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Opposite the saltpans, on the bund, each saltworks had a small hut. These were used to store the salt before it was carried to Sham Chun. They also functioned as retail shops; villagers wanting to buy salt bought it here, not at shops in the town. There were also several lime-burners, making lime from coral dredged from Mirs Bay, operating in the Yim Liu Ha area.
65
The most important building in British Sha Tau Kok in the 1920s was the Railway Station. This was the terminus of a narrow-gauge (2 foot) railway which linked Sha Tau Kok and the main-line station at Fanling, and which operated from 1912 to 1928. While it was slow, expensive and uncomfortable, it nonetheless linked Sha Tau Kok more effectively with the outside world than had ever been possible before, when every traveller had to make a long and weary journey by sea and mountain pass. The Station was built immediately on the frontier. When traders started to migrate across the frontier, it was the hawkers, with no overheads, who moved first - they moved to the area around the Station and its forecourt. Most hawking in Sha Tau Kok was carried out here from about 1925. When the railway was dismantled in 1928, following completion of the motor road from Fanling in 1927, the hawkers moved to the area at the end of the road - a permanent market hall for them was built nearby as part of the San Lau Street development in 1933-1934.
Before 1925, hawking had taken place mostly in Wang Tau Street - vegetable hawkers using the upper part, near Upper Street, and fuel hawkers the lower part, near Lower Street and the gambling house. Itinerant cooked-food sellers (mostly selling noodles), and villagers selling things like brooms, bamboo poles, etc. were also found here. But most of them moved to the Station forecourt in about 1925.
The only sizeable shop in British Sha Tau Kok before 1925 was the main town carpenter's in Tsoi Yuen Kok. This shop had moved there from Upper Street a few years before 1925, mostly because of the need for more space for its timber stores and saw-yard. The rest of Tsoi Yuen Kok was used for market gardens, where vegetables were grown for sale in the town.
What did the town look like in 1925? Photographs are few and unrevealing. There is, however, one short description of the town at this date:
175
Opposite the saltpans, on the bund, each saltworks had a small hut. These were used to store the salt before it was carried to Sham Chun. They also functioned as retail shops' villagers wanting to buy salt bought it here, not at shops in the town. There were also several lime-burners, making lime from coral dredged from Mirs Bay, operating in the Yim Liu Ha area.
65
The most important building in British Sha Tau Kok in the 1920s was the Railway Station. This was the terminus of a narrow-gauge (2 foot) railway which linked Sha Tau Kok and the main-line station at Fanling, and which operated from 1912 to 1928. While it was slow, expensive and uncomfortable, it nonetheless linked Sha Tau Kok more effectively with the outside world than had ever been possible before, when every traveller had to make a long and weary journey by sea and mountain pass. The Station was built immediately on the frontier. When traders started to migrate across the frontier, it was the hawkers, with no overheads, who moved first - they moved to the area around the Station and its forecourt. Most hawking in Sha Tau Kok was carried out here from about 1925. When the railway was dismantled in 1928, following completion of the moter road from Fanling in 1927, the hawkers moved to the area at the end of the road - a permanent market hall for them was built nearby as part of the San Lau Street development in 1933 - 1934.
Before 1925, hawking had taken place mostly in Wang Tau Street - vegetable hawkers using the upper part, near Upper Street, and fuel hawkers the lower part, near Lower Street and the gambling house. Itinerant cooked- food sellers (mostly selling noodles), and villagers selling things like brooms, bamboo poles, etc. were also found here. But most of them moved to the Station forecourt in about 1925.
The only sizeable shop in British Sha Tau Kok before 1925 was the main town carpenter's in Tsoi Yuen Kok. This shop had moved there from Upper Street a few years before 1925, mostly because of the need for more space for its timber stores and saw-yeard. The rest of Tsoi Yuen Kok was used for market gardens, where vegetables were grown for sale in the town.
What did the town look like in 1925? Photographs are few and unrevealing. There is, however, one short description of the town at this date:
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