Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village is a holiday village in the east of Shau Kei Wan, facing Lei Yue Mun, with an area of . It was formerly known as Lyemun Barracks, barracks for the British soldiers stationed in Hong Kong, before being converted into a holiday village. It is the only holiday camp owned by the government in the urban districts of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Island and Kowloon).
History
Early Construction Lyemun Barracks was named after the fishing village of Lei Yue Mun. The old Lyemun Barracks was one of the earliest and most important British Army fortifications in Hong Kong. Situated at the northeast corner of Hong Kong Island overlooking the eastern approach to the Victoria Harbour, Lei Yue Mun occupied a strategic position. It was for this reason that the British army had already constructed barracks on Sai Wan Hill just south of the coastline as early as 1844. However, the rampant spread of diseases such as malaria and dysentery at the time caused many soldiers and civilians to fall ill and die, leading the British forces to subsequently withdraw. Eventually, amid fears of potential incursions from Russia and France, the British army elected to build permanent infrastructure and fortifications at the entrance to the Lyemun Channel in 1885, with funds allocated by the then Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Pope Hennessy.香港柴灣鯉魚門舊鯉魚門軍營第七座 文物價值評估報告 Later in 1889, the land was transferred to the War Department for the construction. The Barracks consisted mainly of three portions:
The central area: Main Barracks (Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village)
The western ridge: Upper Fort (Sai Wan Battery)
The headland: (Lei Yue Mun Fort, now the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence, Pak Sha Wan Battery)
The fortifications of Lei Yue Mun had already become an important point of coastal defence during the 1890s and continued to expand in the following decades. By the 1930s, however, the strategic importance of Lei Yue Mun had declined considerably as a result of technological and tactical advances.
The main barracks in the central area were completed between 1889 and 1939. These barracks were primarily used as offices for the British military, soldier's quarters and training grounds until the British Army withdrew from the Lyemun Barracks in 1987 and the subsequent handover to the Government.
Significance in World War II (1941–1945)
The Japanese army commenced the attack on Hong Kong on 8 December 1941, and had forced all British regular and colonial troops to retreat from the New Territories and the Kowloon Peninsula to Hong Kong Island 5 days later on 13 December 1941. Lyemun Barracks became a focal point in the Japanese army's attack on Hong Kong Island. The coastline was defended by the 5th Battalion, 7th Rajput Regiment along with the Royal Rifles of Canada. A small contingent of Canadian troops was stationed around the Lower Battery, while the artillery unit at Lyemun Barracks was composed of the Hong Kong Naval Volunteer Force and the Hong Kong-Singapore Royal Artillery. The upper battery section was defended by the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps. The Japanese army began their artillery bombardment on December 14 from the opposite shore on Devil's Peak and made their first attempt to land the following evening, retreating without success. Between 16 December and 17 December, Hong Kong Island suffered heavy shelling, causing the roads from Central to Shau Kei Wan to be blocked by tram cables and debris. By the evening of 18 December 1941, the Lyemun barracks began to suffer a large-scale attack. At 8:30 that evening, the first wave of Japanese troops crossed the Lei Yue Mun channel and commenced attack on the barracks, followed by a second wave of Japanese troops two hours later. One battalion landed at Shau Kei Wan, while another deboarded next to the Lower Battery. The Japanese army eventually broke through the defense of the Indian troops to the west of the barracks after rounds of gunfire and occupied Mount Parker behind the barracks the next morning. Simultaneously, the Japanese troops that had landed at the dock were also advancing toward the Sai Wan Battery.鯉魚門軍營歷史
The Canadian forces launched a full counterattack despite being heavily outnumbered. However, on 19 December 1941, the Barracks along with the Sai Wan Battery fell into the hands of the Japanese. At 7:45 PM, a detachment of Japanese soldiers along with collaborators, broke through the fence in a lorry, killing the British sentries at the Sai Wan Battery using bombs. The 29 remaining British soldiers were then locked in an ammunition magazine until around midnight, when the Japanese ordered them to come out, and proceeded to bayonet all of the soldiers. Two Chinese-British soldiers survived by hiding under the corpses, escaping successfully after four days of lying still amongst the corpses.
There were counterattacks made by 'C' Company of the Royal Rifles of Canada to recapture the battery and the barracks during the 19th of December. However, the Japanese having the advantage of high ground and being well-entrenched rendered the counterattacks unsuccessful.
Conversion to the Holiday Village The Barracks housed the Depot and Record Office of the Hong Kong Military Service Corps between 1948 and 1984, and since 1948 have been used as training grounds for the Royal Hong Kong Regiment. The Barracks were then handed over to the Government in 1987 upon the withdrawal of the British Army.
The construction of the Island Eastern Corridor between August 1986 and October 1989 separated the headland from the main barracks and the western ridge. As a result, the main barracks were converted to the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village in 1988 and was then opened to the public, while the headland was left isolated until the Lei Yue Mun Fort was converted into the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence in 2000. The Pak Sha Wan Battery and its nearby barracks remain isolated and is not open to the public to this day.
The whole former barracks compound is graded as Grade I historic building because of its historic significance. The buildings of the compound are graded as Grade I and II historic buildings separately, however.
SARS Outbreak During the outbreak of the Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, a larger cluster of cases in Hong Kong were focused on the Amoy Gardens housing estate, particularly in Block E. Its spread was later suspected to have been facilitated by defects in its drainage system, and it was subsequently discovered that fecal-oral transmission of SARS was possible. By March, the total number of infected people have reached over 200, 137 of those residing in Block E. By the end of the month, the government issued an order to transfer the remaining unaffected residents of Block E into isolation in the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village and the in Sai Kung. The residents were subsequently returned to their homes after Hong Kong was removed from the World Health Organization (WHO)'s list of 'Affected Areas' in late-June 2003.
Coronavirus In January 2020, SARS-CoV-2 emerged in Wuhan, China, and began spreading across the globe. By January 22nd, 2 confirmed cases of COVID-19 emerged in the SAR and the government set up two quarantine locations, the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village and the Lady MacLehose Holiday Village. 5 citizens who came in close contact with the 2 victims of the coronavirus were put into isolation at one of the two quarantine camps. The facility consisting of 350 units was put into operation in July 2020, specifically for treating mild patients under the age of 50. The Holiday Village, now managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, will be closed from June 2026 onwards to commence demolition of the isolation facilities, and will aim to reopen to the public by October 2026.
Buildings and facilities
Facilities The holiday village include a total of 4 family hostels and 2 group hostels, all provided with balconies, bedrooms, and lavatories with showering facilities, accommodating the living of up to 282 people. The holiday village offers facilities such as rope courses, an archery range, a public horse-riding school, tennis courts, basketball courts, football pitches, as well as other facilities for numerous indoor and outdoor entertainment. The barracks once housed by soldiers were transformed into small living quarters for the holiday village. Each block serves a different purpose, functioning as public holiday camp accommodations for visitors and campers. The Main Recreational Centre, Block 10, offers a wide variety of indoor games and activities, including indoor rock climbing, indoor archery and indoor table tennis.
The holiday village also offers facilities for catering and dining. Block 4 serves as the Main Canteen for the Holiday Village, while Block 7 serves as the 'Coffee Corner', an indoor café offering refreshments and light snacks. The Holiday Village also offers an outdoor barbecue area behind Block 10, with Blocks 11 and 12 used as Indoor Barbecue Areas in the event of strong winds and rainy weather.
Buildings
As the former Lyemun Barracks was constructed between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, the buildings inside the Holiday Camp were modelled on the European-style buildings at the time of their construction. Most buildings share a similar color scheme, with white as their primary color and light blue as their accent color, often found on window frames. The buildings were located across hillsides, with passageways linking them.
Most of the buildings within the central area of Lyemun Barracks were converted into Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village with only a few exceptions. Block 8, which previously served as the outhouse connected to Block 7, became redundant and was eventually left unused. The area surrounding Block 8 is listed as out of bounds and prohibited to enter, while Block 7 was converted into the Coffee Corner.
Block 3, which previously served as the Soldiers' Quarters, was left without purpose upon the barracks' conversion to the Holiday Village. Despite being located across from Block 4, the Main Canteen, and well within the grounds of the Holiday Village, Block 3 was never integrated into the Holiday Village and does not function as an accommodation for camp visitors. In May 2016, the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department proposed converting Block 3 into a quarantine facility, with the function to prevent epidemics from spreading in case of an outbreak.舊鯉魚門軍營第三座 文物影響評估 The conversion would have been scheduled to undergo in late-2017 to 2019, however the proposed plan never went through. As a result, Block 3 was never opened to the public and currently only serves partially as a storage area for the Hong Kong Film Archive.
Some structures and buildings were altered upon the barracks' conversion to the Holiday Village as a result of their renewed purposes. Block 7's original interior layout consisted of 4 moderately-sized individual rooms to accommodate officers of the Royal Artillery. With its current purpose as an indoor café for camp visitors, the walls separating these rooms were removed and the layout now consists of an open, wider central area for easier accessibility.
Block 7's Renovation and the History of the Royal Artillery Barracks