I spent half of my childhood in Hong Kong, roaming the Kai Tak Refugee Camp street. Kai Tak Refugee Camp was next to the old Kai Tak airport. So, the windows rattled, and the television pictures jumped whenever an aeroplane passed.
Walking through the narrow revolving main gate of the camp, you land on a footpath next to the four lanes main road. Walking about 15 minutes to the right was a group of residential high-rises enclosed in a 2 metres high brick wall. The residential area has a fresh food market, local shops, restaurants, sporting facilities and a park. To the left, with a 20minutes walk, there was another residential area with an older but larger market with fresh food. The seafood sold there tasted great but was a bit expensive though.
During the years at Kai Tak Refugee Camp, like many others, I’ve quickly picked up Cantonese and speak as influence as the locals. Life at Kai Tak Refugee Camp was not as hard as those who lived in the “closed” camps that came after us. However, living in an “opened” facility meant we had to work, pay bills and get food just like the locals.
Kai Tak Refugee Camp has a school called New Horizon Primary School, where all children attend. I had two friendly female teachers, Ms Swanson for English and Ms Thanh for Vietnamese. I still remember those warm summer days sitting at my desk on the third level of the school. Sometimes, I look outside on the bright summer day while Ms Thanh is teaching Vietnamese history or telling ghost stories.
Kai Tak Refugee Camp first set up as a refugee camp for Vietnamese refugees from North and South Vietnam. Without much thinking needed, it was an abvious mistake to put refugees from both regions together in one place. Just before we arrived at Kai Tak Refugee Camp, the tension between the refugees from the two regions got so high level that a major brawl broke out. Soon after, refugees from the North remained at Kai Tak while the refugees from the South relocated to another camp.