In
Cantonese,
Chung means China and
Ying England or the United Kingdom. The name is a mark of history of the
Second Convention of Peking, a treaty that China under the
Qing dynasty was forced to lease
New Territories to Britain in 1899. The street was a river in 1899, and the British used the
high water mark as the border. The river was too shallow at the section of Sha Tau Kok. It dried before the coming of
World War II. The residents on both dried river sides then erected their shops to trade. The dried river then renamed to
Chung Hing Street (), and later renamed to
Chung Ying Street. The town of Sha Tau Kok flourished for that period of time. After World War II, with large influx of refugees from China, the British colonial government decided to close the border and the town fell within the
Frontier Closed Area. The border town declined since then. Chung Ying Street was once a famous place for shopping. In the 1990s, when China was still closed to the world, Chinese tourists visited to buy foreign goods, mostly watches, clothing and jewellery. However, the prosperity has declined in the early 21st century, due to a policy allowing most people from Mainland China to apply to visit Hong Kong directly, causing Chung Ying Street to transform into a place for historical sight-seeing. The PRC government has built a museum about the history of Chung Ying Street to attract tourists again. ==Gaining access==