A Day in Central
Morning
From Des Voeux Road take the tram westwards from Central and jump off outside the handsome colonial building housing
Western Market
. Browse among the ground floor
trinkets, select a pattern from the many bolts of material on the first
floor and enjoy excellent dim sum at the upstairs restaurants.
The streets around
nearby Bonham Strand contain dried seafood shops, Chinese apothecaries,
and paper offering shops. Head uphill to the atmospheric Man Mo Temple, then east past the antique shops of Hollywood Road, browsing as you go.
Break for lunch or a drink in one of the many restaurants and bars on the streets to the south (SoHo) or below Hollywood Road in Lan Kwai Fong.
Afternoon
Check out the fresh produce market stalls around the
Escalator
and Graham Street before hitting
Statue Square
, the Island’s colonial heart.
Choose to visit the
up-market malls
or for some peace and harbour views
head to Queen’s Pier, or for altitude and a spectacular city
perspective go up to the viewing gallery high in the imposing,
needle-sleek
Bank of China Building
.
Quiet and shade are found in the nearby
Hong Kong Park
.
Colonial Relics
St John’s Cathedral
It
may resemble a parish church more than a cathedral but St John’s,
completed in 1850, is the oldest Anglican church in east Asia.
George VI Statue
In
the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, the statue of King George VI was
erected in 1941, to commemorate 100 years of British rule.
Colonial Street Names
Most
colonial buildings have been sacrificed to new development, but the
colonial legacy is preserved in many of the roads named after royals
(Queen’s Road), politicians (Peel Street), military officers (D’Aguilar,
Pedder) and public servants (Bonham, Des Voeux).
Old Letter Box
A
few traditional green, cast-iron post boxes bearing the British Royal
Cipher remain. There is one at the northern end of Statue Square.
Former Military Hospital
Broken
into separate units – some abandoned – the huge, grand old building
between Bowen and Borrett roads used to serve as a Military Hospital.
Hollywood Road Police Station
Bastions of colonial law and order, the Police Station and the old Victoria Prison still stand.
Colonial Police Station
Flagstaff House
Built
in the mid-1840s, Flag-staff House is one of the oldest colonial
buildings on the island and today houses the free teaware museum.
Duddell Street
While not spectacular, the gas lamps and old steps of Duddell Street date back to the 1870s.
Legco Building
The
elegant Neo-Classical Legislative building, completed in 1911,
originally served as Hong Kong’s Supreme Court and now functions as Hong
Kong’s would-be parliament.
Legco Building
Mission Etrangères
The
handsome former French Mission building (built 1917) is Hong Kong’s
Court of Final Appeal, though that’s not an apt name given that the
court has referred some legal wrangles to Beijing.
