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History of Hong Kong districts

He no longer recognised Hong Kong scenes so he paints how they used to look

When Chow Chun-fai could not find a crossroads in Mong Kok, it led him to produce paintings of street views that combine present and past.

23 Sep 2024 - 7:50PM

Language Matters | Why Hong Kong’s fire dragon dances are so important

15 Sep 2024 - 8:15AM

Hong Kong team finds 1940s Japanese ‘shrine’ but officials reject ‘conjecture’

5 Sep 2024 - 1:38PM

A tour of Po Leung Kuk HQ shows history of caring for children in need

Hong Kong charity Po Leung Kuk was founded in 1878 to care for women and children kidnapped in China to work in the then colony, and its headquarters still house around 180 children in need.

14 Aug 2024 - 9:59AM

Hong Kong charity Po Leung Kuk was founded in 1878 to care for women and children. Its headquarters in Causeway Bay (above), built in 1932, still house around 180 children in need at any given time. Photo: Jonathan Wong

5 of the best things to do this weekend, August 9-11, in Hong Kong

A neon signs exhibition, a K-pop girl group pop-up store, a boozy night out and more awaits those looking for entertainment in Hong Kong this weekend.

9 Aug 2024 - 3:48PMvideocam

Hong Kong’s Southorn Playground, haven for sports and socialising

Since 1934, Southorn Playground in Hong Kong’s Wan Chai neighbourhood has offered a respite from the stress of urban living, as well as hosting protests, parties, and Covid-19 testing.

30 Jul 2024 - 12:45PM

Then & Now | Hong Kong stores’ floorwalkers helped the lost and kept an eye on the suspicious

Men with a certain bearing – often former military – were paid to walk round department stores like Lane Crawford and Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co keeping an eye out

25 Jul 2024 - 10:35AM

Customers shopping at Lane Crawford’s Des Voeux Road location in 1977. Photo: SCMP Archive

Letters | How Hong Kong can give tourists a smart street-level taste of history

Readers discuss how street signs can point visitors to historical stories of interest, and ways to improve taxi services

20 Jul 2024 - 1:11PM

How Hong Kong’s scent branders design aromas to encourage customer loyalty

From The Peninsula Hong Kong hotel to the city’s malls and airport, enticing aromas are used to attract new clients and increase customer loyalty. A Hong Kong expert breaks down scent branding.

15 Jul 2024 - 6:15PM

How 4 Hong Kong hotels help guests venture beneath city’s skin

The Park Lane, Ovolo, Mandarin Oriental and Heritage Lodge are among Hong Kong hotels offering activities like heritage tours to help visitors discover the city’s culture, history and stories.

15 Jul 2024 - 2:59PM

A woman prays at Man Mo Temple in Hong Kong. Photo: Shutterstock

How malaria, or ‘barrack fever’, messed with British Hong Kong’s beginnings

Marsh miasma, barrack fever, Hongkong Fever – colonisers called the disease that struck as they built their new town on the north shore of Hong Kong Island by a variety of names. It’s the subject of a new book.

15 Jul 2024 - 11:11AM

Detail from a lithograph published in 1848 showing what became known as Flagstaff House (right) in Admiralty and Murray House (lower left). Photo: CUHK Press

Then & Now | ‘A poor man’s nightclub’: the hidden history of Hong Kong’s night markets

Recent attempts to revitalise the city’s after-hours attractions may have been met with a lukewarm response, but Hong Kong’s night markets once played a vital role in the city’s social fabric

11 Jul 2024 - 3:12PM

On This Day | Hong Kong architects praised for revitalising former shophouses – SCMP archive

On this day 10 years ago, the regeneration of the pre-war Green House in Mallory Street and Burrows Street, Wan Chai, wins plaudits.

4 Jul 2024 - 11:18AM

‘Ghost staircase’, outdoor gym: Hong Kong architecture tour opens eyes

New group City Unseen begins a planned series of guided walks with a tour of Prince Edward that reveals curious architectural features and ways residents have repurposed urban spaces.

20 Jun 2024 - 7:48AM

Participants on a City Unseen walking tour of Prince Edward. Photo: Joshua Wolper

Profile | Historian behind Gwulo.com on documenting Hong Kong’s past, and moving on

David Bellis, founder of Gwulo.com, a digital repository of expat memories, talks about documenting Hong Kong and moving to Wales, ahead of his upcoming farewell talk at the Royal Geographical Society.

11 Jun 2024 - 12:57PM

David Bellis, the founder of Hong Kong online historical repository Gwulo.com, tells the Post about charting the course of the city’s development through expatriates’ memories, and why it is time for him to leave. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Letters | Film’s success shows why Hong Kong must invest in creative industries

Readers discuss the benefits of supporting the development of Hong Kong’s film and cultural industries, why we must not give up on waste charging, and the plan to ban the Great Artesian Basin from being used for carbon capture.

4 Jun 2024 - 4:32PM

City of darkness: Kowloon Walled City reimagined by artist using AI

Hong Kong artist Bianca Tse has created whimsical AI images of the notorious Kowloon Walled City, a warren of slum buildings in the city demolished in 1993 and 1994. She talks about what inspired her project.

7 Jun 2024 - 2:31PMvideocam

Video | Remembering Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong’s ‘City of Darkness’

The absence of effective administration and law enforcement allowed the Kowloon Walled City to grow organically.

26 Jun 2024 - 3:49PM

The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once considered the densest settlement in the world.

How the heritage of Tai O, Hong Kong fishing village, is being preserved

With its young people moving away, the culture and history of Tai O on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island were at risk of being forgotten. A non-profit foundation stepped in 15 years ago to help preserve them.

2 May 2024 - 10:07AM

‘A Hong Kong story’: typography show explores Kowloon communities

A new Hong Kong exhibition at Gate33 in Kai Tak’s Airside uses typography to explore the built environments, communities and culture of Wong Tai Sin, San Po Kong, Kowloon City and To Kwa Wan.

25 Apr 2024 - 1:12PM

‘Lotus rock’ temple in Tai Hang, Hong Kong, where worshippers seek mercy

In a quiet corner of Tai Hang, the Lin Fa Kung Temple has been providing solace and serenity to residents of the urban village since 1863.

2 Apr 2024 - 3:37PM

Interior of the Lin Fa Kung Temple in Tai Hang. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Opinion | Don’t be so quick to ‘renew’ Hong Kong at the expense of its heritage

The Urban Renewal Authority’s plan to redevelop the area around Mong Kok flower market is a reminder of the inevitable clash between ‘progress’ and preservation. To maintain the market’s appeal to locals and visitors, minor tweaks should be considered instead of massive overhauls.

24 Mar 2024 - 2:30PM

Blooms are seen on display at Mong Kok flower market on March 15. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Then & Now | Trees, plants are telltale signs of former Hong Kong squatter settlements

The 1.5 million refugees from China’s civil war who flooded post-war Hong Kong were practical folks. The fruit trees and bushes they planted are a legacy of the squatter settlements they once inhabited.

19 Feb 2024 - 7:45AM

Now a Hong Kong university campus, its darker past is of war and prisoners

Nestled in verdant Pok Fu Lam, the University of Chicago’s Hong Kong campus tells the story of the city’s wartime defeat to the Japanese and of its buildings’ subsequent occupants: prisoners.

19 Feb 2024 - 11:37AM

Opinion | See the beauty in Hong Kong’s ‘boring’ housing estates, don’t tear them down

Redevelopment decisions should not be taken lightly, especially with regard to the iconic Choi Hung Estate and Tai Hang Sai Estate, an architectural gem. We should cherish the buildings people are already celebrating and preserve them, while finding meaning and beauty in everyday architecture.

12 Feb 2024 - 5:30AM

Hong Kong’s ‘spooky’ abandoned villages featured in photo exhibition, book

In his new photo book Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong, British urban explorer Stefan Irvine documents ‘eerie’ deserted buildings and furniture found inside them to preserve the memory of them.

16 Jan 2024 - 12:45PM

A photograph taken by Stefan Irvine, the photographer and urban explorer behind “Abandoned Villages of Hong Kong”, in Pun Uk, Yuen Long. Photo: courtesy of Stefan Irvine/Blue Lotus Gallery

In Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong’s past and present meet

The Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter is a photogenic reminder of Hong Kong’s early days, set against the backdrop of the city’s ever-changing present. Antony Dickson captures scenes from daily life there.

12 Feb 2024 - 2:03PM

Can anything save 3 historic Hong Kong villages from the wrecking ball?

A trio of historic Hong Kong ‘squatter’ villages face destruction, destined to be replaced by homogenous residential blocks despite the efforts of historians, architects and academics.

2 Dec 2023 - 9:41AM

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History of Hong Kong districts

Follow us as we take a historical tour of Hong Kong's districts, exploring the intriguing stories behind the city's different neighbourhoods. From Soho before the escalator, and the colonial elite's dancing parties in 1920s Repulse Bay to Hakka farms and prowling tigers in Tsuen Wan's early days, we'll show you a different side to Hong Kong's districts, revealing what they used to be like before the highways and slick skyscrapers appeared.

last updated:

9 September, 2024