Lai On Estate ( zh, t=麗安邨) is a

public housing estate Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

Sham Shui Po Sham Shui Po () is an area of Kowloon, Hong Kong, situated in the northwestern part of the Kowloon Peninsula, north of Tai Kok Tsui, east of Cheung Sha Wan and south of Shek Kip Mei (). It is located in and is the namesake of the Sham Shui ...

New Kowloon New Kowloon is an area in Hong Kong, bounded to the south by Boundary Street, and to 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 ...

, Hong Kong located near

Lai Kok Estate The following is an overview of public housing estates in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, including Home Ownership Scheme (HOS), Private Sector Participation Scheme (PSPS), and Tenants Purchase Scheme (TPS) estates. History The site where Sham Shu ...

Dragon Centre Dragon Centre is a nine-storey shopping centre in the Sham Shui Po area of New Kowloon, Hong Kong. History Located beside the historic Sham Shui Po Police Station, the mall was built on part of the site of the former Sham Shui Po Camp, ...

, and

Sham Shui Po station Sham Shui Po () is an MTR station located in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. The station is located under Cheung Sha Wan Road between Cheung Sha Wan station, Cheung Sha Wan and Prince Edward station, Prince Edward stations on the . Sham S ...

. It consists of 5 residential blocks completed in 1993. Yee Ching Court ( zh, t=怡靖苑) is a

Home Ownership Scheme The Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) is a subsidised-sale public housing in Hong Kong, public housing programme managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It was instituted in the late 1970s as part of the government policy for public housing wit ...

court in Sham Shui Po, near Lai Kok Estate, Lai On Estate and Dragon Centre. It has 3 blocks built in 1993.

Background

The site where the estate is located was formerly the

Sham Shui Po Barracks Sham Shui Po Barracks was a British Army facility built in the 1920s in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. The base was bounded by Fuk Wa Street to the east, by Yen Chow Street and to the west by Tonkin Street and Camp Street. The b ...

( zh, t=深水埗軍營) of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

between the 1910s to 1977. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the barrack was attacked by the

Japanese Army The , , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service branches. New military guidelines, announced in December 2010, direct t ...

and was used as a

concentration camp A concentration camp is a prison or other facility used for the internment of political prisoners or politically targeted demographics, such as members of national or ethnic minority groups, on the grounds of national security, or for exploitati ...

during the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945. After the war, the barracks were once again used by

until 1977, when they were closed. Part of the site became Lai Kok Estate in 1981 and

Sham Shui Po Park Sham Shui Po Park () is a park in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It comprises two physically discontiguous sites on either side of Lai Chi Kok Road. The larger site is more well-known as Sham Shui Po Park. The smaller, located within L ...

in 1983, while another part was a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

for

Vietnamese boat people Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...

. In 1989, the refugee camp was closed and was partly replaced by Lai On Estate in 1993.

Houses

Lai On Estate

Yee Ching Court

Demographics

According to the 2016 by-census, Lai On Estate had a population of 2,957. The median age was 50.1 and the majority of residents (97 per cent) were of Chinese ethnicity. Cantonese was the usual spoken language of 98.6 per cent of residents (excluding non-speaking persons). The average household size was 2.2 people. The median monthly household income of all households (i.e. including both economically active and inactive households) was HK$11,860.

Politics

Lai On Estate and Yee Ching Court are located in Lai Kok constituency of the

Sham Shui Po District Council The Sham Shui Po District Council is the district council for the Sham Shui Po District in Hong Kong. It is one of 18 such councils. The Sham Shui Po District Council currently consists of 20 members, of which the district is divided into two ...

. It was formerly represented by Li Kwing, who was elected in the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in cou ...

until July 2021.

References

{{Public housing estates in Hong Kong, state=expanded Residential buildings completed in 1993 Public housing estates in Hong Kong Sham Shui Po 1993 establishments in Hong Kong