Wesley Village/ So Kon Po Resettlement Area [????- ]

Used to resettle refugees fleeing the civil war and its aftermath in China from the early 1950s. The 'authorized' propulation at its peak was 3,000 in the 1960s. The cottage areas preceded the government's public housing program. Wesley Village was run by the Methodist Church along with the Housing Department and was just one of the sites in the resettlement area in So Kon Po. I'm not sure when it was closed down - in 1983 there were still 52 cottages with 240 residents.

I don't know if the government has any plans for the area, which is returning to the jungle. I had a wander around there a couple of years ago, it's an amazingly atmospheric site. None of the buildings are left, just the imprints of a 50 year old village - foundations, kitchen floors, lamposts, bridges, railings etc, plus all the banana trees, papaya trees. When I went there recently they had rebuilt the wire fencing making it difficult to enter.

Here's the Royal Asiatic Society notes on So Kon Po:

http://sunzi1.lib.hku.hk/hkjo/view/44/4401521.pdf

Adjacent is the Race Course Fire Memorial