Butterfly Valley, or Wu Tip Kuk (), is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in north of

Lai Chi Kok Lai Chi Kok is a neighbourhood in 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 Hong Kong with 99 blocks. Administratively, it belongs ...

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded in the south by Boundary Street, and in the north by the ranges of the Eagle's Nest, Beacon Hill, Lion Rock, Tate's Cairn and Kowloon Peak. It covers the present-day Kwun Tong District and Wong Tai ...

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 ...

, located between

O Pui Shan O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), ...

and Piper's Hill. The valley was a

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises t ...

before

Japanese occupation of Hong Kong The Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began when the Governor of Hong Kong, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony of Hong Kong to the Empire of Japan on 25 December 1941. The surrender occurred after 18 days of fierce ...

and thus named after the creatures. During Japanese occupation between 1941 and 1945, the forest in valley was damaged by the

Japanese military The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, th ...

for obtaining wood. The butterflies lost their habitat and hence became extinct. The

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands ( forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A debat ...

after war did not help to return the butterflies. The lower section of the valley was the site of a demolished

squatter Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

of Wai Man Tsuen (). The site now on the construction of Route 8. The upper section is part of country park. On the side above Piper's Hill, there are Roman Catholic Cemetery,

Yew Chung International School of Hong Kong Yew Chung International School (YCIS, ), is a private international school in Hong Kong for boys and girls aged 6 months to 18 years (Infant & Toddler to Year 13). The campus is situated in Kowloon Tong, and in Kowloon City District, offer a thr ...

. On another side above O Pui Shan is

O Pui Shan Boy's Home O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...

. A river is running along the valley. Its upper course was blocked for collecting water in

Kowloon Reservoirs The Kowloon Group of Reservoirs is located in the Kam Shan Country Park, north of Kowloon, Hong Kong. They include: * Kowloon Reservoir * Kowloon Byewash Reservoir * Kowloon Reception Reservoir (Eption Reservoir) Also located in the Kam Sha ...

and its lower course has become a covered

nullah A nullah or nala (Hindustani or "nallah" in Punjabi) is an 'arm of the sea', stream, or watercourse, a steep narrow valley. Like the wadi of the Arabs, the nullah is characteristic of mountainous or hilly country where there is little rainfall. ...

under

Butterfly Valley Road Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

, which is the border of Lai Chi Kok and

Cheung Sha Wan Cheung Sha Wan is an area between Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is mainly residential to the north and south, with an industrial area in between. Administratively it is part of Sham Shui Po District, which a ...

. Although its proximity to Lai Chi Kok, large part of valley belongs to

Kwai Tsing District Kwai Tsing is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It consists of two parts - Kwai Chung and Tsing Yi Island. Kwai Tsing is part of the New Territories. It had a population of 520,572 in 2016. The district has the third least educated resid ...

References

Valleys of Hong Kong Lai Chi Kok {{Coord, 22, 20, 37.1, N, 114, 08, 41.91, E, display=title