In the 1960s and 1970s the government started to draw a close to the “era of resettlement”. There appeared new public estates that provided better living environment, with lifts, separate bathrooms and kitchens and other ancillary facilities. These new public housings thus stood around the airport, and quite a lot tenants were able to overlook the airport structure from above.

In the late 1970s the grass-roots sector became better off as the economy flourished. To accommodate the need of the lower middle class, the government launched the “Home Ownership Scheme (HOS)”, offering them the chance to purchase public housing. Around Kai Tak, therefore, appeared several HOS estates, which sit next to the public estates and were generally taller.

Within the 40 years aforesaid, the old walled villages that surrounded Kai Tak saw a frequent change of neighbours: squatter settlements, for example, were turned first into resettlement estates and then into early public housing estates; industrial areas, roads, railroads, new public housings, HOS apartments, middle-class residential high-rises, logistic centres and commercial buildings came one after the other, thronging the once tranquil suburban Kai Tak. The uniqueness of the “new Kai Tak” and its surrounding communities produced an equally unique cityscape where dwellers lived shoulder to shoulder with the airport for over 40 years — until 1998, when the world witnessed all these becoming history.

 

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