Lai Chi Kok Road is a road in western

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 t ...

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 ...

. It links

Lai Chi Kok Lai Chi Kok is a neighbourhood in Kowloon, Hong Kong, east of Kwai Chung and west of Cheung Sha Wan. Mei Foo Sun Chuen is the largest housing estate in the area and also the largest in Hong Kong with 99 blocks. Administratively, it belongs t ...

Mong Kok Mong Kok (also spelled Mongkok, often abbreviated as MK) is an area in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The Prince Edward subarea occupies the northern part of Mong Kok. Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in Hong Kong. The area is characterised ...

, via

Tai Kok Tsui Tai Kok Tsui is an area west of Mong Kok in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The mixed land use of industrial and residential is present in the old area. The Cosmopolitan Dock and oil depots were previously located there. Blocks of high-rise residential b ...

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 ...

and

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 starts from a junction with

Nathan Road Nathan Road is the main thoroughfare in Kowloon, Hong Kong, aligned south–north from Tsim Sha Tsui to Sham Shui Po. It is lined with shops and restaurants and throngs with visitors, and was known in the post–World War II years as the Golden ...

near Pioneer Centre in the south and ends near

Mei Foo Sun Chuen Mei Foo Sun Chuen or simply Mei Foo is a large private housing estate in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first large scale private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99-tower complex w ...

. The road is bidirectional except the section at Lai Chi Kok, between the junction with

Butterfly Valley Road Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

and Mei Foo Sun Chuen, where it serves

New Territories The New Territories is one of the three main regions of Hong Kong, alongside Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. It makes up 86.2% of Hong Kong's territory, and contains around half of the population of Hong Kong. Historically, it ...

-bound traffic only. The

-bound traffic uses

Cheung Sha Wan Road Cheung Sha Wan Road () is a main thoroughfare in Kowloon, Hong Kong going in a south-north direction from Mong Kok in the south to Lai Chi Kok in the north. Description It starts in Mong Kok near Boundary Street and at the northern terminus ...

, separated by the flyover of

Kwai Chung Road Kwai Chung Road () is a throughway in Kwai Chung of the New Territories in Hong Kong. It is one of the busiest roads in Hong Kong. The Transport Department has classified it as a trunk road. It was built in the 1960s for the two main developm ...

. The road once hosted

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 a ...

s, fish, meat and vegetable wholesale markets, which were moved closer to the coast after extensive reclamation.

Description

Lai Chi Kok is classified by the Hong Kong government as a primary distributor road. It is approximately long and is maintained by the

Highways Department Highways Department is a department of the Hong Kong Government responsible for developing Hong Kong's road and railway network as well as road maintenance. History The department was previously an office within the former Civil Engineering De ...

Development

Lai Chi Kok Road was created in the early 20th century after

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 ...

was acquired by the United Kingdom under the 1898 lease of the

. The government was keen to develop New Kowloon, which was then a rural area, and Sham Shui Po was the first area where work was started. Indigenous residents of Sham Shui Po Village were moved out with monetary compensation or land exchange. According to one source, the rectangular road network there, within which Lai Chi Kok Road forms a principal thoroughfare, was planned in 1905. Some of the first residential buildings in the redeveloped Sham Shui Po were completed in 1911 along Lai Chi Kok Road between Pei Ho and Kweilin streets. Land reclamation in the area began in 1912 and continued in stages for years. After a military base,

Sham Shui Po Camp 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 build ...

, was constructed on part of the reclaimed land, Lai Chi Kok Road terminated at the entrance to the base, just beyond

Sham Shui Po Police Station Sham Shui Po Police Station situated at the junction of Lai Chi Kok Road and Yen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po. It was built in 1924 with three storeys. It is graded as Grade III historic building. The base was thereafter bisected by Lai Chi Kok Road. The area north-west of Tonkin Street was reclaimed from

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrumental i ...

in the early 1960s. Lai Chi Kok Road was subsequently extended onto the new land, with the section between Tonkin Street and Kom Tsun Street opening on 1 September 1967. This end of the road was then connected to

and

Lai Chi Kok Bridge Lai Chi Kok Bridge is a Hong Kong bridge that carries the Kwai Chung Road, part of Route 5, linking Kowloon to Kwai Chung, New Territories. The bridge, once the longest in Hong Kong, spanned Lai Chi Kok Bay, which was later filled in. I ...

, which opened in 1968. Altogether, the scheme provided a critical new access route to the fast-growing

Kwai Chung Kwai Chung is an urban area within Tsuen Wan New Town in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Together with Tsing Yi Island, it is part of the Kwai Tsing District District of Hong Kong. It is also part of Tsuen Wan New Town. In 2000, it had a populat ...

Tsuen Wan Tsuen Wan (formerly also spelled Tsun Wan) is a town built on a bay in the western New Territories of Hong Kong, opposite of Tsing Yi Island across Rambler Channel. The market town of Tsuen Wan emerged from the surrounding villages and flee ...

new town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

(as well as parts of the western New Territories beyond), thereby relieving the congested and steep

Castle Peak Road Castle Peak Road is the longest road in Hong Kong. Completed in 1920, it runs in the approximate shape of an arc of a semi-circle. It runs West from Tai Po Road in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, to Tuen Mun, then north to Yuen Long then east to Sh ...

(which was until then the only route between Kowloon and Tsuen Wan). The ground-level westbound road south of the Kwai Chung Road flyover, next to

and approximately 570 metres long, was left unnamed after it was constructed. In 1978, the

Urban Council The Urban Council (UrbCo) was a municipal council in Hong Kong responsible for municipal services on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon (including New Kowloon). These services were provided by the council's executive arm, the Urban Servic ...

decided to name this road section "Lai Chi Kok Road", treating it as a westward extension of Lai Chi Kok Road. This brought Lai Chi Kok Road to its present western terminus at an access ramp to Kwai Chung Road. The section of Lai Chi Kok Road adjacent to the Cheung Sha Wan industrial area (near Cheung Lai Street) was expanded and reconstructed in the mid-1980s to accommodate the terminus of a western extension to the

West Kowloon Corridor West Kowloon Corridor is part of Route 5 in Hong Kong. Bypassing existing surface roads in West Kowloon, it connects Lai Chi Kok Road in Cheung Sha Wan with the Gascoigne Road Flyover near Yau Ma Tei. The highway was built in 4 phases: *Phase 1 ...

, an elevated motorway. The extension to Lai Chi Kok Road opened to traffic on 28 November 1987.

Landmarks

The section in Sham Shui Po was close to the camp 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 ...

, where once a detention camp for

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

during the Japanese occupation 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 ...

was. The

Sham Shui Po Police Station Sham Shui Po Police Station situated at the junction of Lai Chi Kok Road and Yen Chow Street, Sham Shui Po. It was built in 1924 with three storeys. It is graded as Grade III historic building.Yen Chow Street Yen Chow Street () is a main street in Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. It runs from hill side towards the shore of Victoria Harbour, between Castle Peak Road and Sham Mong Road. Its extension Yen Chow Street West () spans further to the r ...

is another historical building. The historical four-storey building

Lui Seng Chun Lui Seng Chun is a Grade I Historic Building located at 119 Lai Chi Kok Road, in Mong Kok, Hong Kong, at the junction with Tong Mi Road. It is a four-storey ''tong-lau'' (the local term for Hong Kong shophouse typology) that was built in 193 ...

() is on 119 Lai Chi Kok Road. The building was restored by the

Government of Hong Kong The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, commonly known as the Hong Kong Government or HKSAR Government, refers to the executive authorities of Hong Kong SAR. It was formed on 1 July 1997 in accordance with the Sino-Br ...

and hosts a Chinese medicine teahouse operated by the

Hong Kong Baptist University Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) is a publicly funded tertiary liberal arts education, liberal arts institution with a Christian ethics, Christian education heritage. It was established as Hong Kong Baptist College with the support of Ame ...

References

External links

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, list= Hong Kong Route 5

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Cheung Sha Wan Lai Chi Kok Mong Kok Roads in Kowloon Roads in New Kowloon Route 5 (Hong Kong) Sham Shui Po Tai Kok Tsui

Description

Development

Landmarks

See also

References

External links