HK SKW Museum Coastal Defence A Kung Ngam 3

A Kung Ngam () is a village and an area in northeast

Shau Kei Wan Shau Kei Wan or Shaukiwan is a neighborhood in the Eastern District of Hong Kong Island. The area is bordered by Chai Wan to the east, Mount Parker to the south, Sai Wan Ho to the west, and Victoria Harbour to the north. Shau Kei Wan is cons ...

in the northeast of

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 ...

, in

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 List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. It contains a fish terminal market, several temples and the

Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence The Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence is a museum in Hong Kong, located in a former coastal defence fort overlooking the Lei Yue Mun channel, near Shau Kei Wan on Hong Kong Island. The fort was built by the British in 1887, intended to def ...

Name

''A Kung'' literally means maternal grandfather or old man in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...

while ''Ngam'' means rock, but in the case of this place name, "A Kung" refers to Tam Kung, a sea deity who the quarry workers believed in. A temple dedicated to Tam Kung is located in A Kung Ngam.

History

A Kung Ngam was a rock

quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some jurisdictions to reduce their envir ...

in the 19th century, and the area was predominantly inhabited by quarry workers who immigrated from

Huizhou Huizhou ( zh, c= ) is a city in central-east Guangdong Province, China, forty-three miles north of Hong Kong. Huizhou borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou to the west, Shenzhen and Dongguan to the southwest, Shaoguan to the north, Heyu ...

and

Chaozhou Chaozhou (), alternatively Chiuchow, Chaochow or Teochew, is a city in the eastern Guangdong province of China. It borders Shantou to the south, Jieyang to the southwest, Meizhou to the northwest, the province of Fujian to the east, and th ...

. At the time of the 1911 census, the population of A Kung Ngam was 269. The number of males was 161. A fire broke out in the early morning of 31 October 2005. Some ten houses in the village were burnt.

A Kung Ngam Shipyards

A Kung Ngam Shipyards () was a port for export of stone materials in the mid 18th century. As there were so many ships, it became a typhoon shelter and

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance ...

s were built. During the

Dragon Boat Festival The Dragon Boat Festival ( zh, s=端午节, t=端午節) is a traditional Chinese holiday which occurs on the fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese calendar, which corresponds to late May or June in the Gregorian calendar. Names The Engl ...

s, dragon boats races were held in , where

dragon boat A dragon boat is a human-powered watercraft originating from the Pearl River Delta region of China's southern Guangdong Province. These were made of teak, but in other parts of China, different kinds of wood are used. It is one of a family of ...

s were once made by the shipyards. At the end of the 20th century,

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually 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 reclamat ...

from the sea caused fishing boats to anchor elsewhere. Nowadays, the number of shipyards has decreased due to a decrease in number of ships going there.

Buildings

Temples in A Kung Ngam include: * Tam Kung Sin Shing Temple ( 譚公仙聖廟) *

Yuk Wong Temple The Yuk Wong Temple aka. Yuk Wong Kung Din () or Yuk Wong Bo Din () is a temple located at No. 26A A Kung Ngam Village Lane, A Kung Ngam, Shau Kei Wan, Hong Kong. The temple is dedicated to the Jade Emperor (, Yuk Wong in Cantonese). Two side al ...

* Fook Tak Temple () * A Kung Ngam Lighthouse

Education

A Kung Ngam is in Primary One Admission (POA) School Net 16. Within the school net are multiple aided schools (operated independently but funded with government money) and two government schools: Shau Kei Wan Government Primary School and Aldrich Bay Government Primary School.

References

External links

Maps and weather information for A Kung Ngam
Eastern District, Hong Kong {{HongKongIsland-geo-stub