Ngau Tau Kok is an area of eastern

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

in Hong Kong, in the north of

Kwun Tong District Kwun Tong is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in Kowloon, and is the easternmost and southernmost district in Kowloon. It had a population of 648,541 in 2016. The district has the second highest population in Hong Kong, af ...

east to

Kowloon Bay Kowloon Bay is a body of water within Victoria Harbour and an area within Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bay is located at the east of the Kowloon Peninsula and north of Hong Kong Island. It is the eastern portion of Victoria Harbour, between ...

. Largely residential, Ngau Tau Kok has a population in excess of 210,000.

Geography

In Chinese, Ngau Tau Kok means ''ox horn'' or ''ox head cape'': before the reclamation of Kowloon Bay, the coastline of Ngau Tau Kok was shaped like the horn of an ox. Ngau Tau Kok includes two hills - Jordan Valley (Shum Wan Shan) and Crocodile Hill (Ngok Yue Shan), where around half of the residential blocks are located. Crocodile Hill is a relatively quiet residential area encircled by Kung Lok Road. This road is mainly lined with residential blocks and is home to two parks, the similarly-named Kung Lok Road Playground and the Kung Lok Road Children's Playground (about 100 metres apart). The former comprises a cycling area and is linked to the Lok Wah Playground. The latter houses a garden and a children's playground. The two parks were completed by the

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

in 1988. Kung Lok Road is also home to the Mu Kuang English School, founded by Elsie Elliot. Hong Lee Road travels up to the summit of the hill, terminating in a dead end at the St Catharine's School for Girls, founded in 1968.

Features

Ngau Tau Kok is a residential area close to the town centre of Kwun Tong District. The area around Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate is known for its

street food Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumpt ...

, including

congee Congee or conjee ( ) is a type of rice porridge or gruel eaten in Asian countries. It can be eaten plain, where it is typically served with side dishes, or it can be served with ingredients such as meat, fish, seasonings and flavourings, most ...

noodle Noodles are a type of food made from unleavened dough which is either rolled flat and cut, stretched, or extruded, into long strips or strings. Noodles are a staple food in many cultures (for example, Chinese noodles, Filipino noodles, In ...

s and other traditional

Cantonese cuisine Cantonese or Guangdong cuisine, also known as Yue cuisine ( or ) is the cuisine of Guangdong province of China, particularly the provincial capital Guangzhou, and the surrounding regions in the Pearl River Delta including Hong Kong and Macau.H ...

. In summer, Ngau Tau Kok hosts many religious ceremonies to celebrate the Yu-lan festival, a festival from Chinese ghost tales. In 2021, the

East Kowloon Cultural Centre The East Kowloon Cultural Centre is an under construction arts complex in Ngau Tau Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It will be located on part of the former site of Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate, directly across Kwun Tong Road from Kowloon Bay station. It w ...

is expected to open on part of the site of the former Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate.

History

Ngau Tau Kok has a long history of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

inhabitants. In the early colonial days of Hong Kong, it was one of the " Four hills of Kowloon" () Civil Engineering and Development Department
"Further Development of Tseung Kwan O. Feasibility Study. Environmental Impact Assessment. Chapter 13"
July 2005 in eastern Kowloon where

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies un ...

was extracted. The granite from Ngau Tau Kok was transported to

Victoria City Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychell ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...

across

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrume ...

. Some stone was even exported to Canton City for the construction of its Sacred Heart Cathedral. At the time of the 1911 census, the population of Ngau Tau Kok was 440. The number of males was 314. Before being a residential area, Ngau Tau Kok was an industrial area. Amoy Food sited a factory in Ngau Tau Kok to manufacture

soy sauce Soy sauce (also called simply soy in American English and soya sauce in British English) is a liquid condiment of Chinese origin, traditionally made from a fermented paste of soybeans, roasted grain, brine, and ''Aspergillus oryzae'' or '' As ...

. A high-density private housing estate,

Amoy Gardens Amoy Gardens () is a private housing estate in the Jordan Valley area of Kowloon, Hong Kong completed from 1981 to 1987.reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

in Jordan Valley formerly provided fresh water to Ngau Tau Kok but is now disused and used as a

landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...

area. An

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to f ...

was also located in Jordon Valley but it was removed to make way for the urban development project. The site of the

MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

Kowloon Bay Depot was formerly the Ngau Tau Kok Industrial Estate.

SARS outbreak

During the spring of 2003, Ngau Tau Kok was severely impacted by the

SARS 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, ''seve ...

outbreak. A concentration of cases of the deadly disease occurred in

Amoy Gardens Amoy Gardens () is a private housing estate in the Jordan Valley area of Kowloon, Hong Kong completed from 1981 to 1987.Wai King Building () was seriously damaged by the blast which was caused by leakage of

town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

from underground pipes belonging to Hong Kong and China Gas, a major local utility.

2016 fire

Ngau Tau Kok was the site of the Amoycan Industrial Centre fire in which two firemen were killed.

Transport

Major roads in Ngau Tau Kok include: * Choi Ha Road * Chun Wah Road * Elegance Road * Kung Lok Road * Ngau Tau Kok Road *

Shun Lee Tsuen Road Shun may refer to one of the following: *To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group * Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name *Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬) Emperor Shun * Emperor Shun (舜; ...

Kwun Tong Road Kwun Tong Road () is a major thoroughfare in Kwun Tong District, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Location Kwun Tong Road starts at the junction with Prince Edward Road East, Clear Water Bay Road and Lung Cheung Road in Ngau Chi Wan. It runs along the c ...

station in the northern part of Ngau Tau Kok is named

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 ...

; the

Ngau Tau Kok station Ngau Tau Kok () is a station on the Hong Kong MTR Kwun Tong line. It is located in the Ngau Tau Kok area of Kowloon East, between Kwun Tong and Kowloon Bay stations. It was among the earliest stations in the network, being opened on 1 October ...

is located in the southern part of Ngau Tau Kok, which actually near

Kwun Tong Kwun Tong is an area in the Kwun Tong District of Hong Kong, situated at the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, and its boundary stretches from Lion Rock in the north to Lei Yue Mun in the south, and from the winding paths of Kowl ...

. Both stations are on the Kwun Tong line. Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong's airport was located next door and recently part of it has been converted into a cruise terminal.