Yau Ma Tei

Yau Ma Tei is an area in the Yau Tsim Mong District in the south of the Kowloon Peninsula in Hong Kong.

Yau Ma Tei is a phonetic transliteration of the name 油麻地 (originally written as 油蔴地) in Cantonese. It can also be spelt as Yaumatei, Yau Ma Ti, Yaumati or Yau-ma-Tee.

Yau (油) literally means "oil", Ma (麻 or 蔴) can either refer to "sesame" or "jute", and Tei (地) means "field" or "open ground". Hence, Yau Ma Tei can be interpreted to mean either "oil-sesame field" or "oil and jute ground". This dual-interpretation is perhaps the reason for there being two explanations for the origin of the place name.

Dundas Street marks the north border of Yau Ma Tei with Mong Kok and Austin Road its south border with Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui. To its west is Victoria Harbour and its east the hilly region of Ho Man Tin.

Southern Yau Ma Tei was traditionally known as Kwun Chung, but came to be called Jordan after the completion of Jordan MTR station at its heart.

Yau Ma Tei was a village in Kowloon. It was mentioned that a Chinese burial ground was assigned at a mile northeast of a village of Yau-ma-Tee at 2 December 1871. The name Yau Ma Tei is not thought to pre-date British rule. However, Kwun Chung is mentioned in many historic documents. Kwun Chung was a river valley with village and cultivation. To the south, a hill near the coast was used as a fortification by the military of the Qing dynasty during the 19th century. In 1839, Qing official Lin Zexu ordered the construction of a fortification in the area to defend against possible British attacks. When the First Opium War broke out, the fortification, along with another fort in Tsim Sha Tsui, saw action against British forces during the Battle of Kowloon.

Before the ceding of Kowloon to the British in 1860, Yau Ma Tei was a beach and a bay gathering many Tanka fishermen. Its water remains a harbour for fishermen after several times of reclamation by the Hong Kong Government. The Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter became an exotic water area where restaurants on boats offered dishes of indigenous seafood. These 'typhoon shelter dishes' remain famous to this day and are even offered on land. The typhoon shelter not only hosted fishermen, but was also a port in Hong Kong. Numerous piers were built along its shore. Ferry Point in the southern part of Yau Ma Tei was a transportation hub where many commuters took ferries to and from Hong Kong Island. The service was offered by Hongkong and Yaumati Ferry.

Inland, the reclamation became the residential area for the ever-increasing Chinese population, with retail shops on the street level. Shanghai Street was the main street before being replaced by Nathan Road. Along Waterloo Road is the century-old Fruit Market; its adjacent Yaumati Theatre was once the largest in Kowloon. The Kwong Wah Hospital was the first hospital on the Kowloon peninsula, established in 1911. YMCA headquarters and its hostel in Hong Kong are located on the road. On 26 January 2021, 12 buildings in Yau Ma Tei were placed under lockdown due to COVID-19.