Amoy Gardens () is a

private housing estate A housing estate (or sometimes housing complex or housing development) is a group of homes and other buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Popular throughout the United States ...

in the

Jordan Valley The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...

area of Kowloon,

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

completed from 1981 to 1987.Emporis – Amoy Gardens
It was the most seriously affected location during the 2003 outbreak of

Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a viral respiratory disease of zoonotic origin caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-1), the first identified strain of the SARS coronavirus species, ''sev ...

(SARS), with over 300 people infected there.

Features

Amoy Gardens comprises 19 blocks, lettered A to S, with heights ranging from 30 to 40 floors. The eight blocks A-H are 33 storeys/105 m high, and situated on a podium 14 m high, which houses a commercial centre. These eight blocks have eight flats per floor arranged in a cruciform shape. Each arm of the cruciform contains two apartments. There is a shopping arcade (Amoy Plaza) as well as a food square within the Amoy Gardens estate.

History

Development

The site was purchased by Amoy Canning in the 1920s for use as a factory. Amoy put the site of approximately up for auction in March 1977, intending to move their manufacturing operations elsewhere in stages. The auction failed as the reserve price was not reached. Subsequently, Hang Lung Development signed an agreement to purchase the site in April 1977 for about HK$200 million. Under the agreement, Amoy would take a share of the profits from the site's redevelopment. The estate was built in four phases. The construction contract for the estate's first phase, comprising seven residential blocks (blocks A-G) and retail space, was awarded to Hong Kong contractor Shui On Construction on 18 October 1979. The first phase was completed in 1981, while the final phase was completed in 1987.

SARS outbreak

Toward the end of March 2003, an outbreak of SARS occurred among residents of Amoy Gardens. By 15 April 2003, there had been a total of 321 cases of SARS in the estate. A concentration of cases was recorded in block E, accounting for 41% of the cumulative total. Block C (15%), block B (13%) and block D (13%) recorded the second, third and fourth highest incidence of SARS infections. The other cases (18%) were scattered in 11 other blocks. Most of the initial 107 patients from Block E lived in flats that were vertically arranged. All residents were subsequently moved to

Lei Yue Mun Lei Yue Mun is a short channel in Hong Kong. It lies between Junk Bay and Victoria Harbour, separating Kowloon and Hong Kong Island. The channel is an important passage for the city, forming the eastern entrance of Victoria Harbour. The land ...

and Lady MacLehose Holiday Village for isolation. In mid-2003, authorities found that the design of bathroom floor drains lacked a replenishment system to keep the water traps filled, allowing virus-laden aerosols to seep into bathrooms, exacerbated by the draw of bathroom exhaust fans. These were among the factors that contributed to the rapid spread of SARS in that complex. The estate was decontaminated and the residents were able to return. Later, the complex was retrofitted with an auxiliary floor drainage system that included fresh water interlocks to prevent regurgitation of sewer gases.

Demographics

According to the 2016 by-census, Amoy Gardens had a population of 10,721. The median age was 37.7 and the majority of residents (95.6 per cent) were of Chinese ethnicity. The average household comprised 2.4 persons. The median monthly household income of all households was HK$34,000.

Transportation

Amoy Gardens is served by the

Kowloon Bay station Kowloon Bay is a station on the Hong Kong MTR . It is located between and stations in Kowloon East. The station was opened in 1979. Kowloon Bay station is one of the five MTR stations on the Kwun Tong line located above ground level, and on ...

of the MTR metro system. In addition, the estate is served by numerous bus routes.

Education

Amoy Gardens is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 46. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money); no government primary schools are in this net.

References

External links

amoygardens.com

* S.K. Hui, A. Cheung, J. Pang
"A Hierarchical Bayesian Approach for Residential Property Valuation:Application to Hong Kong Housing Market"
''International Real Estate Review'', 2010 Vol. 13 No.1: pp. 1 – 29 {{Shopping centres in Hong Kong 1981 establishments in Hong Kong Hang Lung Group Ngau Tau Kok Private housing estates in Hong Kong Residential buildings completed in 1981 Shopping centres in Hong Kong