Lai Chi Kok Hospital, Grade III historic building in Sham Shui Po District, Hong Kong

Lai Chi Kok Hospital is a former hospital complex at 800 Castle Peak Road, built on a hillside in three tiers. Its single- and two-storey rectangular blocks have gabled roofs and red-brick walls laid in English bond, with few decorative details. The site now houses the Jao Tsung-I Academy, with exhibition halls, a hostel and gardens.

The site began as a labor dormitory in the 1800s and was converted to military barracks in 1912, later serving as an internment facility. After becoming a hospital in 1937, it provided long-term care for chronic conditions for many decades.

The name Lai Chi Kok comes from the Cantonese for "lychee corner", not from a bay. Since 2012 the site has housed the Jao Tsung-I Academy, named after the sinologist Jao Tsung-I, who served as honorary chairman of the Hong Kong Institution for Promotion of Chinese Culture. The academy promotes Chinese art and culture through exhibitions and a heritage gallery.

The complex is built along a hillside and divided into upper, middle and lower zones, so expect slopes and stairs between them. It sits at 800 Castle Peak Road, near the Castle Peak Road and Ching Cheung Road junctions, yet trees screen it from the traffic. Phase 1 opened in June 2012 with the art gallery, conservation gallery, Sky Light Court, gift shop, old guard post and ancient stone wall.

The site's red-brick blocks are laid in English bond, alternating a course of stretchers with a course of headers, a sturdy 19th-century British bricklaying method. Look for the pattern on the older two-storey buildings, which were altered over the years for dormitory, barracks, camp and hospital use with little ornamental detail.