Lai Chi Kok Park(荔枝角公園) has a long history in Hong Kong, and in this posts I will mention some background about its name and how it become a park.
First of all Lai Chi(Lychee) is a typical fruit from Asia they said is originate from China which is a pink red colour and you need to bring out from its shell is quite sweet and refreshing in summer time.
The exact name of this district come according to historians that there was a Lai Chi tree near the river that existed in ancient time, but nowadays no more river around here.
Long time ago this place was an amusement park called “Lai Chi Kok Amusement Park” the forename was “Lai Yuen(荔園)”.
Lai Yuen is the oldest amusement park in Hong Kong because it was opened in 1949 and they used to have a small zoo where you could see elephants, lions, tiger, parrots,etc. also some electrical games such as electric bumpers cars, carousel, etc; and a haunted mansion, wishing house, fortune teller,etc.
There was also a stage where some famous singer have performed like Anita Mui.
There was 2 reasons why this amusement park closed. The first is that in 1977 opened Ocean Park which is another amusement park and it become more popular than Lai Yuen amusement park; and the second reason was the government planned to do the reclamation of the Lai Yuen land to develop residential government houses. And since then this park was called Lai Chi Kok Park.
In 2015 they recreated Lai Yuen amusement park on Central Waterfront and I had the chance the visit this place and I got a special edition of a plastic Chinese fan which I still keep at home.
If one day you have the chance to visit Hong Kong you must visit this park which is very nice with long history. You need to take the Tsuen Wan Line metro and get off in Lai Chi Kok Station and then go to Exit C1 or Exit D.
In case you go to Exit D you will find a laichee sculpture in the front of this exit.
In case you go to Exit C1 you will see the nice Chinese portal entrance to Lai Chi Kok Park.
In conclusion, Lai chi Kok park has a long history which is interesting to know; specially is nostalgic for elder people and despite the Lai Yuen amusement park was relegated by Ocean park is still the oldest amusement park in Hong Kong history.
Thanks for reading my posts and your support.
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
