Memories of a haven for Nationalists
Rennie's Mill is long gone, with the high-rise town of Tiu Keng Leng taking over, but there are still remnants of the former community
Chik Sung-wun's earliest memories of the high-rise town where he now lives are of a hill-fringed valley of squatter huts where Nationalist flags flew freely.
Then known as Rennie's Mill, now Tiu Keng Leng - a reference to the suicide of its former namesake - the valley was a refuge for Kuomintang soldiers who fled the mainland after losing the civil war to the Communists.
"Tiu Keng Leng was where I grew up," Chik, 60, said. "Although everything's gone now, all the memories are in my heart. I've been here for decades, so there are a lot of memories."
Today the town is probably best known as the end of the Kwun Tong MTR line. But on the slopes above, Chik was able to point out remnants of a 53-hectare community that for 46 years was home to nationalist families - including that of Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou, who lived there as a baby.
"I kept walking on this road every month before I retired," the former hospital worker said as he strolled along Po Lam Road South, now barely accessible and partly overgrown. "Whenever I'm here and think of the past, I feel so happy."
The area was originally named after Alfred Herbert Rennie, a Canadian owner of a flour mill that operated at the turn of the 20th century. Rennie killed himself and the Chinese name, Tiu Keng Leng, means "suicide hill".
