Shek Kong

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Shek Kong is an area in the New Territories of Hong Kong, north of Tai Mo Shan and near Kam Tin and Pat Heung in Yuen Long District. It includes Shek Kong San Tsuen, Shek Kong Barracks and Shek Kong Airfield.

The name comes from an old walled village called Shek Kong by the Kam Tin River. That village was demolished in the late 1940s to make way for Shek Kong Camp, south of Kam Tin Road. The name 石崗 means “rocky hill.” Archaeological finds show long history here, including pottery from the Tang and Song dynasties. The barracks and airfield cover a large area and changed the landscape, including diverting water from the Kam Tin River.

The airfield is used by the military for helicopters and also allows civilian leisure flights. A separate Shek Kong Village for military families was built in 1957 on the slope of Lui Kung Tin along Route Twisk, but it is not exactly inside Shek Kong, which has caused some confusion about the location. The area also has a Nepal Gurkha community.

The original walled village of Chau/Chow lay just south of Kam Tin Road; early maps named the village Shek Kong. In 1935 there was a clash between Shek Kong and Kam Tin over water, settled by police intervention. In 1938 an airfield was built near the village for defense against Japan; during World War II it was known as Kam Tin Airfield and was later used for farming again after the war. The village was removed around 1949 when Shek Kong Camp was built, and a new village, Shek Kong San Tsuen, appeared to the northwest.

The airfield became a Royal Air Force base in 1950 and was handed to the People’s Liberation Army Air Force in 1997 after Hong Kong’s handover. In the 1970s and 1980s it housed Vietnamese refugees and detainees, and today it operates with helicopters, with some civilian flights on weekends; the Hong Kong Aviation Club is based there. The British also built Shek Kong Families’ Village for garrison families in 1957, which adds to the confusion about the exact location of Shek Kong. The area is in POA School Net 74, which includes Yuen Long Government Primary School and several aided schools.