So Uk () is an area in

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 ...

of Hong Kong, located to the north of

Cheung Sha Wan Cheung Sha Wan is an area between Lai Chi Kok and Sham Shui Po in New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is mainly residential to the north and south, with an industrial area in between. Administratively it is part of Sham Shui Po District, which also ...

. It was originally a village founded and resided by a clan bearing the surname So. The area now includes the area surrounding

So Uk Estate So Uk Estate () is an early public housing estate in So Uk, a hillside area of Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The estate has undergone redevelopment, and new housing blocks are being built in place of the ones demolished. History ...

, and a major hospital,

Caritas Medical Centre Caritas Medical Centre () is a district general hospital in So Uk, Cheung Sha Wan, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It is the major hospital in Sham Shui Po District and co-managed by the Hospital Authority and Caritas Hong Kong. History Caritas Medic ...

, is also located within the area.

History

When the first ancestor of the So

Clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

of So Uk arrived in 1739, he called his new home Mau Tin Tsuen (lit. "Village of the Rough Grass Fields"); and his descendants long used this name before ''So Uk'' came into common usage.James Hayes: "The Hong Kong Region: Its Place in Traditional Chinese Historiography and Principal Events Since the Establishment of Hsin-an County in 1573", in ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch'', Vol. 14, 1974. p.121
/ref> In the 1950s, the original So Uk Village, occupied largely by

squatter hut Squatting is the action of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land or a building, usually residential, that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have lawful permission to use. The United Nations estimated in 2003 that there ...

s, was demolished to make way for 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 ...

, later known as "

References

{{coord, 22.3411, 114.1548, display=t New Kowloon