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Campus Geography · A Hilltop City by the Sea and Mountains

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CUHK Integrated Information Database · Module 05 – Campus

The main campus of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) sits on the northwestern edge of Sha Tin district in Hong Kong's New Territories, at a place called Ma Liu Shui, facing Tolo Harbour with hills at its back. It is the largest university campus in Hong Kong, built into a mountainside. The Chinese-language version of the CUHK website describes the campus as "overlooking Tolo Harbour with views of the Pat Sin Leng mountain range", calling it a symphony of mountain and sea (per CUHK official website · Campus). This article breaks the campus down into several layers: where it sits, what was there before, how steep it is, what it faces, and how weather and ecology play out. Facts first, and every claim sourced on the spot.

1. Location: a hill on the northwest edge of Sha Tin, on the western shore of Tolo Harbour

Institution Campus / main site Land area Hillside / seaside character
The Chinese University of Hong Kong Ma Liu Shui, Sha Tin (entire main campus) approx. 138.4 hectares Three terraced levels on a hillside, facing Tolo Harbour
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Tai Po Tsai, Clear Water Bay, Sai Kung approx. 60 hectares Coastal cliffside, no college-style terracing
The University of Hong Kong Pok Fu Lam, Hong Kong Island (main campus) approx. 16 hectares Dense urban campus, dispersed across multiple sites (medicine, dentistry and others counted separately)

This is also the direct reason CUHK needs an internal shuttle-bus network and HKU does not — once a campus crosses a certain size threshold, walking ceases to be a viable way of getting around.

2. Siting history: from Hakka wasteland to university campus

Before the university was founded, Ma Liu Shui was a sparsely populated place. Its transformation from wasteland to university town weaves together several threads: the place name, the railway, land grants, and the relocation of a village.

2.1 The siting rationale: "delighting in the hills and the waters"

According to StoryStudio Taiwan, Ling Tao-yang (凌道扬, 1888–1993) — a noted forestry scientist, one of CUHK's founders and the first president of Chung Chi College — chose Ma Liu Shui as the Chung Chi site in 1955 because it was, in his words, "facing Ma On Shan and overlooking Tolo Harbour — delighting in the hills and the waters, an ideal place for rest, study and quiet cultivation" (per StoryStudio Taiwan · The Legend of CUHK's Hillside Development). This phrase later became something like the founding motto of CUHK's campus publicity, recurring across the official website and guided tours.

2.2 The land grant and "scattered plots"

According to StoryStudio Taiwan, the colonial government initially granted Chung Chi College 10 acres; Ling Tao-yang cleverly asked that these 10 acres be spread across seven separate spots in the Ma Liu Shui valley, giving Chung Chi effective control over more land than the original grant. By the time CUHK was founded in 1963, the institution controlled about 300 acres of what had been afforestation land (per StoryStudio Taiwan · The Legend of CUHK's Hillside Development). This forested land was precisely the reserve that later allowed CUHK to level hilltops and house its colleges.

2.3 Timeline of the founding

3. The three terraced levels: the skeleton of a hilltop city

The official CUHK description — "built into the hillside, descending in three levels from high to low" — is something almost everyone can recite. But the terrain is not natural: it is an artificial terrace carved out of a hill.

3.1 The official "three-level" framework

The standard CUHK website formulation runs: the University is built into the hillside, and "from the hilltop to the foot of the mountain, can be divided into three levels from high to low" (per CUHK official website · Campus); the English version calls these three plateaux (per CUHK English · Campus). The three levels correspond roughly to:

Terrace level Approximate location Principal landmarks
Lower level (valley at the foot) Near Tolo Harbour, near University Station Chung Chi College, University Station, Lake Ad Libitum (未圆湖), sports fields
Middle level (mid-slope) Centre of the campus University administration / central campus, University Mall, University Library, Science Centre, administration building
Upper level (hilltop plateau) Highest point of the campus New Asia College, United College, Pavilion of Harmony (合一亭)

(Landmarks by level compiled from the CUHK official website and Wikipedia; individual buildings are not expanded here — see Campus Buildings and Places Directory.)

3.2 The master plan for levelling the hill

According to the Wikipedia entry on W. Szeto (司徒惠), the campus architect and planner of the "University Development Plan" "carefully planned the entire hill on which the campus site stood, levelling it into a three-tier terraced layout" (per Wikipedia · W. Szeto). In other words, today's "upper, middle and lower" three-level hilltop city is the product of planning and earthworks, not of natural topography. The architectural and planning threads are covered in Campus Architecture, Landmarks and Sustainability.

3.3 Concrete numbers: from 170 metres down to 140, four terraces

"Levelling the hill" is no abstract rhetoric. The Wikipedia entry on Chung Chi College gives the specific figures and the timeline: at the end of 1963, Chung Chi College handed its farming and afforestation land to the newly founded Chinese University of Hong Kong for unified development; the following year (1964) blasting works began, completing in 1969, "reducing the height of Chung Chi Hill from 170 metres to 140 metres, and creating 4 platforms" — namely New Asia College, United College, University Mall, and the staff quarters around Sze Lin Road (per Wikipedia · Chung Chi College). In other words, the hilltop was shaved down by roughly 30 metres overall before the most crucial middle and upper levels of what became the "three levels" could be freed up. This blasting project and the 1969 relocation of the University administration to the Sha Tin campus (see 2.3) were completed at almost exactly the same time, and the two timelines corroborate each other.

4. Elevation differences and the feel of a "hilltop city"

From the valley at the foot near Tolo Harbour, the CUHK campus climbs all the way up to the hilltop plateau where New Asia and United Colleges sit. According to the CUHK official website and Wikipedia, the campus is divided into three levels "from the hilltop to the foot of the mountain" (per CUHK official website · Campus), producing a pronounced vertical drop that makes campus shuttles a daily necessity for moving between levels.

  • The MTR's University Station sits at the lowest point of the campus (the foot, near Tolo Harbour); the Exit D added on 28 September 2012 was built precisely to serve the uphill shuttle stops and new academic buildings (per Wikipedia · University Station).
  • Getting from the foot to the top relies on the free campus shuttle buses; the CUHK official website says the University provides "a free 'campus shuttle bus' service", with most routes running during the day from Monday to Saturday (per CUHK official website · Campus Transport). According to the CUHK Transport Office website, the regular timetable covers daytime routes including 1A, 1B, 2, 3, 4 and 8, plus N (night) and H (holiday) routes, linking University Station, Chung Chi, the central campus and the hilltop colleges of New Asia and United by level (per CUHK Transport Office · Shuttle Buses) — a route network organised "by level" that is the direct projection of the three-terrace topography onto daily movement. Timetables, ticketing and operational details of the shuttle system are covered in Transport and Facilities.

"Waiting for the shuttle and climbing the slopes" is thus a universally recognised daily experience for CUHK students; it is campus culture shaped directly by the terrain. This article records it on the basis of traceable facts, without embellishment.

5. Facing Tolo Harbour: a landscape of sea and mountains

  • Tolo Harbour: the lower level of the campus looks directly onto the inner bay of Tolo Harbour; according to the CUHK official website, the campus "overlooks Tolo Harbour" (per CUHK official website · Campus). Chung Chi College's Lake Ad Libitum lies in this lower-level valley, one of the campus's celebrated waterscapes (naming and waterscape details in Campus Buildings, Landmarks and Sustainability).
  • Distant mountains: the campus looks out toward the Pat Sin Leng range and Ma On Shan on the far shore; Ling Tao-yang's original siting rationale cited precisely "facing Ma On Shan and overlooking Tolo Harbour" (per StoryStudio Taiwan).
  • The sea-view terrace: the upper level of the campus (New Asia and United Colleges) and the Pavilion of Harmony stand at the hilltop, commanding a panoramic view of Tolo Harbour; the Pavilion of Harmony is famed for the effect by which its shallow pond appears to "merge into one line" with the harbour, water and sky becoming indistinguishable (per Wikipedia · Pavilion of Harmony); see Campus Buildings, Landmarks and Sustainability.

6. A changing shoreline: from Tolo Highway to the Ma Liu Shui reclamation

The stretch of Tolo Harbour at the foot of CUHK has not stood still for six decades — the shoreline the campus faces has been repeatedly redrawn by three rounds of reclamation and road-building, spaced years apart, and one of the earth-extraction sites sat right beside the CUHK staff quarters.

The cumulative effect of the three rounds is this: the Tolo Harbour shoreline visible today from the foot of Chung Chi College is no longer the original coastline Ling Tao-yang saw when he chose the site in 1956. The bay has been nibbled around the edges by the highway and the Science Park reclamation, yet the three-terrace skeleton of the campus itself has never shifted.

7. Microclimate and ecology (overview)

CUHK's hillside-and-seaside setting, with extensive vegetation cover, gives it a microclimate and ecology distinct from the flat urban areas. According to the CUHK official website, "most of the campus is covered by greenery", with pavilions, a medicinal herb garden, sculptures, award-winning buildings and natural landscapes (per CUHK English · Campus). A systematic account of the campus ecology — including the holdings of the Shiu-Ying Hu Herbarium, birds and trees — is given in Museums and Campus Ecology, and is not repeated here.

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Further reading
Anecdotes · Same person/event CUHK Campus Wild History, Sequel: Water Towers in Love, the Million-Dollar Mall, Lake Ad Excellentiam, and the Pavilion of Harmony The New Asia "Gentleman's Tower" and the United "Lady's Anecdotes · Same person/event Feng Shui and Campus Taboos on the Hilltop: Lake Ad Excellentiam, University Mall, and the Stories on Everyone's Lips A feng shui treasure spot backed by hills and facing the Campus · Same person/event Campus Buildings, Landmarks and Sustainability: A Gazetteer and Reading Guide to the Hill-City's Architecture CUHK buildings are named in four ways — after donors, in Campus · Same person/event Transport and Facilities · Shuttle Buses · MTR · Ferries A sourced overview of CUHK's external transport (MTR Uni Campus · Same person/event University Station and the Campus Railway: The Mountain-City Gateway from the Kowloon–Canton Railway to the MTR East Rail line University Station, originally named Ma Liu Shui Station