#declaredmonument

The Old Tai Po Police Station is a Declared Monument in Tai Po. I joined a guided tour in order to learn its history. Green Hub is the NGO that runs the operation and maintenance at the Old Tai Po Police Station now and it offers guided tour of the site. The history of the Old Tai Po Police Station began after the Six-Day War of 1899. The confrontations between the indigenous villagers of the New Territories and the British officers that sought to exercise the act of sovereignty in 1899 occurred at the flagstaff established at a temporary police station in Tai Po. In 1898, the British signed the Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory (also known as the Second Convention of Peking) with the Qing Government to lease the New Territories for 99 years. This Convention was a result of negotiation, and not a direct consequence of the two Opium Wars, which gave rise to the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 (the ceding of Hong Kong Island to Great Britain) and the Treaty of Peking in 1860 (the ceding of Kowloon up to the Boundary Street). Rumors about the British exercise of sovereignty in the New Territories were circulating in 1899 when police superintendent Henry May established matsheds for the purpose of flag raising. The villagers were very worried that British arrival would result in coerced changes in the customs being practiced then, both in terms of land relationships and cultural practices. When the British officers were attacked at the matsheds and the site was burned down by the villagers in April 1899, the Six-Day War of 1899 drew its curtains. The British retreated after the matsheds were burned down. They soon came back with more troops and engaged in six days of fighting throughout the New Territories, first from Tai Po in the east all the way westward throughout Yuen Long. Many villages were involved in this war. This history was previously discussed in my review of Professor Patric Hase’s book. After the British claimed victory in the Six-Day War of 1899, they imposed a number of policies both to pacify the villagers and to solidify the British administration of the New Territories. The Old Tai Po Police Station was established as one such initiative. When it was established, the Old Tai Po Police Station accommodated five British, high-ranking officers, and 32 Indian and Chinese constables. It was the very first permanent police station in the New Territories. It was also the Police Headquarters for the New Territories until the new Tai Po Police Station began its service in 1987. This site in Tai Po was selected for both the flag raising and the location of the permanent police station for two reasons. This location was easily accessible both by land and by sea. Secondly, the small hill of Wan Tau Kok (formerly known as the Flagstaff Hill) provides the vantage point to look out to what used to be the Tai Po Sea (now we call it Tolo Harbour). As such both patrol of land and the sea was possible at this location. #ne

A walk amidst the hustle and bustle of Central during a weekday rush hour can be a bewildering experience. As Hong Kong’s business district, Central is the heart of the matter when it concerns business. But visitors to Hong Kong would not miss the historic significance of Central. Innumerable historical structures speak amply to the life of Hong Kong’s early colonial times. Central is a place that epitomizes the spirited motions of Hong Kong life. Central weaves together the dynamics of the business world, the commoners’ lives and the world’s ever-evolving relationships. And this is what defines Hong Kong. Lying on the east of Central’s business district is a set of steps that have acquired historic status. On Queen’s Road Central, go eastward toward the Admiralty direction. Make a right when you see Duddell Street. Keep going about thirty meters and you will come upon a set of granite steps, with classic balustrades lining its two sides. Standing on the four corners of the steps are four gas lamps that came from the colonial times. The Duddell Street was named after the merchant brothers George and Frederick Duddell, who owned a lot of land, property and a public market in Central during the 19th century. They were also some of the first opium farmers in Hong Kong at the time. The Duddell Street Steps connects Duddell Street to Ice House Street in its south, but at a higher elevation. Installation for the Duddell Street Steps and Gas Lamps completed circa 1883-1889, still early in the colonial days. Together, the steps and the gas lamps of Duddell Street are the very expression of colonial architecture. “It is characterised by heavily moulded newels, rails and balusters of Tuscan order.” The Duddell Street Gas Lamps were once the standard lighting in Hong Kong Streets. These lamps are two-light Rochester models of the firm William Sugg & Co., and they were added during the early 20th century. In the old days, they were hand-lit, but now they are lit automatically by the supply of gas by Towngas and they are still working. Every day at 6pm the lamps are lit, and then at 6am they are turned off automatically. In 1967, Hong Kong electrified its street lights, and so these four gas lamps remain the only working examples of gas lamps in all of Hong Kong. #historicallandmarks #hongkonghistory #hongkongheritage #hongkong #central #duddellstreet #gaslamps #streetlights #declaredmonument #historicallandmarks#历史古迹

In all considerations, the Tai Kwun has retired into an age of glory by now. Tai Kwun is the former Central Police Station that operated during the early colonial days until the 2000’s. Standing as a revitalized cultural space consisting of three declared monuments, Tai Kwun presents the public with an opportunity to revisit a part of Hong Kong history that was once ridden with the unpleasantries of a sometimes-unjust system of justice. In 1841 when Britain formally took over Hong Kong, the Colonial Government set up the Hong Kong Police Force. The first “police station” in Hong Kong was a mere mat-shed shelter on a site next to what would become Tai Kwun in Central. Tai Kwun, meaning “the big police station,” served as the headquarters for law enforcement between the late 19th century and the Second World War. It became the regional headquarters for Hong Kong Island after the war, as it was also the police station for the Central district. With its decommission in 2004, it stepped down from its former role as a law enforcement institute. In Tai Kwun there are about 20 blocks of buildings that served various functions in the former Central Police Station. In my opinion, there are four must-see structures. As three of them are declared monuments, they are representative of the collective history of Tai Kwun. Facing Hollywood Road is the Central Police Station. Now serving mostly as a space of exhibitions displaying aspects of Hong Kong’s local history and culture, the Police Headquarters Block stands grand and stately as what might be the most eye-catching architecture in this part of Central. The Central Magistracy was the first building in Tai Kwun’s ensemble of former law enforcement agencies. Built in 1841, the year that the British took over Hong Kong as its colony, the Central Magistracy was an indispensable arm of colonial administration as the “busiest court of justice” that tried more than three million people. Known as the Victoria Gaol in the earliest days, the Victoria Prison was a structure of 1842 as the longest-running prison in Hong Kong’s history. An intriguing fact that I learned at the Tai Kwun was that Ho Chi Minh, the most significant statesman and founder of communist Vietnam, had once been kept in the Victoria Prison. Steeped in historic vibes, the Barrack Block is also a beautiful structure with a neoclassical façade. Built in 1864, the Barrack Block gave home to 200 single constables and also single and married sergeants. #taikwun #taikwunhongkon #taikwuncentralpolicestation #tai_kwun #central #hongkong #hongkonghistory #magistracy #victoriaprison #barrackblock #policestation #historicallandmarks #declaredmonument #museums#citydaytours#china

During the Song dynasty, the Lius lived in Fujian. In the middle of the Yuan dynasty (13th to 14th centuries), the ancestor Liu Chung-kit moved southward and settled down in this part of southern China. The Lius eventually founded their first village, Wai Loi Village. Then they took over the surrounding areas of Po Sheung Tsuen, and Mun Hau Tsuen as the clan grew in numbers. This area of Sheung Shui became known as Sheung Shui Heung. As the largest ancestral hall of all the Lius in Sheung Shui, the Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall celebrates a lineage that had exceptional beginnings. Many of the Liu ancestors were government officials and their learnedness is celebrated in the Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall. The Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall was built in the 16th year of the Qianlong Reign during the Qing dynasty (1751). Unlike most other ancestral halls in the New Territories, where they bear the name of a certain accomplished ancestor, the name Man Shek in this ancestral hall has a special story. According to the description on site, Literally meaning 10,000 shi (“shek” a unit of measure for grain), the name “Man Shek” dates back to the Song dynasty… a distant ancestor of the clan, Liu Kong, and his four sons were all high government officials who each earned an annual salary of 2,000 shi of cereal, thus 10,000 shi in total. Their descendants named the ancestral hall “Liu Man Shek Tong” in their honour. When the Lius have well-settled in Sheung Shui Heung for centuries, they began the construction of the Liu Man Shek Tong Ancestral Hall during the 18th century. Besides the five original ancestors that inspired the name of this first ancestral hall for the Lius in Hong Kong, there were some 47 members who have made notable achievements in the imperial examinations in the clan’s history. In terms of other architectural features, the Liu Man Shek Tong “is richly embellished with plaster mouldings, wood carvings and murals of auspicious motifs. The tiled roofs are supported on stone and wooden columns and an intricate system of carved wooden trusses and brackets.” #newterritories #sheungshui #liumanshektong #liu #ancestraltemple #hongkong #hongkonghistory #历史古迹 #declaredmonument #historicallandmarks

The Flagstaff House Museum of Tea Ware is a Declared Monument inside the Hong Kong Park. Construction for the Flagstaff House completed in 1846, and it is the oldest surviving western styled building in Hong Kong. When it began its first chapter, the Flagstaff House was named the Headquarters House. Its first occupant was Major-General Goerge Charles D’Aguilar, whose name is now borne by Cape D’Aguilar and the D’Aguilar Lighthouse. As the Commander of British Troops in China, D’Aguilar was a military officer when he arrived in Hong Kong in 1843. In 1844, he was appointed the Leutenant Governor of Hong Kong, and the Headquarter House was built specifically as his residence. In 1932, the building was renamed the Flagstaff House, but it served as the residence of the Commander of British Forces until 1978. During the Japanese Occupation years, the Japanese imperial forces also used it as the residence for its military commander in Hong Kong. The beautiful building became the Museum of Tea Ware in 1984. In 1991, when the Hong Kong Park opened, the Museum of Tea Ware became the classy resident in the well-landscaped public garden. Since 1984, the Flagstaff House has become the Museum of Tea Ware with donated exhibits from the collection of Dr. Kwee Seong Lo, the founder of Vitasoy. A tour of this museum will enable visitors a view of the interiors of the Flagstaff House, and it is very worthwhile. #flagstaffhouse #flagstaffhousemuseumofteaware #teaware #tea #hongkongpark #admiralty #hongkong #hongkongheritage #hongkonghistory #heritagebuilding #历史古迹 #declaredmonument #museum #historicallandmarks#历史古迹#博物馆

The Man Mo Temple is one of the earliest temples established in Hong Kong Island. Standing on Hollywood Road in Sheung Wan, Man Mo Temple bears witness to the lives of those Hong Kong Chinese that lived in the Sheung Wan area in the early colonial times till the present. As a place where most Chinese residents of Sheung Wan frequent, the Man Mo Temple was more than a place of worship. It once was the venue for meting out justice and resolving civilian disputes. The Man Mo Temple compound of Sheung Wan consists of three separate but abutting blocks. The largest chamber is the Man Mo Temple. The middle, smaller block is called Lit Shing Kung, meaning “all saints” in Chinese. Finally, on the westernmost end stands the Kung Sor, which served as an important community hall. The two gods that are the resident deities at the temple are the Man Cheong and the Mo Tai. Man Cheong, meaning the god of literature, is a legend from as far back as the Qin dynasty. He was traditionally the god of reverence for those who aimed high in the imperial civilian examinations. Mo Tai, meaning the god of war, is a legend from the three kingdoms period. He was a great warrior and had the reputation for being loyal and righteous. As such, he was traditionally the god of reverence for both the police and the bandits. During the early colonial times, the way that the Chinese people took oath was by “burning the yellow paper” and “chopping off the chicken’s head.” By taking these oaths the Chinese people are bound by their declaration and it was an effective legal oath. However, this proceeding must be held in the Man Mo Temple. #godofwar #godofliterature #mantai #motai #manmotemple #taoism #temple #hongkonghistory #hongkongheritage #declaredmonument #sheungwan #travel#citydaytours#china