Lai On Estate () is a

public housing estate Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

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 P ...

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

, 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 Shui ...

Dragon Centre Dragon Centre is a nine-storey shopping centre in the Sham Shui Po area of Kowloon, Hong Kong. It was the largest in West Kowloon until the Elements opened above the Kowloon MTR station. History Located beside the historic Sham Shui Po P ...

, 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 and stations on the . Sham Shui Po's colour is . The station has an island platform arrangement which ...

. It consists of 5 residential blocks completed in 1993. Yee Ching Court () is a

Home Ownership Scheme The Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) is a subsidised-sale 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 with two aims – to encourage b ...

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 bu ...

() of 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 ...

between the 1910s to 1977. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the barrack was attacked by the

Japanese Army The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , 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 b ...

and was used as a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

during the Japanese occupation from 1941–45. 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 La ...

in 1983, while another part was a

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary 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 internally displaced peo ...

for

Vietnamese boat people Vietnamese boat people ( vi, Thuyền nhân Việt Nam), also known simply as boat people, refers to the 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 h ...

. 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 25 members, of which the district is divided into 25 c ...

. It was formerly represented by Li Kwing, who was elected in the 2019 elections 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