Mei Foo Sun Chuen

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Mei Foo redirects here. For MTR station in the area, see Mei Foo Station.

Regular blocks of Mei Foo Sun Chuen

Mei Foo Sun Chuen (Chinese: 美孚新邨; lit. "Mobil new estate") or simply Mei Foo (美孚) is a large private housing estate in Hong Kong. Located in Lai Chi Kok of Kowloon, it was built in stages from 1965 to 1978 on the reclamation formerly used for petroleum storage by Mobil (Now ExxonMobil) in Hong Kong (Mobil's Chinese trading name in Hong Kong is 美孚/Mei Foo). Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99 tower complex was considered the largest private housing development in the world, accommodating up to 60,000 people in 13,500 apartments^{[citation needed]}. At the time of building, the government was tackling the serious squatter hut problem by constructing public resettlement estates for citizens without homes (especially those displaced by the Shek Kip Mei fire). At the time, a flat in Mei Foo cost around HK$40,000.^{[citation needed]}

1 Buildings
2 Transport
3 Events
4 Lai Chi Kok Park
5 Gallery
6 See also

[edit] Buildings

Mei Foo was considered grand in the old days and every apartment includes a balcony, at least two rooms and one bathroom. The apartment sizes vary from 600 to 1,800 square feet (56 to 167 square metres). Mei Foo Sun Chuen has several schools, kindergartens, medical clinics, salons, newspaper kiosks, supermarkets, shopping arcades, restaurants and food markets. The private secondary schools, in particular are formerly notable for academically poor students (The schools in Hong Kong are divided, based on academic achievements into previously 5, and now 3 categories. The aforementioned school are in the third category and is deemed to have less than satisfactory performance.) However, as education policy changes, some schools evolves into multicultural one.

The once largest owners' corporation with legal status in Hong Kong, The Incorporated Owners of Mei Foo Sun Chuen - Stage I, was formed in 1997. The promoter of the corporation, Yiu Chi-Wai, served as the Chairman of the Management Committee from 1997 to 2000. The other seven stages' owners' corporations were also formed during the period.

Every building has guards. The guards have a night shift, morning/afternoon shift and late afternoon/evening shift and therefore the buildings are guarded everyday. Each residential block has an entrance code which changes periodically.

[edit] Transport

Mei Foo is on the crossroad between Kowloon and Tsuen Wan. It is also marked as west end of urban Kowloon before entering New Territories. Kwai Chung Road and Lai Chi Kok Bridge is the major road in the area. Beneath the Kwai Chung Road, a major bus terminus is built to host multiple bus routes. MTR reaches Mei Foo when Tsuen Wan Line was completed in 1982. Another rail West Rail Line has a station in Mei Foo, operational since 2003. Other forms of public transport like minibus and taxis also service the estate.

[edit] Events

Safe Deposit Boxes Destruction Incident in DBS Bank (2nd October, 2004)

[edit] Lai Chi Kok Park

Next to the estate, there is a park called the Lai Chi Kok Park. The park contains a children's playground, public swimming pool, indoor sports center, outdoor running facility, traditional Chinese garden, basketball courts, squash courts, soccer fields, tennis courts and a skate park.

The indoor sports center has squash courts, basketball courts, ballet studios and badminton courts.

The swimming pool is very big. It contains 3 training pools, 2 main pools (one 1.2m-1.4m, the other 1.4m-1.9m), a kid's pool, a toddlers pool and a diving pool.

The Mei Foo skatepark is the biggest skatepark in Hong Kong and the most visited. It contains two half pipes, a few quarter pipes, single rails and fun boxes. Most of the ramps are above 6ft. The skatepark has been visited by professionals skateboarders such as Chris Haslam, Terrel Robinson, Mike Peterson and Andrew Guillot.