah Sun Chuen or Ferry Point. Fat Lady, Cheung Chi Ying’s friend, ran a side shop on a narrow alley in Yau Ma Tei Six Street (which was demolished and rebuilt as today’s Prosperous Garden). It offered meals to the coolies in particular. A cooking boat also offered meals to the coolies onboard. There were many coolie clubs, stevedoring companies, shops for transporting and repairing machinery in that area, among which Wang Kee & Co. was the most famous.

Title	Area around Yau Ma Tei's shore was meeting place of shipping coolies
Date	21/03/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	2m3s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Audio
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-CTY-HLT-002

In the past numerous cross-harbour vehicles used to wait to board at the Jordan Road Ferry Pier. On a section of Jordan Road next to the pier, only one-way traffic was allowed. Ah Ying often saw a vehicle queue when looking down from his home on the 15th floor. Cheung Chi Ying lived on the upper floor. He could overlook ships enter and leave the pier. He liked to count the vehicles carried by a ferry. Each decker could carry more than 20 vehicles roughly. There were two types of ferries, namely, double-decker ferry and double-decker vehicle ferry. The former carried passengers on its upper decker and vehicles on its lower decker. The latter carried private cars on its upper decker and both private cars and trucks on its lower decker. Both ferries had their own exclusive anchorage. Jordan Road Ferry Pier was a traffic hub between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. Various kinds of vehicles crossed the harbor from there. On the lower decker of a double-decker vehicle ferry, there were four parking lanes. Private cars occupied the side lanes. The middle lanes were reserved for trucks. Different types of vehicles had to be parked according to the regulations in order to keep the ferry balanced. To avoid vehicles from crashing onto pier buildings, the pier imposed a limit on the height of boarding vehicles. Surveyors measured the height of the loads with a bamboo stick. Those going beyond the red line could not board. Drivers could resolve the problem either by removing part of the loads or by waiting for the tidal changes until the water level facilitated boarding. During high tides boarding vehicles were prone to collision with the drawbridge. The pier had to deal with it carefully. 

Title	Vehicles crossing harbour from Kowloon flocked at Jordan Road Ferry Pier
Date	21/03/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	1m8s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Audio
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-CTY-HLT-003

When matches were played in Hong Kong Stadium, the pier was crowded with spectators who were going to Wan Chai Pier by ferry between 5 pm and 6 pm. The pier imposed crowd control measures which regulated the number of passengers entering the pier to buy tickets each time by lowering the main gate. The crowd landed at Wan Chai and walked to the stadium. They returned home on the same route. The soccer business in Hong Kong was still prosperous in the 1980s. Match attendance gradually declined after Hong Kong’s defeat to South Korea. Hong Kong soccer started to ebb away. Ah Ying was a soccer fan. He watched matches in his spare time. He went back home by ferry when the match was over. He always enthusiastically discussed the match with his friends during the ferry trip.

Title	Pleasure of Jordan Road Ferry Pier
Date	21/03/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	42s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Audio
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-CTY-HLT-004

The pier at Public Square Street was called ‘Royal Bridge’. The name ‘Royal’ was given because it provided anchorage to ships transporting government resources. Yau Ma Tei Police Station was what immediately met the eyes when one went ashore at Royal Bridge. Next to the police station was a government warehouse storing numerous arms and ammunitions. The pier at Waterloo Road next to Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market was called ‘Foreign Clothes Bridge’. The name ‘Foreign Clothes’ was given because the pier was reserved for ships carrying uniforms of the British Navy. Clothes were washed onshore. There were one or two laundries next to the Foreign Clothes Bridge. No seamen but their clothes were seen onshore. Moreover, on one side of Foreign Clothes Bridge was the outlet of Waterloo Road Nullah. Many clothes were washed with water flowing down from hill streams to the Nullah. ‘Nullah’ denoted an outdoor drainage ditch. Waterloo Road Nullah originated from the Waterloo Road Hill. The section spanning from the hill to Mong Kok Stadium at Boundary Street was indeed a culvert. It rose above ground at Mong Kok Stadium and became a nullah. Then it stretched westward along Waterloo Road, took a turn into Mong Kok at where today’s CLP Power Hong Kong Limited was situated, and finally led to the sea at Foreign Clothes Bridge. When AhYing was studying at Heung To Middle School, he often played football in the football pitch near the Nullah, and saw the spot where the Nullah rose above road surface. 

Title	'Bridge' actually meant simple pier in the past
Date	21/03/2011
Subject	Community
Duration	1m36s
Language	Cantonese
Material Type	Audio
Collection	Oral History Archives
Repository	Hong Kong Memory Project
Note to Copyright	Copyright owned by Hong Kong Memory Project
Accession No.	YMT-CTY-HLT-005