Newsletter No. 2

CUHK Newsletter Beautifying the CUHK Campus CUHK's picturesque campus, generously decorated with trees, flowers and grass, has long been the envy of many students from other tertiary institutions. It has also attracted a lot of local visitors, especially on holidays. Wedding parties, groups of senior citizens and children, and beaming graduates posing for graduation photos are especially common campus sights. While the campus, various attractions are well-known, the history of its beautification is not. One person who can tell us more about the campus' horticultural features is Mr. C. K. Yau, Supervisor of the Gar- dening Section of the University's Buildings Office. During his 18 years at CUHK, Mr. Yau has had a hand, literally and figuratively, in the ‘greening' of the campus. Now the head of a team comprising some 40 staff members, Mr. Yau's initial work involved, among other things, planting many of the young shoots which today offer cool, comfortable shade in summer. Establishing a foundation Previously, the home of CUHK was merely a small hill covered with wild vegetation. At the foot of this hill stood Chung Chi College. When the campus construction project was launched, shrubs and creepers were chopped down and soil was removed (and used to build the dam at Plover Cove). All that was left behind was a barren, rocky hill with sites cleared for the buildings that followed in subsequent years. The Gardening Section, notes Mr. Yau, began its job of beautifying the campus with a crew of a dozen workers, who sweated and toiled to plant trees and grow flowers over the entire campus area. They ran into problems immediately. The first difficulty was an insufficient supply of topsoil. They couldn't simply cover the ground with a layer of soil and then sow seeds, because wind and rain would quickly sweep all the soil away. To solve this problem, they had to drill large holes in rocks scattered across the campus. Very rich soil was then mixed with seedlings and carefully planted inside the holes. They then had to tend the seedlings with great care until young trees gradually appeared. The second difficulty was one that remains today: the campus environment is not very congenial to the growth of trees. The University's hill-side location leaves it exposed to very windy conditions, especially in winter. These winds often carry salt from the nearby Tolo Harbour. And salt, explains Mr. Yau, is inimical to the health of both trees and plants. The combination of wind and salt was, and still is, particularly problematic at New Asia and United Colleges, making it especially difficult to grow trees in those sections of the campus. Only a few kinds of trees can withstand such conditions. These include 6