Mei Ho House

Mei Ho House
Mei Ho House
Traditional Chinese	美荷樓
Simplified Chinese	美荷楼
Cantonese Yale	méih hòh làuh
Literal meaning	beautiful lotus building
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Měihé Lóu
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	méih hòh làuh
Jyutping	mei5 ho4 lau4

Mei Ho House
美荷樓
Mei Ho House; 美荷樓
	Mei Ho House in 2013, after renovation
General information
Location	Shek Kip Mei Estate, Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong
Coordinates	22°20′02″N 114°09′49″E / 22.33395°N 114.163705°E
Opening	24 October 2013; 11 years ago
Management	Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association
Affiliation	Hostelling International
Other information
Number of rooms	129
Number of restaurants	1
Parking	No
Website
	www.yha.org.hk/en/hostel/yha-mei-ho-house-youth-hostel/

Mei Ho House (Chinese: 美荷樓), formerly part of Shek Kip Mei Estate, Hong Kong, is the last remaining example of a "Mark I" building in a single-block configuration. While the other buildings of the estate dating from the 1950s have been demolished, being replaced by new ones, Mei Ho House was chosen to be preserved and was reopened in 2013 as a youth hostel and heritage museum.^[1]

History

Mei Ho during the 1956 riots. A banner can be clearly seen hanging from the building.

After a devastating fire in December 1953 that left thousands homeless, the Colonial government built a 29-block resettlement estate on the site of the burnt-down shanties to house the homeless victims.^[2] Eight blocks (Blocks A to H), later renumbered as Blocks 10 through 13 and 35 through to 41, were constructed with the financial aid of the United Nations (Mei Ho House is Block H, later Block 41). These 7-storey blocks were constructed in the Bauhaus architectural style^[3]^[4] with an 'H' configuration consisting of 2 residential wings, with communal sanitary facilities linking them.

During the Hong Kong 1956 riots, the building was used as one of the bases for the rioters.

Preservation

Fullcup Cafe after revitalization in 2013

The hostel inside Mei Ho House

The building has been preserved as a record of Hong Kong's public housing development. It was listed as a Grade I historic building in 2005 and as a Grade II historic building in 2010.^[5]

In 2008, it was part of the seven buildings of Batch I of the Hong Kong Government's Revitalising Historic Buildings Through Partnership Scheme.^[6] On 17 February 2009, the government declared that the building would be used by the Hong Kong Youth Hostels Association as "City Hostel". The capital cost of the project was estimated at HK$192.3 million. Estimated completion time was 2012.^[7] The hostel would also have an exhibition area with guided tour detailing the living environment of public housing units in the past.^[8]

The renovation project received an Honourable Mention in the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation in 2015.^[1]

Youth Hostel

Mei Ho House Youth Hostel was open for business from Thursday, 24 October 2013. A dormitory room with four bunk beds costs from HK$260 per person. A double room costs from HK$680 per night while a family room costs from HK$1,320. At the opening, Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam described it as a "pioneering renovation project" for a public housing estate and "very meaningful."^[9]