Image-HK LeiChengUkHanTombMuseum Outside

Tonkin Street () is a street between Sham Shui Po 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 als ...

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 T ...

in Hong Kong. It runs northeast to southwest and crosses many major roads in the Cheung Sha Wan area. After extensive reclamation in West Kowloon during the 1990s, an extension Tonkin Street West () was built.

Name

Its Chinese name ''Tung King'' () means eastern capital, which is a very common name in historical China and neighbour countries. Although the name in

Chinese character Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

is currently only used by

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, eastern capital of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

, a hint from its English name suggests that the name is associated with the eastern capital of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

Tonkin Tonkin, also spelled ''Tongkin'', ''Tonquin'' or ''Tongking'', is an exonym referring to the northern region of Vietnam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, this term referred to the domain '' Đàng Ngoài'' under Trịnh lords' control, includ ...

, namely modern-day

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

. British named roads and streets in the area by the trading cities in the surrounding of Hong Kong.

Tonkin Street

Tonkin Street starts north from the junction with Kwong Lee Road near Lei Cheng Uk Estate and runs south across

Po On Road Po or PO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Po (Kung Fu Panda), the protagonist of the ''Kung Fu Panda'' franchise * Po, one of the titular '' Teletubbies'' * Po, a character in the novel ''Graceling'' by Kristin Cashore ...

Shun Ning Road Shun may refer to one of the following: *To shun, which means avoiding association with an individual or group *Shun (given name), a masculine Japanese given name * Seasonality in Japanese cuisine (''shun'', 旬) Emperor Shun * Emperor Shun (舜 ...

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 ...

Un Chau Street The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonizi ...

Fuk Wa Street Fuk Wa Street () is a street in Cheung Sha Wan and Sham Shui Po, New Kowloon, Hong Kong. Name Unlike other streets in the area, Fuk Wa Street is not named after a place in China. Its name means blessing (fuk, 福) and prosperous (wa, 華) while ...

, Cheung Sha Wan Road,

Lai Chi Kok Road Lai Chi Kok Road is a road in western Kowloon, Hong Kong. It links Lai Chi Kok to Mong Kok, via Tai Kok Tsui, Sham Shui Po and Cheung Sha Wan. It starts from a junction with Nathan Road near Pioneer Centre in the south and ends near Mei Foo ...

and ends at

Tung Chau Street Tung may refer to: People * Madison Tung, a U.S. Air Force Officer, wrestler, and Rhodes Scholar * Ho-Pin Tung, a dutch race car driver of Chinese descent. * Lola Tung, an actress known for her acting debut on drama series The Summer I Turned Pr ...

. Part of the street maintains a nullah in the middle. Some notable landmarks can be found along the street. Lei Cheng Uk Estate is one of the early

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, de ...

s in Hong Kong. Lei Cheng Uk Han Tomb Museum embedded a tomb dating back to

Eastern Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by th ...

(AD 25 - 220). The former

Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate Cheung Sha Wan Factory Estate () was a factory estate in Cheung Sha Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong, owned and managed by the Hong Kong Housing Authority. It comprised up to six low-storey blocks without lift service, built between 1957 and 1965. C ...

marked the prosperity of Hong Kong industry from 1950s to the early 1980s. The estate was suggested to be workshops for fashionists. Other abandoned buildings like

Cheung Sha Wan Police Quarters Cheung is a Cantonese romanization of several Chinese surnames, including the one written as in Traditional characters and in Simplified characters ( Jyutping: Zoeng1; Pinyin: '' Zhāng''; Wade–Giles: Chang, Vietnamese: Trương), and the one ...

and Cheung Sha Wan Abattoir are the colonial marks in Hong Kong. Amidst the city, an enclosed

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

court can be found at the junction with Lai Chi Kok Road. In 2016, a red-light camera was installed at Tonkin and Cheung Sha Wan Road.

Unearth of World War II explosive

On 8 April 2006, the workers unearthed 588 pieces of explosive articles including cannon shells,

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. Bullets are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax. Bullets are made in various shapes and co ...

s and

grenade A grenade is an explosive weapon typically thrown by hand (also called hand grenade), but can also refer to a shell (explosive projectile) shot from the muzzle of a rifle (as a rifle grenade) or a grenade launcher. A modern hand grenade ge ...

s, in a drainage project in the street near Fuk Wing Street. The explosive was buried 1 to 3 metres beneath the surface. It belonged to former

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 Gurkha ...

around the period of

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Streets and

MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

exits of surrounding area were closed to let the ammunition experts from

Hong Kong Police Force The Hong Kong Police Force (HKPF) is the primary law enforcement, investigative agency, and largest disciplined service under the Security Bureau of Hong Kong. The Royal Hong Kong Police Force (RHKPF) reverted to its former name after the t ...

to detonated these explosive. More pieces were unearthed at the same site on 27 April 2006.

Tonkin Street West

Tonkin Street West () continues Tonkin Street from Tung Chau Street to Lin Cheung Road near the interchange station of

West Rail line The West Rail line () was a rapid transit line that formed part of the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) system in Hong Kong until 27 June 2021. Coloured magenta on the MTR map, the line ran from Tuen Mun to Hung Hom, with a total length of ...

Nam Cheong station Nam Cheong is a MTR interchange station located at ground level beneath West Kowloon Highway, in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong opposite the Fu Cheong Estate. It is served by the Tung Chung and Tuen Ma lines and provides cross-platform interchan ...

and

, via Ying Wa Street and Sham Mong Road.

References

{{Coord, 22.33743, 114.15987, display=title Cheung Sha Wan Sham Shui Po Roads in New Kowloon

Name

Tonkin Street

Unearth of World War II explosive

Tonkin Street West

See also

References