Kowloon West is the western part of

Kowloon Kowloon () is an urban area in Hong Kong comprising the Kowloon Peninsula and New Kowloon. With a population of 2,019,533 and a population density of in 2006, it is the most populous area in Hong Kong, compared with Hong Kong Island and ...

, covering the

Yau Tsim Mong 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 ...

and

Sham Shui Po District Sham Shui Po District is one of 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is the poorest district in Hong Kong, with a predominantly working-class population of 405,869 in 2016 and the lowest median household income of all districts. Sham Shui Po has long ...

, with

Kowloon City District Kowloon City District is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong. It is located in the city of Kowloon. It had a population of 381,352 in 2001, and increased to 418,732 in 2016. The district has the third most educated residents while its resi ...

occasionally included.

History

The boundary of Kowloon West is not strictly defined and hence varies. While traditionally the

Kowloon–Canton Railway The Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR; ) was a railway network in Hong Kong.Legislative Council information paper CB(1)357/07-08(0 THB(T) CR 8/986/00, CB(1)1749/07-08(0/ref> It was owned and operated by the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation (KCR ...

(now the

East Rail line The East Rail line () is one of ten lines of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong. It used to be one of the three lines of the Kowloon–Canton Railway (KCR) network. It was known as the KCR British Section () from 1910 to 199 ...

) serves as the separation of eastern and western part, the Kowloon City District, located at the east of the railway, was part of the Kowloon West Legislative Council constituency in order to balance the population between the two halves. Nevertheless, both 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 ...

and

have long been regarded as the part of Kowloon West.

West Kowloon West Kowloon () is the western part of Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong, situated within the Yau Tsim Mong District and Sham Shui Po District. It is bounded by Canton Road to the east, Victoria Harbour to the west and the south, and Jor ...

, a similar name and sharing similar definition, is also a part of Kowloon West, despite the name usually refers to the reclaimed area located west of the Kowloon Peninsula. In 1985, "

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 ...

" and " South Kowloon" electoral-college constituencies were created. Sham Shui Po consisted of

while South Kowloon consisted of Mong Kok District and Yau Ma Tei District. The electoral colleges lasted for two terms until they were replaced by the

geographical constituencies In Hong Kong, geographical constituencies, as opposed to functional constituencies, are elected by all eligible voters according to geographically demarcated constituencies. There are currently 5 geographical constituencies in Hong Kong, return ...

in 1991 when the first direct election to the Legislative Council were introduced. In the 1991 election, " Kowloon West" was consisting of Sham Shui Po, Mong Kok and Yau Tsim Districts, returning two members to the Legislative Council using the two-seat constituency two vote system. All two seats were won by the

pro-democracy camp The pro-democracy camp, also known as the pan-democracy camp, is a political alignment in Hong Kong that supports increased democracy, namely the universal suffrage of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council as given by the Basic L ...

in the electoral landslide, with

United Democrats of Hong Kong The United Democrats of Hong Kong (; UDHK) was a short-lived political party in Hong Kong founded in 1990 as the united front of the liberal democracy forces in preparation of the 1991 first ever direct election for the Legislative Council of ...

and Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood gained one each. The electoral system was overhauled after one term, replaced by the single-constituency single-vote system in the 1995 Legislative Council election with four new constituencies, namely " Kowloon West" and " Kowloon South-west". All two seats were again won by the pro-democrats. Following the handover in 1997, the " Kowloon West" constituency replaced the colonial constituencies, which included the Kowloon City. It remained in place until 2021 under the change of electoral system, " Kowloon West" was kept but shrank to the 1991-constituency boundary.

Evolution

References

{{Kowloon constituencies for Legislative Council Constituencies of Hong Kong Kowloon Constituencies of Hong Kong Legislative Council