Hu Jintao (left) waves to a crowd during a 2012 visit. Right photo shows Li Tak-yan with a gun to his head outside a flat window during a standoff with the police. Photos: Apple Daily, i-Cable
Kai Ching Estate in Kowloon City has been in the news after it was reported that its residents may have been drinking lead-contaminated water.
The contamination in what has been hailed as Hong Kong’s first green development is being blamed for an outbreak legionellosis, a water-borne disease which has stricken a 62-year-old female resident.
But this is not the first time the estate, one of the first residential projects in the former Kai Tak airport, has hogged the limelight.
In June 2012, then Chinese President Hu Jintao praised its concept and design during a visit with Donald Tsang, then Hong Kong chief executive, as part of the handover celebrations.
A month later, the first buildings were completed, with a new supply of 5,000 units for 13,000 residents, the first batch of whom began moving in just weeks later.
But in June 2014, a deadly shooting shocked the estate.
Li Tak-yan, 51, was found dead in his flat after a standoff with the police.
He apparently killed himself after fatally shooting 43-year-old air-conditioning technician Liu Kai-chung the night before.
It was later revealed that Li was the father of starlet Liddy Li, who was in the news over a scandal involving a married film director. [See here]
On July 12, a mainlander was arrested after she attacked her husband with a knife during an argument.
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