Campus life
Everyday campus life in urban Kowloon Tong: dining and food safety, the student union and societies, halls and the Pak Shek Kok residence village, orientation and society induction, and sports facilities and varsity teams.
19 Canteens & food safety Canteens · Festival Walk · Food safety
4 articlesDining at CityU's main campus, the Festival Walk extension, canteen disputes and food-safety records: every verifiable fact is sourced, and where no major incident is found, that is stated plainly.
Upstairs, Lecture Halls; Downstairs, Festival Walk: A Complete Overview of CityU's Canteen System
CityU's Kowloon Tong campus canteens are not a single, standalone dining hall but rather over a dozen outlets scattered throughout the Amenities Building, three academic buildings, and halls of residence, almost entirely outsourced to the Maxim's Group and its affiliates. Sitting directly atop Festival Walk mall, the \"CityU canteen\" has, from day one, lived in the shadow of the mall's prices and choices.
Contractors, Outsourcing, and Price-Rise Disputes: From the 2009 Democracy-Wall Furore to the 2019 AC1 Handover
Outsourcing at CityU's canteens has not been trouble-free — a 2009 operator changeover once set an online forum ablaze, and Maxim's 2019 exit from AC1/AC2 triggered a shared anxiety that "a handover means things get worse"; between the two episodes sits a tendering mechanism whose details are rarely made public.
Public-Toilet Can, King of Cheap Eats, and Festival-Walk Can: The Nicknames and Collective Memories of CityU Canteens
The nicknames CityU students give their canteens reveal the character of this system better than any official designation. From the self-deprecating “Public-Toilet Can” to the collective reluctance of the “Farewell AC Canteen Big Meal Gathering,” CityU’s canteen culture is a small-scale grassroots history of cheapness, overcrowding and nostalgia.
Food Safety Investigation: No Major Case Found, but the Regulatory Framework Is Real
Multiple rounds of searches found no publicly reported, specific, verifiable food poisoning or major food safety incidents at CityU canteens; this article faithfully records this “no major case found” result, then outlines CityU’s 2002 HACCP certification record, the FEHD licensing and inspection system, and official figures from a 2017 Legislative Council question on post-secondary institution canteen food safety.
20 Student union & hall association disputes CityUSU · Union premises · Societies
5 articlesThe CityU Students' Union, its five-branch structure, faculty/departmental societies and affiliated groups, student media, the union's relocation from its premises, and the university's student-organisation network.
CityU Students' Union Structure and Elections: Five-Way Separation of Powers, the Disaffiliation Referendum, and the Fight Over a Council Seat
The CityU Students' Union is governed by five separate statutory bodies, and set an independent course after a 2015 referendum to withdraw from the Hong Kong Federation of Students. In 2024 the university proposed an amendment abolishing the Students' Union president's ex officio Council seat; a candidate cabinet publicly asked whether the university "genuinely wants to hear students' voices." In May 2025 the Legislative Council passed the amendment at third reading, and the student representative seat is now filled by an undergraduate-elected representative, with the Council retaining final appointment power.
Society Work and Cabinet Elections: The 'Juli' Cabinet from 14 Members down to One and the Crisis of 'Liuzhuang
In 2022, the 'Juli' cabinet had the union room repossessed less than a month after taking office; a year later, of the original 14-member team, only the president remained, supporting operations as a 'Provisional Executive Committee'. The CityU Students' Union has repeatedly operated under a 'provisional executive committee' in recent years, reflecting how the widespread 'liuzhuang' pressure across Hong Kong universities has been amplified at CityU by the premises crisis.
Society Finances and the "Black Box" Disputes: Sixteen Years of Accounts, the Fee-Collection Fight, and the Loss of the Union Room
CityU Student Union's finance issues did not appear suddenly in 2022, but were at least a decade in the making — traceable to a 2004 conviction over falsified editorial-board accounts and the auditor's 2012 resignation. From 2020 the university cited "disorderly and unclear accounts" as grounds to stop collecting union fees, then in 2022 cited "sixteen years of unsubmitted audit reports" as grounds to reclaim the union room; the student union countered that the university's deadline was unreasonable and amounted to administrative pressure. Both sides maintain their own account, and to date there is no independent third-party audit conclusion.
Residents' Association and O-Camp: Games That Went Too Far, a Hall #MeToo Complaint, and Two Months of Silence
From the 2015 O-Camp physical clash and the 2018 "balloons stuffed into clothes" sexual harassment controversy, to the 2020 "CityU #MeToo" case in which a hall tutor allegedly sexually harassed a female resident but the matter was slow-walked for two months and confidentiality was demanded, the controversies in CityU's orientation and hall life escalated year by year in severity. Under this site's BLP policy, those involved are referred to only by role or surname, with no unnamed elaboration.
The Choice Facing Affiliated Clubs: A Fork in the Road at CityU's 2022 Freshmen Registration Day and Club-Forming Culture in an Age of Broken Lineages
After the CityU Student Union was compelled to relocate off campus in 2022, over thirty affiliated clubs were forced to choose between \"staying with the student union to preserve autonomy\" or \"switching allegiance to the Student Development Services (SDS) in exchange for venue access.\" By the time of that year's orientation registration day, at least three clubs had re-registered under the SDS. Using this as an entry point, the article explores the real-world pressures behind the clubs' decisions and the common threads linking these to the city-wide phenomena of \"broken lineages\" and the controversy surrounding \"old ghost culture.
21 Residence & hall life Kowloon Tong · Pak Shek Kok · Hall
2 articlesKowloon Tong halls, the Ma On Shan Pak Shek Kok Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village, residential education, and hall culture.
Halls and Hall Culture
CityU has no college system; its halls carry the community function closest to a college identity. The Tat Chee Avenue halls and the Lee Shau Kee Student Residence Village at Pak Shek Kok (opened 2024) together push CityU accommodation into a dual-site geography.
How hall places are allocated: the Score-A/Score-B ballot and the commuter fate of Ma On Shan’s “new village”
CityU has too few beds for too many students. Local students’ fate is decided by a two-score “commute + leadership” formula plus a ballot; non-local students are locked into a Year-1 Ma On Shan, Year-2 Kowloon Tong rotation. The Kowloon Tong canteens’ three operator changes are on the record; as of this writing, the company name of the Ma On Shan Hall Canteen operator cannot be found in any public source.
22 Orientation & cabinet culture O-Camp · Departmental societies · SDS
2 articlesUniversity orientation, student-union/departmental O-Camps, Student Development Services activities, and pathways for freshman integration under CityU's no-college system.
CityU Induction Portal, Career Development System, and Overseas Exchange
A CityU student's life path from University Life Induction Day through SDS/CLC internships and elite training, GEO overseas exchange involving over 1,200 students annually, to the complete institutional pathway for graduate employment.
Student-led Orientation, Arts and Cultural Groups, and the Tensions of a Career-oriented Campus
Student-led orientation at CityU is sustained by departmental societies and hall residents' associations; the arts are sustained by SDS groups and the School of Creative Media. This piece discusses the opportunities and pressures a career-oriented campus brings to students, and who can actually make use of these resources.
23 Athletics & intervarsity Sports centre · Varsity teams · USFHK
1 articlesThe Wu Fa Kwong Sports Centre, the joint-institution sports centre, CityU varsity teams, intervarsity competitions, and the rebuilding of sports facilities.