History
Located along the coast of southern China, Lam Tin was first settled around the 9th century BC by the Nan Yue people. Qin Shi Huang conquered the Nan Yue in the late 3rd century BC as part of their unification of China. Since then, the land presently known as Lam Tin became identified as part of China.
Lam Tin, called Ham Tin Shan (鹹田山) at that time, literally meaning "salty field hill", had been part of Kowloon Bay salt-fields (九龍灣鹽田, also known as Guanfuchang 官富場) under the management of Dongguan County or Xin'an County in different dynasties. The salt-fields were first officially operated by the Song Dynasty in 1163.
The Kowloon Bay salt-fields were rich in salt, and this brought wealth to the residents near the bay. Gradually, Ham Tin Shan became villages. Because of the region's shoreline location, agricultural activities started with the plantation of high-salinity crops. With a quarry found in So Mo Ping (now Sau Mau Ping), the region gradually became a small fishing, farming and quarrying town.
In 1662, Emperor Kangxi moved all residents along southern China coastline inland by 50 Chinese miles and abandoned the salt-fields in hopes of weakening the pirate Zheng Chenggong's power through cutting his support from coastline residents. Although the residents were allowed to return in 1669, after Kangxi discovered that the migration brought great economic harm, the salt industry in Ham Tin never prospered again.
In 1841, the British Empire occupied Hong Kong. The western half of the Kowloon Bay salt-fields were acquired by Britain in 1860 and the eastern half in 1898. Under the British rule, the salt-fields were abandoned for reclamation to facilitate the building of Kai Tak Airport. To reflect this change in land usage, Ham Tin was renamed Lam Tin of similar pronunciation because the village no longer produced salt. The name Lam Tin came from Lantian, Shaanxi, which came from a phrase "藍田生玉", literally "produced from the blue fields is jade". The name Lam Tin was officially endorsed on 1 September 1970.
The colonial government built Lam Tin Estate in the 1960s to settle low-income residents during the influx of population from mainland China after the Korean War. Gradually, Lam Tin became a common term to Hongkongers describing the areas around Lam Tin Estate. The dragon emblem painted on block 15 of Lam Tin Estate was a sign of Lam Tin's unity before the building's demolition in 1998. The land of Lam Tin Estate was rebuilt into Ping Tin Estate, Kai Tin Estate, Tak Tin Estate and Kwong Tin Estate.
With the building of three major transport infrastructures in the late 20th century — the Kwun Tong Bypass, the Eastern Harbour Crossing, and the MTR — Lam Tin became even more connected with other parts of Hong Kong, spurring a population surge in the district. Lam Tin has become one of the major transport interchanges in Hong Kong.
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