houses, have been mainly responsible for this new type of structure.
In spite of the very large numbers of new buildings which have been erected or repaired since the war, the shortage of all types of houses and offices remains acute and it is practically impossible for a private individual, unless provided with large funds, to obtain a house of his own. For this reason hotels and hostels are overcrowded and it is difficult to obtain accommodation in a hotel even for short periods.
Thousands of persons who have taken refuge in Hong Kong from the civil war in China have been unable to obtain accommodation of any sort and as a result colonies of squatters shacks have sprung up throughout the Colony providing a dangerous risk of fire and disease. Efforts have been made successfully to keep the centre of the city free from huts by providing for the demolition of dangerously insanitary colonies and for the re-settlement of some of the displaced squatters on a prepared site where they may build for themselves at low cost huts of standard design, but the problem remains acute in the outlying districts.
Rural Housing
The housing of the village population in the New Territories is somewhat different, though in some of the market towns and suburban areas there is housing of a type similar to that found in the urban area. In these market towns, which are supplied with water and electricity, there have been considerable increases in population, particularly noticeable on Cheung Chau Island and in the town of Yuen Long on the north-western plain.
In the rural villages, where the population has remained stable, or even dwindled in numbers during the past twenty years, the original houses still stand. The population varies from 20 to 30 people for a small village to 2,000 in the case of the biggest village. The houses are huddled together and a few old villages are still surrounded by wall and moat, a reminder of more unsettled times. Some of the walled villages still retain their heavy gates, though the routine of bolting the gates against bandits at sunset has lapsed with time.
Village houses, which have passed from father to son through the years, are rarely sublet by the owner, who pays generally about 50 cents a year Crown rent. These houses are constructed of locally made blue brick or roughly cut granite blocks with a tiled roof and, of recent years, cement floors. The less permanent houses in the poorer villages are built of sundried mud-brick faced with plaster; these houses
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