Mei Foo

Mei Foo Sun Chuen
Regular blocks of Mei Foo Sun Chuen
Chinese	美孚新邨
Literal meaning	Mobil New Estate
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Měifú Xīncūn Yue: Cantonese Jyutping mei5 fu1 san1 cyun1

Mei Foo Sun Chuen or simply Mei Foo (美孚) is a large private housing estate in Lai Chi Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Mei Foo Sun Chuen was the first private housing estate in Hong Kong and at the time of completion, the 99 tower complex was considered the largest private housing development in the world, accommodating some 70,000 – 80,000 people in 13,500 apartments. It is considered to be one of the world's largest privately financed residential condominium project.

The 40-acre Mei Foo Sun Chuen, with a total of ninety-nine blocks, was completed from 1968 to 1978 in eight separate but interconnected stages on the reclamation that had been a large petroleum-storage facility of Mobil (now part of ExxonMobil) in Hong Kong (Mobil's Chinese trading name in Hong Kong is 美孚; Mei Foo) from the 1920s. The redevelopment was carried out by Mei Foo Investments Limited, a subsidiary company of Mobil Oil (Hong Kong) Limited.

Mei Foo Sun Chuen was conceived to meet the housing needs of Hong Kong's middle-income families, an emerging and growing group at the time. At the time, a flat in Mei Foo cost around HK$40,000.

The residential complexes of Mei Foo were considered "grand" for the standards at the time they were built; every flat offers a balcony, at least two rooms and one bathroom. The apartment sizes vary from 600 to 1,800 square feet (56 to 167 square metres). Every apartment complex has a 24-hour uniformed, unarmed security force. Entry to a residential block requires an entrance code, which changes periodically.

Mei Foo Sun Chuen has several schools, medical clinics, beauty salons, newspaper kiosks, supermarkets, shopping arcades, restaurants and food markets within its vicinity, making it area very convenient for residents. The private secondary schools in particular were notable for academically poor students (The schools in Hong Kong are divided, based on academic achievements into three categories. The aforementioned schools are in the third category and are deemed to have less than satisfactory performances.) However, as education policy change, some schools have evolved into multicultural ones.