Lei Yue Mun Quarry abandoned after floundering fortune
Four Hills is home to abandoned Lei Yue Mun Quarry
Lei Yue Mun
Lei Yue Mun Quarry
The “Four Hills” of Kowloon Tong are now home to many abandoned stone quarries, Lei Yue Mun Quarry among them.
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All great advances come with benefits and losses to the societies they affect.
A rocky cliff face, stretching from the quarry entry to the other end of the site
On a macro scale, in 10,000 BC when our ancestors shifted from the hunter-gatherer model to agriculture and settlement, massive ripple effects occurred, including raising the age of mortality, ballooning the population growth, and developing the notion of territories and boundaries, to name a few.
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A more modern take on the effects of advancement can be seen in globalization, particularly when societies shift from local industry in favour of more cost-effective international trade.
A single-storey rectangular building approximately twenty metres from the shore, purpose unknown
This phenomenon is familiar to many in the modern world. For example, the word “Detroit” brings to mind visions of a once-burgeoning factory economy.
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While not facing the same economic devastation as the largest city in Michigan, 1980s Hong Kong marked the end of many local industries.
A dusty dirt path, sprinkled with pebbles, leads into the former quarry
One of these industries, stone quarrying, saw the closure of eight quarries in the Kowloon Tong area as the government moved to purchasing more cost-effective materials from other countries.
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Visiting one of these abandoned quarries, it was remarkable to see the scale of this once powerful local industry.
Blink and you’ll miss it: A shaded nook was built behind a jagged collection of boulders, with a tall stone and concrete wall decorated with colourful, rectangular bunting banners
The origins of Hong Kong quarries date to the end of the eighteenth century.
The Hakka clans
The Hakka clans, who had settled into the Cha Kwo Ling area, were originally the main workers in the quarrying industry.
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Their skillful techniques and extensive knowledge of quarrying contributed to a thriving economy. They worked on quarrying sites around an area of Kowloon Tong known as “Four Hills”, representing the four villages of Cha Kwo Ling, Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Tso Wan and Lei Yue Mun.
Much of the architecture incorporates the surrounding nature, with boulders jutted out and wall faces built around to accommodate the natural environment
From the 1840s, stone quarrying was a steady business, with granite used as the basic raw material for Hong Kong’s construction and building industries.
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Of the four villages that were key in the stone quarrying industry, one of the most notable and well-preserved abandoned quarries is in Lei Yue Mun.
A slender metal pole, reinforced with concrete, both showing signs of erosion over time
At the industry’s peak, the Lei Yue Mun quarry employed one-eighth of the local population.
Old quarry signage
Shortly following the end of World War 2, approximately 20,000 new buildings were constructed in Hong Kong.
Rebuilding after World War 2
These many and extensive construction projects required a total of several hundred thousand tons of raw material (in the form of stones gathered from these quarries).
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Excepting two government quarries, located in North Point and Yuen Long, all the city’s quarries were privately owned.
The front section of the quarry, where a few single-storey buildings and shoreline constructions remain
Legally, private quarries held licenses that were valid for six to twelve months. In practice, there was no worry about the short periods, as the licenses were constantly renewed, and operators could stay on the same site indefinitely.
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Producing several hundred tons of raw material daily, there was no shortage of workers for this dangerous, intensive manual labour.
Boulders and stones smoothed by ocean waves, many topped with verdant moss
Besides physically lifting and moving heavy blocks of stone, quarry workers operated at dizzying heights.
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Technological advances in machinery meant that, by the nineteenth century, this difficult work was simplified as hand tools were traded in for drills and explosives.
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Hong Kong’s geography made it a perfect site for gathering natural resources.
Structures of the old dock at Lei Yue Mun Quarry
The shorelines, which this port city has in abundance, are largely comprised of volcanic and igneous rocks, granite being one such variant.
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Millions of years went into the production of these igneous rocks, formed by the molten lava of volcanoes long gone.
Micro-pools of water teem with life in the form of sea lettuce
Through the stone quarrying industry, these natural resources helped lay the foundations of great building projects within the city.
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Two prime examples of local masonry still stand in the form of the Supreme Court building and the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building.
An inside look at the aforementioned narrow building
Over time, technical advancements in construction led to the heavy granite blocks being used as aggregates in concrete instead of standing alone.
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As most quarries were in remote areas, workers tended to live on-site. At the Lei Yue Mun quarry, temporary quarters of masonry and wood were constructed, one-storey approximately fifteen feet in height.
The view behind a narrow two-storey building and an imposing stone wall beside it
Wooden planks supported by wooden frames, about two feet in height, served as beds and seats.
Life in the quarry
The quarry operators provided workers with blankets and mosquito nets. Beds were slept in at night and during the afternoon.
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In the scorching summer months from Dragon Boat Festival to Mid-Autumn Festival, quarry workers could rest from 3 to 4 pm.
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If they were not interested in a nap, a frequently enjoyed pastime was gambling. Many of the gambling games played were Hakkan in origin – games such as 牛牌 (“bull brand”), 十五糊 (“fifteen paste”) and 釣魚 (“fishing”).
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A combination of decreasing demand and the difficulties quarries faced with the government’s temporary ban on operating explosives (set in 1967) led to the shuttering of second-generation quarries built between the 1940s and 1950s, of which Lei Yue Mun quarry was one.
The entry point into the on-site living area
The industry struggled to meet the supply demand in 1963 and 1964 and took a nosedive when aggregate demand suddenly declined.
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By1974, the last permit quarry closed, with government plans to slowly phase out the remaining small operators and transform the most promising sites into large-scale operations.
A close-up look at a large boulder of pink granite stone
Lei Yue Mun quarry now stands as a reminder of a once-thriving local industry that rose and fell to the demands of progress.
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The waters meet the pebbled beach in a steady rhythm; moss-covered rocks and shallow pools teeming with vibrant greenery proudly announce the water to be in perfect health.
The remains of a platform, neatly built with squared boulders and concrete
Long stalks of grass grow in broad patches cut through by dirt paths, made jagged by stones set within the dirt and pebbles that skitter its surface.
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To the left, a jagged wall of rock looms above all, stretching from the start of the quarry grounds to the edge where it meets Junk Bay.
A slender metal pole, reinforced with concrete
What remains of the old docking stations seem timeless in their world-weary state.
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Even the towers and low-lying buildings, set further into the site, appear mystical as their colours blend with surrounding boulders, the straight lines, flat rooftops, and sharp corners of their design the single giveaway.
An old man enjoyed the weather and fished on the remains of the tallest, widest docking area
Across the water, the multi-level residential complexes of Shau Kei Wan seem too bizarre to the eyes when a ground covered in medium-sized boulders serve as the foreground.
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On the sides of walls and between the cracks of buildings, nature found a way, as it always does, with flowers, grass, and even trees growing on the sides.
Modern graffiti art and old structures of the quarry
Taking a respite, we sat on a boulder at the far end of the site. Here, the natural terrain gradually went downhill as the rocks returned to the sea.
Boulders and stones smoothed by ocean waves
A black crab, terrified of the visitors, scuttled back and forth from the shadowy underbelly of a boulder, unsure if it was best to hide or flee.
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Old men took to their fishing rods, perched high on an old loading dock or perching on rocks close to the waves.
The remains of a platform, neatly built with squared boulders and concrete
Were it not for the Babylonian buildings that were in view, we could have easily imagined ourselves having been transported to another time.
Text & Photos Victoria Mae Martyn
