Western District, the Island's Oldest Neighborhood

The Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum at 7 Castle Rd., just off Caine Road, is located in a magnificently preserved Edwardian building, Kom Tong Hall. The hall, built in 1914 was--until 1960--the family mansion of Hom Kong-tong, brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung. Sir Robert was a prominent Hong Kong tycoon, philanthropist and colleague of Jardine Matheson, the British Far East trading company with extensive interests in Hong Kong. The building was purchased by the Hong Kong government in 2004 to save it from demolition by its then occupants, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day .
Saints. It opened as the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum in late 2006. Dr. Sun is not known to have ever visited Kom Tong Hall but was a schoolfriend of Hom Kong-tong and received his secondary and tertiary education in Hong Kong, which was where he transformed from medical student to revolutionary leader.

The building is a blend of Chinese and Western architectural styles with a magnificent central staircase with stained-glass windows and splendid first and second floor balconies and balustrades. During World War II the building was occupied for several years by military authorities. Kom Tong Hall is considered to represent an important part of Hong Kong's cultural heritage, being a prime example of the rising affluence of the Chinese community, its military role during the war years and its subsequent use as a religious center.

The museum celebrates the life of the "Father of Modern China" and has two permanent exhibitions. "Dr. Sun Yat-sen and Modern China" explains how Dr. Sun was transformed from an aspiring medical student into a renowned revolutionary leader. "Hong Kong in Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Time" illustrates the conditions in Hong Kong that contributed to the success of the 1911 revolution. These permanent exhibitions are located in first and second floor galleries and there is also a special exhibition gallery housing temporary exhibitions on the upper ground floor. The museum has a reading room and two video rooms showing short videos. There is a gift shop but no cafe. Photography is not allowed in the exhibition areas.

Nearby is the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail, with information display boards and links to 15 points of interest related to Dr. Sun's activities in Hong Kong.
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Hours
Monday-Wednesday 10am-6pm
Friday-Saturday 10am-7pm
Sunday, holidays 10am-7pm
Christmas Day, Chinese New Year's Eve 10am-5pm
Closed Thursday, first two days of Chinese New Year
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Admission
Adults HK$10
Seniors 60+ HK$5
Kids younger than 4 Free
Free admission Wednesday and the anniversaries of Dr. Sun Yat-sen's birth (Nov. 12) and death (March 12)

From the Dr. Sun Yat-sen museum, follow Caine Road for about 100 meters and then follow Shing Wong Street on the right, down a set of steps to Wing Lee Street, which is on the left.

Wing Lee Street is the last remaining street in Hong Kong entirely lined with 12 tong lau, typical postwar 1950s Chinese-style tenement buildings. The tong lau on Wing Lee Street are unique to Hong Kong and southern China. The street had been part of the Urban Renewal Authority's Staunton Street/Wing Lee Street Redevelopment Scheme dating back to 2003. All but three buildings were scheduled for demolition, but following a public outcry the street was excised from the plan and all 12 buildings are to be preserved.

The campaign for preservation of the street intensified after the highly acclaimed film "Echoes of the Rainbow" was shot on the street and won an award at the 2010 Berlin Film Festival. The film, which was also submitted for nomination for an Oscar as best foreign language film to the 83rd Academy Awards, is set in the 1960s when Hong Kong was under British rule. It depicts the life of a working family in Hong Kong whose popular eldest son and star athlete is daignosed with leukemia. Since the film, the street has become something of a tourist attraction.

The Former Married Police Quarters, located at the junction of Aberdeen Street and Hollywood Road, was originally the site of the Government Central School, The schoo was established in 1862 and was the first government school to provide upper primary and secondary Western education. The school was renamed Victoria College in 1889 and became Queen's College in 1894.

The college was occupied by the Japanese during World War II and, having been badly damaged by bombs, was demolished in 1948. The forced the college to occupy temporary premises before moving to its present location in Causeway Bay in 1950. The Police Married Quarters were built on the Hollywood Road site, opening in 1951, and provided homes for married junior police officers, including Chinese police officers. The premises were vacated in 2000 and have remained empty ever since but was featured in the movies "Fulltime Killer" (2001), "Three" (2002) and horror movie "Three: Going Home" (2002).

The site is now the subject of a public-private conservation and revitalization project in which the government will finance essential building and structural works with outside organizations bidding to operate the site. It is proposed that part of the site be reserved for an exhibition area displaying relics from the old Central School. More than 40 organizations are believed to have expressed an interest in operating the site. It is hoped that once a final decision is made, renovation work can begin in 2012 with completion in 2014.

A short distance from the Police Married Quarters along Hollywood Road, famous for its antique shops, stands Man Mo Temple. This is not the only Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong but is the best known and a popular tourist attraction. It is a Daoist temple, built in 1847 at a time when more Chinese people were beginning to occupy the nearby districts reserved for the Chinese community following colonization by the British.

Man Mo means "civil" and "martial" and the temple is dedicated to the two Daoist deities Man Cheung (god of literature) and Kwan Kung (god of martial arts). The main altar is flanked by their statues. Mo is also somewhat bizarrely the patron saint and protector of both triads and the police.

Hanging from the ceiling are coils of smoking incense which, along with burning joss sticks and dim lighting, ensures an almost perpetual eerie atmosphere, brightened only by the occasional shafts of sunlight. Two sedan chairs on display are used to carry the deities during festivals such as the Autumn Sacrificial Rites and the temple also contains a bell and drum, robes, swords and various other artifacts. Adjacent to the main altar is a smaller shrine, dedicated to Pao Kung (god of justice) with statues of the Eight Immortals.

Although popular with both worshippers and visitors, the temple is usually quiet and uncrowded and does not have the same frenetic atmosphere of the Daoist Wong Tai Sin Temple in Kowloon.

There are fortune tellers and a small souvenir shop attached to the temple.

The temple is managed by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals and the main Tung Wah Hospital featured later in this walk.
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Man Mo Temple
Hollywood Rd & Ladder St
852 2803 2916
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Hours
Daily 8am-6pm
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Cost: Free

Just a few steps down Ladder Street, opposite Man Mo Temple, is Upper Lascar Row, also known as "Cat Street." In the 19th century this was a "no-go" area for Westerners, being populated by opium addicts, prostitutes, thieves and gamblers. Its name relates to Indian sailors who lived in nearby boarding houses while waiting for a berth on a ship. They were known as "lascars," meaning East Indian sailor or army servant. The origin of the nickname "Cat Street" is unclear but is believed to refer to "cat burglars" who brought stolen goods here to sell; another theory assumes the name refers to cat meat being sold here.

In the early 20th century the street became a center for antique shops and second-hand goods and today high-end antique shops line each side of the street while flea-market stalls, known as the Cat Street Bazaar, set up each day in the middle of the narrow street. The stalls sell all kinds of paraphernalia including trinkets, clocks, Mao "Little Red Books," paintings, posters and statues. Bargaining with stall holders is allowed here.
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Shop hours
Daily 10am-6pm

Wing Lee Street leads through a narrow passageway to Ladder Street. Ladder Street was built between 1841 and 1850 and is about 300 meters long, linking Queens Road Central with Caine Road. Its name is due to its steepness and resemblance to a ladder.

The street is composed of granite slabs and concrete paving and has central iron railings. Landings (flat areas) between the steps in some places were a welcome concession to the sedan chair carriers of old and used as resting places. It is the most famous of several similar sets of steps linking Central District with Mid-Levels and became a listed as Grade 1 Built Heritage by the government's antiquities and monuments office in 2009.

The street connects some of Hong Kong's tourist attractions--Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road, Upper Lascar Row (Cat Street) and the Museum of Medical Sciences--with the Chinese YMCA at Hong Kong's main building.

Continue up the steps to Caine Lane and the Museum of Medical Sciences.

Just below the top of Ladder Street, Caine Lane leads to the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences. The building opened in 1906 as the Bacteriological Institute and after World War II became the Pathological Institute. Through the years the building has played an important role in the medical history of Hong Kong.

The Bacteriological Institute was to respond to the outbreaks of bubonic plague, which devastated Hong Kong in the late 19th and early 20th century. Appalling sanitary conditions in the crowded tenements of the Taipingshan and Sai Ying Pun areas led to the spread of teh disease. It was Hong Kong's first public health and medical laboratory and continued to produce vaccines until the 1970s, although the Pathological Institute relocated in 1960.

The building is one of the best-preserved Edwardian Colonial-style buildings in Hong Kong and was declared a monument in 1990.

The museum opened in 1996 and displays the history of both traditional Chinese and Western medicine and the development of medical and health sciences in Hong Kong. Eleven exhibition galleries display equipment, instruments, objects, specimens, reconstructions and information boards. There are thematic exhibitions relating to recent medical challenges faced by Hong Kong, including recent SARS and H1N1 swine flu scares.

In 2011 the museum introduced the Taipingshan Medical Heritage Trail, a 90-minute walk, starting at the museum and taking in some 16 points of interest in the Taipingshan and Sai Ying Pun districts. Stops relate to the Hong Kong's medical heritage and early development of medical and public health services. A trail guide book can be purchased at the museum. The next stage of this walk follows a short section of that trail.
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Hong Kong Museum of Medical Science
No.2 Caine Lane, Mid-Levels, Hong Kong
(852) 2549 5123
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Hours
Tuesday-Saturday 10am-5pm
Sundays, public holidays 1-5pm
Christmas Eve, Chinese New Year's Eve 10am-3pm
Closed Mondays, Christmas Day, New Year's Day and the first three days of the Chinese New Year
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Admission
Adults HK$10
Seniors 60+, disabled visitors, full-time Hong Kong students HK$5

Just below the Museum of Medical Sciences lies Blake Garden. The garden was named after Sir Henry Blake, who governed Hong Kong from 1898 to 1903. The area on which the garden stands was originally a crowded tenement with extremely poor living and sanitary conditions. Following the outbreak of the plague in 1894, the area was cordoned off and the tenements eventually demolished and new streets laid out.

Gov. Blake proposed that part of the redeveloped area be reserved for public open space and gardens. The Blake Garden opened in 1905. A plaque commemorating the plague has been erected near the garden entrance from Kiu Ying Fong. Today the garden is a popular recreation spot and visitors are likely to see locals practicing tai chi.

Kwong Fuk Ancestral Hall (I Tsz), on Taipingshan Street, is little known by tourists but has a fascinating history. After Hong Kong became a British colony many mainland Chinese moved to Hong Kong in anticipation of a better life. However, the reality was somewhat different and many simply died homeless without any relatives to take care of their burial.

Pak Sing Temple was built in 1851 to house ancestral (commemorative) tablets for these people so that relatives could come and take the tablets back to family on the mainland. Coffins were also placed in the ancestral hall to await repatriation. However, when the plague broke out many of the terminally ill were turned out of their homes. They took refuge in the ancestral hall where the dead and dying lay together in filthy conditions with no medical attention. The subsequent outcry and bad press led to then-Gov. Richard MacDonnell granting the Chinese a piece of land nearby on which to build Hong Kong's first Chinese hospital, Tung Wah Hospital.

The ancestral hall is still in the same location, accessed by steps to the Pak Sing Temple, and still houses about 3,000 ancestral tablets.
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Kwong Fuk Ancestral Hall/Pak Sing Temple
Pak She Street
3718
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Cost: Donations accepted

Tung Wah Hospital on Po Yan Street, which opened in 1872, was the first hospital built in Hong Kong solely to provide traditional Chinese medical care to the Chinese community. The Chinese community long had requested such a facility but it was bad publicity over conditions at Kwong Fuk Ancestral Hall (see previous point of interest) that prompted the government to provide the land and get the hospital built. Following the outbreak of the plague in 1896, Western medicine treatment was also offered enabling patients to choose between Chinese or Western medical care.

The hospital was rebuilt in 1902 and 1934 and contains a collection of valuable plaques, including one donated by Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty in 1885. Tung Wah Group also operates two other Tung Wah hospitals in Hong Kong as well as schools and social services; it is Hong Kong's biggest charity.

Hollywood Road Park is located opposite the lower end of Po Yan Street and is a Chinese-style park with ponds and pavilions. The area around the park is where the British colonization of Hong Kong began. Inside the gate is a display of photos showing the Union Jack being raised at Possession Point, which was at what is now Possession Street, a short distance from the park. This walk reaches Possession Street at a later stage. The park provides a relaxing sitting area in an otherwise mainly built-up area.

From the end of Hollywood Road, follow Queen's Road West, west to its junction with Eastern Street and follow Eastern Street uphill. On the left is King George V Memorial Park, planned in 1936, the year King George V died, but not opened until 1954 owing to intervention of World War II.

Just above the park is the imposing Sai Ying Pun Community Complex, which was originally the Government Civil Hospital Nurses' Quarters, built in 1895. In 1939 part of the building became a mental hospital. This large, rather palatial building--designed to accommodate European nurses--was believed to have had just six residents in its early days. It ceased to provide staff quarters in 1941 and, after the hospital patients had been transferred to a new mental hospital in 1961, the building was abandoned with rumors that it was haunted.

In 2001 the building was reopened as Sai Ying Pun Community Center with the original, magnificent facade preserved; the rest of the building has been rebuilt.

From Eastern Street follow High Street to Centre Street and then follow Centre Street downhill and across Queen's Road West to Des Voeux Road West. The streets between High Street and Queen's Road West form a grid pattern and were Hong Kong's first attempt at urban planning.

Des Voeux Road West, along which trams rumble, is known as "Dried Seafood Street." Both wholesale and retail shops are filled with dried fish, rice, dried fruits, preserved meats, rice and noodles, and have baskets spilling out onto the pavement. The street is usually cluttered with boxes and pallets of unloaded goods. The shops are particularly busy in the early morning. Trolleys loaded with boxes and baskets of goods being wheeled along the street are a common sight.

The Chinese name for the district is Nam Pak Hong, which means South-North Guild--a Chinese Merchants Association established in 1868. The Guild is not only a trading organization, but was at one time responsible for law and order, firefighting and promoting the economy of the newly established British colony.

Nam Pak Hom businesses get their supplies mainly from China but act as import and export companies. Nearly all Nam Pak Hong companies are family owned; business contacts are friends and "contracts" are completed with a handshake.
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Shop hours
Daily 9:30am-7pm

Immediately before the junction of Des Voeux Road with Connaught Road West, Wing Lok Street branches off to the right. Here can be found a number of shops selling bird's nest and shark's fin, both delicacies used in soup. They are associated with long life.
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Shop hours
Daily 9:30am-7pm

Wing Lok Street meets the lower end of Possession Street just before Bonham Strand. Following the Opium War with China, when the first British landing on Hong Kong Island was made by the Royal Navy on Jan. 25, 1841, a toast was drunk to Queen Victoria. The next day the landing party returned and hoisted the Union Jack, the British flag, at Possession Point to claim Hong Kong Island for Britain. Possession Point no longer exists but Possession Street was named to mark the area in which the flag was raised. Hong Kong remained a British colony until being handed back to China in 1997.

From Wing Lok Street, Western Market--located on Morrison Street and Des Voeux Road--is a short walk. The market is a distinctive red brick and granite building that, before reclamation, stood on the waterfront. It was built on two blocks, north and south in 1858 and 1906 respectively, as a meat and vegetable market. The Edwardian building has both Chinese and Western features, including pan and roll roof tiles. The market closed and the south block was demolished in 1980 but the north block was beautifully renovated and reopened in 1990. Today it houses arts and crafts shops, a fabric market, cafes and restaurants. The building has two main floors but during its restoration part of the ground floor ceiling was removed and a mezzanine floor was added, which now houses the fabric shops.

The arts and crafts shops on the ground floor sell a variety of goods not easily obtainable elsewhere in Hong Kong. The fabric shops sell a wide array of fabrics. On the second floor is a popular dim sum restaurant, the Grand Stage, while other dining options are include Das Gute, a Western cafe and cake shop, and Honeymoon Dessert, a Hong Kong-style dessert cafe, both on the ground floor. There is also a Chinese herbal tea shop, Hoi Tin Tong.

Outside the building is the Western Market Tram Terminus from where frequent trams operate east through Central, Wanchai, Causeway Bay and eastern districts to Shau Kei Wan, and west through Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pin to Kennedy Town. Sheung Wan MTR Station is about a two-minute walk along Des Voeux Road.
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Shop hours
Daily 9am-7pm