San Fat Estate () was the first

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 ...

Tuen Mun Tuen Mun () or Castle Peak is an area near the mouth of Tuen Mun River and Castle Peak Bay in the New Territories, Hong Kong. It was one of the earliest settlements in what is now Hong Kong and can be dated to the Neolithic period. In the mo ...

New Territories The New Territories (N.T., Traditional Chinese characters, Chinese: ) is one of the three areas of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of H ...

, Hong Kong, located on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamatio ...

near the Tuen Mun River, at the junction of Pui To Road and Tuen Mun Heung Sze Wui Road. It consisted of four residential blocks completed in 1971, offering 2,131 flats with more than 6,000 residents. It was the smallest rental estate in Tuen Mun. Currently it is rebuilt as the

MTR The Mass Transit Railway system, known locally by the initialism MTR, is a rapid transit system in Hong Kong and the territory's principal mode of Rail transport in Hong Kong, railway transportation. Operated by the MTR Corporation (MTRCL), ...

property development project “Century Gateway”.

History

Tuen Mun New Town project was then known as Castle Peak New Town and thus the estate was originally named Castle Peak Estate (). After the

Hong Kong Government The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government) is the Executive (government), executive authorities of Hong Kong. It was established on 1 July 1997, following the ...

renamed Castle Peak to Tuen Mun in 1974, the estate was renamed San Fat Estate in honour of Chan Yat-sen and

Lau Wong-fat Lau Wong-fat, Grand Bauhinia Medal, GBM, Gold Bauhinia Star, GBS, Order of the British Empire, OBE, Justice of the peace, JP (; 15 October 1936 – 23 July 2017) was a Hong Kong businessman and politician. He had been the long-time chairman of ...

, prominent figures in Heung Yee Kuk. The estate was home to the Hoh Fuk Tong Primary School, which later relocated to Lung Mun Oasis. It also had a 5-a-side football pitch, shops, a bank, and a garden. The estate was listed in the Comprehensive Redevelopment Programme in 1988 that planned for the redevelopment of the Housing Authority's older estates. The 1996 "Five-Year Redevelopment Programme" announced that the estate would be demolished in 2000-01 due to its age, and to free up land for the construction of the Tuen Mun station of the West Rail. About 7,000 residents in total had to be relocated for the construction of the West Rail, and most of these were in San Fat Estate. Residents of the estate submitted a 500-name petition against the proposed railway alignment. The estate was demolished between November 2001 and January 2002. A light rail station, called San Fat stop, opened in 1988. It was rebuilt above ground level to integrate it with the new West Rail station and renamed Tuen Mun stop in 2003. The MTR station is actually built on a viaduct over the

nullah A nullah or nala (Hindustani language, Hindustani or "nallah" in Punjabi language, 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 co ...

, and not on the former site of San Fat Estate. Following completion of the station, the former site of the estate was used as a temporary parking lot, and as a public transport interchange. The site was then developed jointly by KCR Corporation and

Sun Hung Kai Properties Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited (SHKP) is a listed corporation and one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong. The company's businesses include property sales, property rental, telecommunications (SmarTone, SUNeVision), hotel operatio ...

as a shopping centre called "V City" (opened 2012–13) and a private residential estate above called "Century Gateway", comprising seven blocks and 1,990 flats.

Houses

References

{{coord, 22.3948, 113.97312, display=title Residential buildings completed in 1971 2002 disestablishments in Hong Kong Former public housing estates in Hong Kong Tuen Mun