Chai Wan

Chai Wan is a district at the eastern end of the urban area of Hong Kong Island, within the Eastern District and next to Shau Kei Wan. Its name means firewood bay, probably from the firewood produced there in early days, and the place was formerly called Sai Wan, or West Bay. At the start of the eighteenth century the area held six villages. The British built a fort and barracks at Siu Sai Wan in 1845, the government began replacing rural villages with low-income housing in 1952, and the MTR Island line reached the district in 1985. Much of Chai Wan stands on land reclaimed from the bay, and hills restrict further growth. It is a mosaic of industrial and residential areas with roughly two to three hundred high-rise buildings, and its population was 186,505 in 2001.