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project, about 1,924 acres of agricultural land in Fanling and Sheung Shui were reclaimed.22 Besides, in 1982, thirteen acres of the Pangs' agricultural land were then resumed to build a park. By surrendering their lands to the government, the Pangs received cash compensation. The land records show that, for example, Pang On Sun in 1981 surrendered agricultural lands with a total area of 2,168 square feet and received $224,334 at a rate of $103 square feet. In the same month a plot of agricultural land of 3,610 square feet, owned by Pang Chung On, was reclaimed by the government, and he received $372,860 cash compensation. Besides, the Pangs since the late 1970s have also been granted cash from their corporately-owned land trusts when the trust land was resumed by the government. The villagers say that a trust member has been granted more than twenty hundred thousand dollars in total or so from their trusts since the 1980s. As they received cash compensation, many of them saved up for building houses.
After the 1980s, however, the Pangs find that they do not have enough land to build ding wu, as most land has been resumed by the government. Moreover, the government has not provided any building land for them in or nearby Fanling Wai. Consequently, by 1990, the number of applications for purchasing Crown land to build ding wu had increased to 300. In 1994, a new set of selection criteria was drafted by the District Officer and the Village Representatives for evaluating the applications.3 Those additional criteria included the applicant's family size, financial competence to pay the construction costs of building house, contribution to the village and so forth.4 Besides, the Village Representatives recommended that the applicants residing in the village or in Hong Kong took priority for having their applications granted over those overseas applicants, as they were said to be in greater need. As a result, 69 villagers were selected from among approximately 300 applicants under this new selection system.2
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Pang Yeuk Lung was one of the successful applicants. He was a village committee member from 1985 to 1994 and a member of Da jiao committee in 1990. His payment for the construction costs largely came from the cash dividends of his ancestral trusts in the 1980s. He said the amount he could save from his job was little, as most of it was spent on the family. Pang On Sun was another successful applicant. He was a seaman from the 1950s to the early 1980s and remitted a large part of his salary to support his family. His savings for building a