Lei Cheng Uk Tomb

This tomb, which dates from the Later Han dynasty (206 BC-AD 221), was discovered in 1955 during excavations for a new housing estate. Around 1900 years old, it is the oldest historical monument in Hong Kong.

The tomb, built in brick on a cruciform plan, has four chambers opening off a central room with a vaulted roof. The archaeologists who excavated the site found 58 pottery and bronze articles, now displayed in the small site museum. The tomb is under the guardianship of the Museum of History

Visitors can hardly help seeing something of the life of the huge housing estate which surrounds the tomb. Here some 100,000 people live in modern but terribly overcrowded housing conditions; often families of as many as ten have only two rooms. Most of the dwellings in this large-scale planned development were assigned to families by lot.