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THIS
former British colony, founded as a crown colony of
Britain following the August 29, 1942, Treaty of
Nanjing, reverted to China on July 1, 1997, and is now a
Special Administrative Region with a high degree of
autonomy and no change in lifestyle. During this period,
it would evolve into a military and trading port of
strategic importance and eventually an international
financial center. My third visit to Hong Kong, a month
before the 10th anniversary of its turnover, included
walking tours of its many fascinating colonial heritage
sites that still exist, reflecting more than a
century-and-a-half of British colonial heritage, as well
as a sophisticated fusion of cultures from throughout
the world, all seen through carefully preserved
historical sites (there are 80 declared monuments) and
entertaining museums.
Remnants
of a colonial past
ON our
way to the Peak Tram Station on Hong Kong Island, we
passed the cross-shaped, early English and Gothic-styled
St. John’s Cathedral (or the Cathedral Church of St.
John the Evangelist), a declared monument since January
5, 1996. Located along Garden Road, it is the oldest
surviving Western ecclesiastical building in
Hong Kong and is believed to be the oldest Anglican church in the
Far East. It was built in 1849 and houses three
beautiful stained-glass windows, as well as a collection
of British military colors, standards and guidons. An
eastern extension was added in 1873. During the Japanese
occupation, the cathedral was used as a social club for
the Japanese community. It suffered heavy damage during
the war and most of the present interior and furnishings
are postwar.
Next to
the cathedral, along Battery Path, is the former French
Mission Building, built by Sir Henry Pottinger, the
first governor of
Hong Kong. This granite and red brick structure, completed between 1842 and 1843,
is one of
Hong
Kong’s oldest surviving colonial buildings. Acquired by
the French Mission in 1915, it was extensively rebuilt
in 1917 and was finally sold back to the Hong Kong
government in 1953. Reputedly, the location of the
colony’s first government house, it has green shutters,
black wrought-iron details and a chapel on the northwest
corner, topped by a cupola, added by French Catholic
missionaries. Today this neo-classical-styled building
is used as the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal and was
declared as a monument on
September 14, 1989.
On a
walking tour with my kids from Kimberley Hotel, we
visited the 13.5-hectare Kowloon Park, formerly a site
of the Whitfield Camp barracks for a British force with
a battery (Kowloon West Battery II). It has a number of
scenic spots including Bird Lake, Bainiao Garden, a
children’s amusement park, a mini-sized football
playground, a 1,500-pax swimming pool, a gymnasium, a
labyrinth, banyan courtyard and an open-air sculpture
exhibition. A pair of identical two-storied colonial
military barrack blocks, constructed in circa 1910, was
linked by an extension block constructed in the 1980s to
provide more space for the former Hong Kong Museum of
History from 1983 to 1998. It now houses the Hong Kong
Heritage Discovery Centre.
Along
Nathan Road is the historic Peninsula Hotel,
affectionately known as “The Pen,” which opened to
guests in December 1928. This hotel, Hong Kong’s first
and also one of its most internationally recognizable
hotels, is famous for its gilded, columned lobby, an
ideal spot for afternoon tea with cakes and cucumber
sandwiches. On December 25, 1941, at the end of the
Battle of Hong Kong, British colonial officials, headed
by Gov. Sir Mark Aitchison Young, surrendered in person
at the Japanese headquarters on the third floor of the
hotel, then renamed “Matsumoto Hotel.” Its features,
including the forecourt, the lobby and the front façade,
are preserved.
On our
way to the Avenue of the Stars, we passed by the red
brick and granite, 45-meter-high former Kowloon-Canton
Railway Clock Tower, located near Victoria Harbor at the
foot of Salisbury Road. Topped by a 7-meter-high
lightning rod, it is the only remnant of the original
site of the former Kowloon Station on the Kowloon-Canton
Railway. Built in 1915, it marks the start of the scenic
Waterfront Promenade and remains as a photogenic
monument to Tsim Sha Tsui’s rail heritage. The tower can
be reached by a wooden staircase located within. Another
landmark, the Tsim Sha Tsui Ferry Pier, is located
nearby. The tower has been listed as a declared monument
in Hong Kong since July 13, 1990.
Cultural
icons
THE
Clock Tower is now accompanied by the Hong Kong Space
Museum, Hong Kong Museum of Art and Hong Kong Cultural
Centre, all built on the former railway station grounds.
The multipurpose
Hong Kong
Cultural
Center,
home of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, has an
oval, two-tiered, 2,019-seat concert hall with
adjustable acoustic canopy and curtains and finished
with high-quality oak. It also houses an 8,000-pipe
organ (Asia’s largest, built by the Austrian firm Rieger
Orgelbau), a 1,734-seat, three-tiered Grand Theater for
large-scale opera, ballet and musicals, a 300- to
496-seat Studio Theater for smaller-scale theater and
performance works, an exhibition gallery, four foyer
exhibition areas and 11 rehearsal and practice rooms.
The Hong
Kong Museum of Art, a museum for Chinese cultural
heritage, and local and international art in
Hong Kong, houses 14,000 art objects, mainly Chinese paintings of historical
significance, sculpture and calligraphy works and
antique Chinese treasures. The museum also presents a
great variety of thematic exhibitions drawn from local
and overseas sources. It was first established in the
City Hall in 1962 and moved to the present premises in
1991. The 80,000-square-meter, dome-shaped Space Museum,
built in 1980, has three sections: the Hall of Space
Science, the Hall of Astronomy, and one of the world’s
largest and most technical planetariums, the Space
Theater, where thrilling wide-screen Omnimax and
Skyshows are presented. |
