iShop Municipal Services Building

What’s in a name?

Lei Yue Mun was the domain of three major quarry families: the Tsangs, Cheungs, and Ips. The Sam Ka Tsuen (Three Family Village) area (currently the area around Yau Tong Industrial Estate) was owned by the Cheungs. The Sam Ka Tsuen typhoon shelter was owned by the Ips and was not considered part of Sam Ka Tsuen’s area.

Cross harbour grocery shopping

Wonder how villagers got their groceries before there were roads to the city and before the municipal services building was built? Lei Yue Mun was a largely self-sustaining community: it had salt fields and vegetable farms, and villagers also raised their own pigs and chicken. The only thing they needed from outside the village was rice.

New name, new start

In 2000, the government built a multipurpose building with a market, library and a sports centre, and named it Sam Ka Tsuen. Not everybody in the village was happy with the name. Three years later, after vocal protests, it was renamed Lei Yue Mun Municipal Services Building.