To Kwa Wan (土瓜灣), located in the southeast of Kowloon City District, is mainly residential and light industrial, and is one of the main transportation thoroughfares in the area.
History[]
There are different theories about the origin of the name To Kwa Wan. One theory is that the "Hoi Sum Island" opposite To Kwa Wan in the past was named after it was shaped like a sweet potato (i.e., To Kwa Wan)[1]. Another theory refers to the former To Kwa Wan Village north of Chi Kiang Street, where villagers mainly cultivated sweet potatoes[2][3]. On the map contained in the 1860 Sino-British Treaty of Beijing, To Kwa Wan was called "To Ka Wan" in ancient times.
According to the "Kowloon City District Scenery Chronicle" (九龍城區風物志), To Kwa Wan Village, adjacent to the Tin Hau Temple in To Kwa Wan, was recorded in the "Xin'an County Chronicle" as early as 1819. It is one of the few ancient villages in the Kowloon Peninsula. The village disappeared with the expansion of the urban area in the 1920s. During the same period, nearby Ma Tau Wai, Ma Tau Chung, Ma Tau Kok and Yi Wong Tin Tsuen (二王殿村) were demolished.
Compared with places such as Hung Hom and Kowloon City, To Kwa Wan developed slowly in its early years. The former Ma Tau Kok Livestock Quarantine Station, commonly known as the "cattle shed", was built in 1908. Cattle were transported by ship to the now-abandoned Kowloon City Vehicular Ferry Terminal, and workers rushed to the cattle shed along Ma Tau Kok Road for slaughtering. In the 1920s, different manufacturers invested in and set up factories in To Kwa Wan, including cotton mills, wood mills, firecrackers factories, monosodium glutamate factories, battery factories, plastic mold factories, etc. In the 1950s and 1960s, it entered the golden age of industrial development. Towngas Company established a gas plant in Ma Tau Kok in 1956, which is still in operation today.[4]
The "Thirteen Streets" opposite the gas depot is actually a collective name for a series of streets, rather than an official street name. It consists of 13 streets, with Ma Tau Kok Road and Mok Cheong Street in the north and south respectively, and 11 small streets in the middle: Lung To Street, Fung Yee Street, Luk Ming Street, Lun Cheung Street, Ying Yeung Street, Pang Ching Street, Hong Wun Street, Shim Luen Street, Yin On Street, Chun Fat Street and Hok Ling Street. The names of the streets are all animals with auspicious omens in traditional Chinese tradition. The average age of the buildings around the Thirteen Streets is over 50 to 60 years.
The current Hoi Sum Park at the east end of Chi Kiang Street used to be a small island "Hoi Sum Island". There was a small ancient temple on the island and a huge stone "Fish Tail Stone" which was a tourist attraction. From 1962 to 1970, a large-scale reclamation project was carried out along the coast of To Kwa Wan. The island has since been connected to the mainland. Later, the Jockey Club allocated funds to build Hoi Sum Park, which was opened in 1972 and the fish tail stone was retained.
Many residential buildings in To Kwa Wan are stand-alone buildings built in the 1950s and 1960s, and many of the buildings have problems caused by serious disrepair.[5] On 29 January 2010, the tenement house at No. 45J Ma Tau Wai Road collapsed, resulting in 4 deaths and 2 injuries, resulting in that section of Ma Tau Wai Road had to be temporarily closed. For details on the impact on bus services, please see the relevant article. After the tragedy, when residents in the area were panicked, the Urban Renewal Authority quickly intervened and launched this redevelopment project, which involved two rows of tenement buildings that were over 50 years old and affected 350 households. In order to prevent accidents from happening, the URA has not hesitated to implement multiple redevelopment projects simultaneously in the district. The old tenement buildings in the area from Ngan Hon Street, Wing Kwong Street, Hung Fook Street, Kai Ming Street to Bailey Street will be demolished and rebuilt in the next few years.
The To Kwa Wan section of the Sha Tin to Central Link is built along Ma Tau Wai Road. Affected by the construction, many bus stops were temporarily reorganised on 2 December 2012. It was initially expected that the original bus stops would be restored after completion in mid-2014[6], but in fact they have not yet been restored.
Illegal parking of tourist buses and illegal parking to pick up and drop off passengers in the area[]
The Transport Department has been identifying suitable locations in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom districts to add roadside pick-up and drop-off points and parking spaces for coaches, provided that road safety is not affected and traffic conditions permit. It also assists in approving short-term lease parking lots for coaches to park. As of May 2019, the Transport Department has a total of 96 metered on-street parking spaces and 110 parking spaces for pick-up and drop-off in To Kwa Wan and Hung Hom. In addition, there are 73 parking spaces in short-term lease car parks for coaches. The Transport Department has also been delineating "no parking prohibited zones" on appropriate road sections in the region to restrict the pick-up and drop-off of coaches during restricted hours to maintain smooth road flow. The government has also implemented a preferential fee of $6 per half-hour during the nine-to-eight hours at the temporary car park at the junction of Bailey Street and Sung Ping Street to encourage tourist buses to park there.
In order to further strengthen traffic flow management and road safety for tourist buses, the government has planned to establish more designated pick-up and drop-off areas for tourist buses in the district, including considering using the temporary car park at the junction of Bailey Street and Sung Ping Street as a pick-up and drop-off area, adding ten roadside tourist bus metered parking spaces at the junction of Hung Hom Road and Bailey Street, and adding four parking spaces at suitable sections of Chi Kiang Street. In line with the above measures, the government plans to expand the implementation of "no parking restricted zones" for buses on suitable road sections around tourist hotspots in the region, restricting the pick-up and drop-off areas of tourist buses on public roads, thereby encouraging tourist buses to use the above-mentioned designated pick-up and drop-off zones.
Street structure[]
Bus and minibus termini[]
Gallery[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ "Origins of Kowloon Street Names", Leung Tu, p.65, Urban Council, 1993
- ↑ 土瓜灣區禱告資料
- ↑ "香港歷史文化小百科16－趣談九龍街道", p.20-21, Ming Pao Publishing, November 2004, ISBN 962-8871-46-3
- ↑ Towngas Company: Milestones
- ↑ 【土瓜灣危樓】啟明街舊樓露台有危險 屋宇署擬封閉 ([Dangerous buildings at To Kwa Wan] Danger exists at Kai Ming Street old buildings, BD plans to enclose), Apple Daily, 22 August 2013.
- ↑ Transport Department Traffic Advice: Temporary Traffic and Transport Arrangements at To Kwa Wan
Related articles[]
- Ma Tau Wai
- Kowloon City
- Kai Tak
- Hung Hom
Template:Administrative districts