Kwun Chung, or Koon Chung in early documents, is an area of

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 Delt ...

Yau Ma Tei Yau Ma Tei is an area in the Yau Tsim Mong District in the south of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong. Name ''Yau Ma Tei'' is a phonetic transliteration of the name (originally written as ) in Cantonese. It can also be spelt as Yaumatei, ...

Tsim Sha Tsui Tsim Sha Tsui, often abbreviated as TST, is an list of areas of Hong Kong, urban area in southern Kowloon, Hong Kong. The area is administratively part of the Yau Tsim Mong District. Tsim Sha Tsui East is a piece of land reclaimed from the Hu ...

located in the

Yau Tsim Mong District Yau Tsim Mong District is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong, located on the western part of Kowloon Peninsula. It is the core urban area of Kowloon. The district has the second highest population density of all districts, at . The 2016 By ...

. In 1979, the MTR station running through Kwun Chung was named

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

since it intersected Jordan Road and nearby bus stops were also relabeled ''Jordan''. This resulted in the area being called

by residents, since most MTR stations are named after the district or area in which it serves.

History

Its Chinese name literally means "government creek", which was named for the pre-19th century presence of Imperial China's military in defence against pirates and foreigners. Since Hong Kong was sparsely populated during the time, this referenced name may have superseded any local name. In early British maps, Kwun Chung was a river valley north of a series of hills called Napiers Range with a namesake village and cultivation. The valley extended from the shore to the middle of the

Kowloon Peninsula The Kowloon Peninsula is a peninsula that forms the southern part of the main landmass in the territory of Hong Kong, alongside Victoria Harbour and facing toward Hong Kong Island. The Kowloon Peninsula and the area of New Kowloon are collect ...

. In the middle of the valley was a hill where two rivers ran west to the sea.

Kwun Chung Fort

The area between

Austin Road Austin Road is a road in-between Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was named after John Gardiner Austin, Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1868 to 1879. The northeast part of this street is noted for clubs, fields, and mi ...

and Jordan Road was originally hilly when Kwun Chung Fort was built by the Chinese (

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speaki ...

) official Lin Tse-hsu to defend against the British. During the

Battle of Kwun Chung A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

in 1839, the fort, together with Tsim Sha Tsui Fort successfully kept British incursions from Kowloon. The fort with the hill was demolished for development during the early British rule of Kowloon and its rock and sand were used for reclamation for the area northwest of Jordan Road. Due to its strategic position, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

chose the hill south of Austin Road for the

Whitfield Barracks Whitfield Barracks were barracks in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was named after Henry Wase Whitfield, who was appointed commander of the British Army in Hong Kong in 1869. the Barracks were developed in subsequent years. By 19 ...

and

battery Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source *Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...

Battery Street Battery most often refers to: * Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power * Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact Battery may also refer to: Energy source * Automotive battery, a device to provide power ...

was probably named after it.

Demography

While the majority population is Cantonese and other ethnic Chinese, Kwun Chung also contains Nepalese, mostly from ex-

Gurkhas The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recru ...

, and other

South Asian South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geography, geographical and culture, ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, ...

populations.

Arts and culture

Residents of Kwun Chung maintain practice of the

Ghost Festival The Ghost Festival, also known as the Zhongyuan Festival (traditional Chinese: 中元節; simplified Chinese: ) in Taoism and Yulanpen Festival () in Buddhism, is a traditional Taoist and Buddhist festival held in certain East Asian countrie ...

Landmarks

King George V Memorial Park, Kowloon King George V Memorial Park, Kowloon is a park in Jordan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, located beside Canton Road. There are two parks of this name in Hong Kong. The other one is in Sai Ying Pun, Hong Kong Island. History The park was built in 1940. ...

* Kwun Chung Market {{Yau Tsim Mong District Yau Tsim Mong District Nepalese diaspora in Hong Kong *