There are many public houses in Sha Tin that are worth recommending. Not only they have their own characters and look beautiful, more importantly those public housing have been designed with the real needs of residents. Following the previous Kwong Yuen Estate, at this time I would like to introduce the 2nd public housing estate in Sha Tin : Wo Che Estate.
As the first new town developed in Hong Kong, there are a total 23 housing estates in Sha Tin. Wo Che Estate is the second public housing estate to be completed and flat in-take after Lek Yuen Estate, the first established public housing estate in Sha Tin.It was occupied as early as 1977 and had 12 blocks before 2003, including Hong Wo House(康和樓), Fung Wo House(豐和樓), Shun Wo House(順和樓), Tai Wo House(泰和樓), Yan Wo House(欣和樓), Hip Wo House(協和樓), Tak Wo House(德和樓), How Wo House(厚和樓) and Chi Wo House (智和樓),etc. Until 2003 when King Wo House was completed and merged into Wo Che Estate, there are currently 13 blocks in Wo Che Estate.
As for the most familiar Wo Che Estate in recent months, its shopping mall top is like the triangular design of the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. It is believed that its top design is actually to allow the shopping mall below to have more natural lighting and increase the sense of space, rather than paying tribute to the Louvre Museum.
Many neighbors reported that the former “Sha Tin version of the Louvre” had no fences as early as the 1980s, and some children even brought their own paper sheets and slid down from the roof to make their own slides, which was more to reflect that the neighbors (or more precisely, children) of folk wisdom. Later, due to the security & safety issue, the top was set up with a fence afterwards.
As for the more familiar ways in Wo Che Estate, it is believed that the old-schooled food stall Chan Ken Kee(陳根記) and the Hong Kong movie “Weeds on Fire”(《點五步》) were filmed in the housing estate.
There are 5 types of blocks in Wo Che Estate, of which the most well-known is its twin-tower building, which looks like two hollow squares joined at one corner of each square.Each block comprises two “towers” of different heights, although their shapes are the same. In Wo Che Estate, there are a total 6 blocks adapted from the twin-tower building, like Hong Wo House, Fung Wo House, Shun Wo House, Man Wo House, Tai Wo House and Fu Wo House.
【info】
location: 1-9 Hip Yan Street
transport: MTR Sha Tin Station or Fo Tan Station ; Bus 280X,81,72,48X,88X,80K