Lai Chi Kok
| Lai Chi Kok 荔枝角 | ||
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View from Lai Chi Kok Park. Banyan Garden is at the far end. Mei Foo Sun Chuen phase 5 and 7 is on the left and right respectively. | ||
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| District | Sham Shui Po District | |
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Lai Chi Kok (Chinese: 荔枝角) is a neighborhood in New Kowloon, Hong Kong, east of Kwai Chung and west of Cheung Sha Wan. Mei Foo Sun Chuen is the largest housing estate in the area and also the largest in the HKSAR with 99 blocks. Administratively, it belongs to the Sham Shui Po District.[1][2]
History
Lai Chi Kok literally means "lychee corner", referring to a river named after a type of fruit tree native to China. The river once separated Cheung Sha Wan from Lai Chi Kok Bay, and a river from Butterfly Valley separated Cheung Sha Wan from Lai Chi Kok. At the innermost area of Lai Chi Kok Bay, namely present-day Lai King Hill Road, is a settlement called Kau Wa Keng.
The Qing government had set up a customs station in Lai Chi Kok, to collect customs duties after ceding Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula to the British.[3] After the lease of the New Territories, the British reclaimed Lai Chi Kok for military use. A torpedo storage facility was also erected on the west point of Lai Chi Kok Bay, an area near Kwai Chung.
Buildings
Lai Chi Kok Hospital is a special hospital located on the original location of the cap. Its neighbour, the Lai Chi Kok Reception Centre, is managed by the Hong Kong Correctional Department. At one point, the Lai Chi Kok Incinerator was one of three incinerators in Hong Kong; however, it was demolished because it released pollutants into the Hong Kong air. The headquarters of the Kowloon Motor Bus was also in Lai Chi Kok, before being relocated; the site has since been replaced by a private housing project called Manhattan Hill.
Transport
The area is served by Mei Foo Station on the MTR Tsuen Wan Line and Mei Foo on the MTR West Rail Line. The MTR's Lai Chi Kok Station is actually in Cheung Sha Wan, not Lai Chi Kok. Mei Foo is a transportation hub due to its geographic location in the north-western end of Kowloon.[4]
Footnotes
- ↑ 《九龍街道命名考源》梁濤 著，第52頁，市政局出版，1993年
- ↑ 《香港歷史文化小百科16－趣談九龍街道》 爾東 著，第24-25頁，明報出版社，2004年11月，ISBN 962-8871-46-3
- ↑ Sayer, G. R. (1975). Hong Kong 1862-1919. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 962-209-118-0.
- ↑ "Bus stop". KMB.
See also
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lai Chi Kok. |
Coordinates: 22°20′N 114°08′E / 22.333°N 114.133°E