published_or_final_version / Applied Geosciences / Master / Master of Science

published_or_final_version / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Politics and Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

As with many in the city, a shared frustration with the pace of change has led to a greater concern for the continuity of past, present and future developments essentially eroding the past in the name of change. Familiar and favorite landmarks and destinations such as the Star Ferry, Queen’s Pier, Wedding Card street and Wanchai Market have all succumbed to the wrecker’s ball within the space of 10 years. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The distance effect from the city centre on property price has long been considered as a major factor for a household’s decision on residential location choice given to understand that an acquisition of a home is the biggest single investment for a family. The decision is not simply a demand for the physical attribute pertaining to the building but also other housing and location attributes such as accessibility, size, tastes, neighborhood qualities and tradeoffs. The property prices in many countries have supported the saying of site value dependent on distance from the central business district (CBD). Major factors are transport costs and land prices. If people live closer to city centre, the savings from transport costs will be maximized. Difference in land value is also observed with distance from city centre and in the property market. Hence, household demand for property confronts tradeoffs between longer and more costly commutation and cheaper housing prices. This paper studies the distance effects or accessibility by including distance as variables in the hedonic model. Hedonic regressions are used to estimate the demands for the characteristics of a differentiated good such as the residential housing. In real estate study, we usually estimate housing price as a function of distance from the city centre. We expect to observe land prices decline with distance from the city centre which is referred to have a negative land price gradient. To assess the effects of the access attributes such as distance, commuting time and cost offer important inspiration in understanding the reasons for a household’s move and helps to indicate their final home choices. Generally speaking, higher income households may give higher value on access, married persons on shopping, retirees may choose to live closer to medical centre or their children and young families expecting children may choose to live near good schools and larger houses. Households who move for easier commute may indicate that accessibility is a priority. This paper examines the location choices of home owners, explores the major determinants in making a home owning decision, examines household’s priorities when choosing a specific location for dwelling and the tradeoffs involved. Empirical evidence relating the price gradient collected via the private residential property market in Hong Kong and a survey conducted by the author by questionnaires confirmed that the negative price gradient does exist and other explanatory variables like age, size, tastes and neighborhood qualities also affect the housing prices and tradeoffs. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

As early as in the late nineteenth century when bubonic plague was severe, public bathhouses had appeared in the form of matshed and accommodated in rental tenements by the government in the City of Victoria. With a view to providing a desirable public health environment, the first public bathhouse was constructed in Wan Chai in 1903, in which time the amended Public Health and Buildings Ordinance came to effect. Numbers of public bathhouses serving the poor working Chinese in the City of Victoria followed. Not until 1925 public bathhouses were built beyond the Hong Kong Island, constructions reached its peak during the post-war years of 1950s – 1960s. As at 2012, a total number of 28 public bathhouses are managed to survive in Hong Kong. According to the statistics provided by the government reports, average daily attendance of a public bathhouse was high before the wartime. Today, though many members of the society find odd on their existence, they remain servicing in some older districts where poor housing accommodation still exists. This dissertation aims at, by desktop study on the public bathhouse in urban Hong Kong (those on the Hong Kong Island in particular) and the referential instances of the development of public bathhouse in history and it in the Great Britain and the United States in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and the Imperial China (Chapter 1), to trace the development of the public bathhouse in Hong Kong, how it reflects the development of the society and the community (Chapters 2 & 3), to provide a list of inventory of the general design and basic information for those surviving on the Hong Kong Island (Chapter 4) and to raise questions on the cultural significances and the means of conservation of such changing (and disappearing) heritage item that relates to the way we live (Chapter 5). The scope of the research is confined to the public bathhouses managed by the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (The Sanitary Board and Urban Council as the forerunners) on the Hong Kong Island (7 nos. in total) where the first public bathhouse in Hong Kong was built and some long-standing ones still exist, meanwhile post-war constructions in various phases are available. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Hong Kong is currently facing the insufficient flat supply to cope with the growth of population and foreign investment from mainlanders. Over the past decade, there has been an escalating force to explore the land supply in many village area in the New Territories due to its low land premium to be paid to the Government. While some of the village are located far away from the urban area in Kowloon peninsula and the Hong Kong Island, some of the typical villages in the New Territories, with the benefit of railway development by West Railway, have been drawn developer’s attention to start acquisition of the village area and commence property redevelopment by change of land use through planning application to Town Planning Board. Yuen Long District, one of the longest history and full of typical villages’ characteristics in Hong Kong, also face the threats and opportunities from local developer. Tai Kiu Tsuen is a typical example to examine how local developers could explore the redevelopment potential of the entire village area and preserve the character defining elements of the village during the current planning and design stage. The issue of the redevelopment and preservation of the village rest on the effort and contribution mainly from three parties, including the various government departments such as Planning Department and Town Planning Board, Antiquities and Monument Office from Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Lands Department and Buildings Department and various works departments, local developer’s side include the Project Management Team and Conservation Architect Team and the local stakeholders including the indigenous villagers, the neighborhoods and relevant Yuen Long citizens has attachment to the village. The key issue address by this dissertation is that while the redevelopment potential of certain prime village area could be explored and utilized to satisfy the local domestic needs, it is also equally important to preserve the tangible and intangible value of the village. This values should be preserved and passed to next future generation to continue the tradition and customs of Yuen Long District. The dissertation will focus on Tai Kiu Tsuen in Yuen Long District as a case study. The purpose is to identify the character defining elements of the typical village in the New Territories and its cultural significance. The dissertation also examines the evidential, historical, aesthetical and communal values of Tai Kui Tsuen in the development of Yuen Long District. This research will answer the conservation principles could be adopted in preserving a heritage village in Yuen Long District or New Territories and suggest how to integrate the heritage significance into future property development in order to maintain the significant values, especially communal value, of the village in Yuen Long District or New Territories. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

Between 1940 and 1950, many Shanghainese immigrants carried their capital and skills into Hong Kong. Among these immigrants were Shanghai-style barbers who brought with them their concept of grooming to retune and upgrade Hong Kong’s grooming culture in those earlier times, and who found that the changing situation in the British Colony allowed them to express their professional skills in this new environment. The distinctive characteristics of Shanghai-style barber shops include three elements: such as image and style, male grooming skills and shop services, all elements highlight the ideas of professional, hygienic and enjoyable experience with a customer-first orientation in whole grooming process. The numbers of Shanghai style barber shops are getting less-and-less in Hong Kong in recent years. For a large part of the latter half of the 20th century, this Shanghai-style grooming service was part of the everyday lives of Hong Kong people. Because of some existing challenges in the survival of Shanghai-style barber shops such as retirement of barbers, lack of new blood participation, rising rents and the changing of trends, now Shanghai-style barbering is a sun-set trade. It is living heritage, but one that is not sustainable due to changing expressed needs and tastes, and therefore this characteristic service with its tonsorial skills and distinctive business form needs to be documented before it disappears from the cultural landscape of Hong Kong. Published studies of Shanghai-style barber seem to focus only on the history of the trade and its practitioners, in terms of where they came from and why they came to Hong Kong. There is almost no published record of Shanghai-style barbers’ distinctive skills, traditions and ethnicity, or of the differences of characteristics such as business form, tonsorial skills, and people services in barber shops between Shanghai-style barbers and Cantonese barbers. In other words, the character-defining elements (CDEs) that identify the trade as Shanghainese barbers have not been documented – filling this research gap is what this dissertation is about. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation