1.
Central, Hong Kong
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Central is the central business district of Hong Kong. It is located in Central and Western District, on the shore of Hong Kong Island, across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui. The area was the heart of Victoria City, although that name is used today. As the central district of Hong Kong, it is the area where many multinational financial services corporations have their headquarters. Consulates general and consulates of countries are also located in this area, as is Government Hill. The area of Chung Wan, named Central in English, was one of the districts in Victoria City. The English name Central became prevalent after the Island Line of the MTR metro system was built in the early 1980s, on some older maps, it and the area to its west are named Kwan Tai Lo below Victoria Peak. It formed a channel, Chung Mun, with Tsim Sha Tsui, the eastern part of Central District has been known as Admiralty since the completion of Admiralty Station in the early 1980s. Central is located on the shore of Hong Kong Island, across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui. It is bordered in the west by Sheung Wan, with the border being along Aberdeen Street and it is bordered in the east by Admiralty, an eastern extension of the central business district. As such, Admiralty is sometimes considered a part of Central, Central is bordered in the south by Mid-levels, an area halfway up Victoria Peak. The boundary between Central and Mid-levels is not clearly defined, for district council elections purposes, the area, together with Admiralty, correspond roughly to the Chung Wan constituency. The boundaries of such constituencies may be subject to modification, the British landed on Possession Point of Sheung Wan in 1841. They soon decided to build a city on the north coast of Hong Kong Island, and the present-day Central was chosen to house major military facilities and an administrative centre. The area soon attracted both Westerners and Chinese to trade and live in the area, and a Canton Bazaar was built between Cochrane Street and Graham Street in 1842, the area was soon zoned for Westerners only, and the Chinese residents were restricted to Sheung Wan. The area was dominated by the presence of Victoria City. The popularity of this area would also boost the population of Hong Kong from 5,000 in 1841 to 24,000 in 1848, Government House and other Hong Kong Government buildings were completed during this period on Government Hill. Various barracks, naval base and residence of Commander, Flagstaff House were built on the east end of the district, between 1860 and 1880 the construction of City Hall, Theatre Royal and other financial structures made Central the heart of Hong Kong
2.
Queen's Road, Hong Kong
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Queens Road is a collection of roads along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong, within the limit of Victoria City. It was the first road in Hong Kong, constructed by the British between 1841 and 1843, spanning across Victoria City from Shek Tong Tsui to Wan Chai. At various points along the route, Queens Road marks the shoreline before land reclamation projects permanently extended land into Victoria Harbour. The four sections of the roads, from west to east, are respectively, Queens Road West, Queens Road Central, Queensway, the road was originally 4 miles long. The Royal Engineers built the first section to Sai Ying Pun with the help of 300 coolies from Kowloon and this section of Queens Road ran parallel to the beach where Sir Henry Pottinger set up his tent in 1842. Originally named Main Street, it was officially renamed Queens Road in March 1842 after Queen Victoria of the British Empire and it was mistakenly translated into Chinese as 皇后, meaning queen consort. When Hong Kong was founded as a British Crown Colony in 1842, the development of this island had been haphazard, winding paths connected the Hong Kong Club for tai-pans and ran along squatter huts, military encampments and taverns. The first governors built their homes along Queens Road, subsequently, instead of a properly paved road, newcomers to Hong Kong found Queens Road as a pocked dirt path that was prone to dust clouds and puddles of mud. On Christmas Day 1878, a fire out and destroyed a large area of the slums along Queens Road. An eyewitness account was recorded by Constance Gordon-Cumming in his 1886 book Wanderings in China, the fire raged for 17 hours and burnt down 400 houses across a 10 acres area. Thousands of residents were left homeless, nevertheless, the devastated ruins were recycled for reclamation adjacent to the area. After the Great Fire of 1878, Queens Road has shrugged its past and become home to some of Hong Kongs most expensive land, Queens Road West runs from Sheung Wan to Shek Tong Tsui. It begins in Sheung Wan at the junction with Possession Street and ends where it meets the coastal road, Queens Road Central runs from Central to Sheung Wan. It was one of the first roads, along with Hollywood Road to be built by the British, the road became an important infrastructure to Queens Town, which was later renamed the City of Victoria. Queens Road Central intersects with the similarly named Queen Victoria Street, at the western end of Queens Road Central, the name changes to Queens Road West. At the eastern end, it merges with Des Voeux Road Central to become Queensway at the junction of Garden Road. When Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1942 to 1945, Queens Road Central was briefly renamed Meiji-dori, after Emperor Meiji, Queensway was originally the westernmost section of Queens Road East. After the development of Admiralty as a business district next to Central and it links Queens Road Central to Queens Road East and Hennessy Road
3.
Street
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A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact. A street can be as simple as a patch of dirt. Portions may also be smoothed with asphalt, embedded with rails, originally the word street simply meant a paved road. Examples of streets include pedestrian streets, alleys, and city-centre streets too crowded for road vehicles to pass, conversely, highways and motorways are types of roads, but few would refer to them as streets. The word street has its origins in the Latin strata, it is related to stratum. Ancient Greek stratos means army, Greeks originally built roads to move their armies, old English applied the word to Roman roads in Britain such as Ermine Street, Watling Street, etc. Later it acquired a meaning of straggling village, which were often laid out on the verges of Roman roads. In the Middle Ages, a road was a way people travelled, the street is a public easement, one of the few shared between all sorts of people. As a component of the environment as ancient as human habitation. Its roles are as numerous and diverse as its ever-changing cast of characters, streets can be loosely categorized as main streets and side streets. Main streets are usually broad with a high level of activity. Commerce and public interaction are more visible on main streets, side streets are quieter, often residential in use and character, and may be used for vehicular parking. Circulation, or less broadly, transportation, is perhaps a streets most visible use, the unrestricted movement of people and goods within a city is essential to its commerce and vitality, and streets provide the physical space for this activity. In the interest of order and efficiency, an effort may be made to different types of traffic. Le Corbusier, for one, perceived an ever-stricter segregation of traffic as an affirmation of social order—a desirable. To this end, proposals were advanced to build vertical streets where vehicles, pedestrians. Such an arrangement, it was said, would allow for denser development in the future
4.
Gas lighting
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Gas lighting is production of artificial light from combustion of a gaseous fuel, such as hydrogen, methane, carbon monoxide, propane, butane, acetylene, ethylene, or natural gas. Before electricity became widespread and economical to allow for general public use, gas was the most popular method of outdoor and indoor lighting in cities. Early gas lights were ignited manually, but many designs are self-igniting. In addition, some urban historical districts retain gas street lighting, early lighting fuels consisted of olive oil, beeswax, fish oil, whale oil, sesame oil, nut oil, and similar substances. These were the most commonly used fuels until the late 18th century, chinese records dating back 1,700 years note the use of natural gas in the home for light and heat via bamboo pipes to the dwellings. Public illumination preceded the discovery and adoption of gaslight by centuries, in 1417, Sir Henry Barton, Mayor of London, ordained lanterns with lights to be hung out on the winter evenings between Hallowtide and Candlemasse. Paris was first lit by an order issued in 1524, and, in the beginning of the 16th century, in coal mining, accumulating and escaping gases were known originally for their adverse effects rather than their useful qualities. Coal miners described two types of gases, one called the choke damp and the fire damp. In 1667, a paper detailing the effects of gases was entitled, A Description of a Well and Earth in Lancashire taking Fire. Imparted by Thomas Shirley, Esq an eye-witness, stephen Hales was the first person who procured a flammable fluid from the actual distillation of coal. His experiments with this object are related in the first volume of his Vegetable Statics and these results seemed to have passed without notice for several years. This paper contained some striking facts relating to the flammability and other properties of coal-gas, the principal properties of coal-gas were demonstrated to different members of the Royal Society, and showed that after keeping the gas some time, it still retained its flammability. The scientists of the time still saw no purpose for it. John Clayton, in an extract from a letter in the Philosophical Transactions for 1735, calls gas the spirit of coal and this spirit happened to catch fire, by coming in contact with a candle as it escaped from a fracture in one of his distillatory vessels. By preserving the gas in bladders, he entertained his friends, william Murdoch was the first to exploit the flammability of gas for the practical application of lighting. He worked for Matthew Boulton and James Watt at their Soho Foundry steam engine works in Birmingham and he first lit his own house in Redruth, Cornwall in 1792. In 1798, he used gas to light the building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting. One of the employees at the Soho Foundry, Samuel Clegg, Clegg left his job to set up his own gas lighting business, the Gas Lighting and Coke Company
5.
British Hong Kong
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British Hong Kong was the period during which Hong Kong was under British Crown rule from 1841 to 1997. It was established as a Crown colony and later designated a British Dependent Territory in 1981, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Great Britain by the Qing dynasty of China after the First Anglo-Chinese War. The Kowloon Peninsula was added to the colony after the Second Anglo-Chinese War, finally, in 1898, the New Territories were added under a 99-year lease. The transfer has been credited as marking the end of the British Empire, in 1836, the Manchu Qing government undertook a major policy review of the opium trade. Lin Zexu volunteered to take on the task of suppressing opium, in March 1839, he became Special Imperial Commissioner in Canton, where he ordered the foreign traders to surrender their opium stock. He confined the British to the Canton Factories and cut off their supplies, Chief Superintendent of Trade, Charles Elliot, complied with Lins demands to secure a safe exit for the British, with the costs involved to be resolved between the two governments. When Elliot promised that the British government would pay for their stock, the merchants surrendered their 20,283 chests of opium. In September 1839, the British Cabinet decided that the Chinese should be made to pay for the destruction of British property, an expeditionary force was placed under Elliot and his cousin, Rear Admiral George Elliot, as joint plenipotentiaries in 1840. Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston stressed to the Chinese Imperial Government that the British Government did not question Chinas right to prohibit opium, but it objected to the way this was handled. He viewed the sudden strict enforcement as laying a trap for the traders. In 1841, Elliot negotiated with Lins successor, Qishan, in the Convention of Chuenpi during the First Opium War, on 20 January, Elliot announced the conclusion of preliminary arrangements, which included the cession of Hong Kong Island and its harbour to the British Crown. On 26 January, the Union Jack was raised on Hong Kong and Commodore James Bremer, commander-in-chief of British forces in China, on 29 August 1842, the cession was formally ratified in the Treaty of Nanking, which ceded Hong Kong in perpetuity to Britain. The treaty failed to satisfy British expectations of an expansion of trade and profit. In October 1856, Chinese authorities in Canton detained the Arrow, the Consul in Canton, Harry Parkes, claimed the hauling down of the flag and arrest of the crew were an insult of very grave character. Parkes and Sir John Bowring, the 4th Governor of Hong Kong, in March 1857, Palmerston appointed Lord Elgin as Plenipotentiary with the aim of securing a new and satisfactory treaty. A French expeditionary force joined the British to avenge the execution of a French missionary in 1856, in 1860, the capture of the Taku Forts and occupation of Beijing led to the Treaty of Tientsin and Convention of Peking. In the Treaty of Tientsin, the Chinese accepted British demands to open ports, navigate the Yangtze River. During the conflict, the British occupied the Kowloon Peninsula, where the land was valuable training and resting ground
6.
Portuguese Macau
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Portuguese Macau was the period of Macau as a Portuguese colony and later, an overseas province under Portuguese administration from 1557 to 1999. Macau was both the first and last European colony in China, Portuguese traders first settled in Macau in the 16th century. In 1557 Macau was rented to Portugal by the Chinese empire as a trading port, the Portuguese administered the city under Chinese authority and sovereignty until 1887, when Macau became a colony of the Portuguese Empire. Sovereignty over Macau was transferred back to China on 20 December 1999, the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration on the Question of Macau and the Macau Basic Law stipulate that Macau operate with a high degree of autonomy until at least 2049, fifty years after the transfer. China–Portugal relations Portuguese Empire Official website of the Portuguese Government of Macau Media related to History of Macau at Wikimedia Commons
7.
Street light
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A street light, light pole, lamppost, street lamp, light standard, or lamp standard is a raised source of light on the edge of a road or walkway. Modern lamps may also have light-sensitive photocells that activate automatically when light is or is not needed, dusk, dawn and this function in older lighting systems could have been performed with the aid of a solar dial. Many street light systems are being connected underground instead of wiring from one utility post to another, at that time oil lamps were used predominantly as they provided a long-lasting and moderate flame. The Romans had a word lanternarius, which was a term for a responsible for lighting the oil lamps in front of their villas. Before incandescent lamps, candle lighting was employed in cities, the earliest lamps required that a lamplighter tour the town at dusk, lighting each of the lamps. According to some sources, illumination was ordered in London in 1417 by Sir Henry Barton, in 1524, Paris house owners were required to have lanterns with candles lit in front of their houses at night, but the law was often ignored. Following the invention of lanterns with glass windows, which improved the quantity of light. Still, in 1662, it was a practice for travelers to hire a lantern-bearer if they had to move at night through the dark. Lantern bearers were still common in Paris until 1789, in 1667, under King Louis XIV, the royal government began installing lanterns on all the streets. There were three thousand in place by 1669, and twice as many by 1729, lanterns with glass windows were suspended from a cord over the middle of the street at a height of twenty feet and were placed twenty yards apart. A much-improved oil lantern, called a réverbère, was introduced between 1745 and 1749 and these lamps were attached to the top of lampposts, by 1817, there were 4694 lamps on the Paris streets. During the French Revolution, the found that the lampposts were a convenient place to hang aristocrats. The first widespread system of lighting used piped coal gas as fuel. William Murdoch was the first to use the flammability of gas for the application of lighting. He first lit his own house in Redruth, Cornwall in 1792, in 1798, he used gas to light the main building of the Soho Foundry and in 1802 lit the outside in a public display of gas lighting, the lights astonishing the local population. In Paris, gas lighting was first demonstrated in November 1800 at a residence on the rue Saint-Dominique, and was installed on a covered shopping street. The gaslights installed on the boulevards and city monuments in the 19th century gave the city the nickname The City of Light, the first public street lighting with gas was demonstrated in Pall Mall, London on January 28,1807 by Frederick Albert Winsor. In 1812, Parliament granted a charter to the London and Westminster Gas Light and Coke Company, less than two years later, on December 31,1813, the Westminster Bridge was lit by gas
8.
Coal gas
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Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. Town gas is a general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers. Town gas was supplied to households via municipally-owned piped distribution systems, originally created as a by-product of the coking process, its use developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries tracking the industrial revolution and urbanization. Facilities where the gas was produced were known as a manufactured gas plant or a gasworks. The production process is distinct, both physically and chemically, from used to create a range of gaseous fuels known variously as manufactured gas, syngas, hygas, Dowson gas. Manufactured gas can be made by two processes, carbonization or gasification, carbonization refers to the devolatilization of an organic feedstock to yield gas and char. Gasification is the process of subjecting a feedstock to chemical reactions that produce gas, the first process used was the carbonization and partial pyrolysis of coal. The off gases liberated in the high-temperature carbonization of coal in coke ovens were collected, scrubbed and used as fuel, Coke plants are typically associated with metallurgical facilities such as smelters, and blast furnaces, while gas works typically served urban areas. A facility used to manufacture coal gas, carburetted water gas, in the early years of MGP operations, the goal of a utility gas works was to produce the greatest amount of illuminating gas. The illuminating power of a gas was related to amount of soot-forming hydrocarbons dissolved in it and these hydrocarbons gave the gas flame its characteristic bright yellow color. Gas works would typically use oily bituminous coals as feedstock and these coals would give off large amounts of volatile hydrocarbons into the coal gas, but would leave behind a crumbly, low-quality coke not suitable for metallurgical processes. Coal or coke oven gas typically had a value between 10 and 20 MJ/m³, with values around 20 MJ/m³ being typical. The advent of electric lighting forced utilities to search for markets for manufactured gas. MGPs that once produced gas almost exclusively for lighting shifted their efforts towards supplying gas primarily for heating and cooking, fuel gas for industrial use was made using producer gas technology. Producer gas is made by blowing air through an incandescent fuel bed in a gas producer, the reaction of fuel with insufficient air for total combustion produces carbon monoxide, this reaction is exothermic and self-sustaining. It was discovered that steam to the input air of a gas producer would increase the calorific value of the fuel gas by enriching it with CO. Producer gas has a very low value of 3.7 to 5. The incandescent fuel bed would be blasted with air followed by steam
9.
Declared monuments of Hong Kong
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Declared monuments of Hong Kong are places, structures or buildings legally declared to receive the highest level of protection. In Hong Kong, declaring a monument requires consulting the Antiquities Advisory Board, as of 20 May 2016, there were 114 declared monuments in Hong Kong. Under Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance, some buildings are classified as Grades I, II and III historic buildings. There was no link between graded buildings and monuments. As of July 2007,607 buildings had been graded,54 of these, as of August 2007, of 151 buildings classified as Grade I, only 28 pre-war buildings have been declared monuments since 1980. On 26 November 2008, the Antiquities Advisory Board announced that the declaration of monuments would be related to the grading of historic buildings, as of February 2013, there were 101 declared monuments, of which 57 were owned by the Government and the remaining 44 by private bodies. The Antiquities Authority may declare a building facing a risk a proposed monument. A Declaration of proposed status is valid for twelve months and may be extended, however the affected owner may object to the proposed status. Five buildings were declared proposed monuments between 1982 and 2012, Ohel Leah Synagogue, Morrison Building, Jessville, King Yin Lei and Ho Tung Gardens
10.
Starbucks
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Starbucks Corporation is an American coffee company and coffeehouse chain. Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in 1971. As of November 2016, it operates 23,768 locations worldwide, many stores sell pre-packaged food items, hot and cold sandwiches, and drinkware including mugs and tumblers, select Starbucks Evenings locations offer beer, wine, and appetizers. Starbucks-brand coffee, ice cream, and bottled cold coffee drinks are sold at grocery stores. Starbucks first became profitable in Seattle in the early 1980s, the first Starbucks location outside North America opened in Tokyo in 1996, overseas properties now constitute almost one-third of its stores. The company opened an average of two new locations daily between 1987 and 2007, on December 1,2016, Howard Schultz announced he would resign as CEO effective in April 2017 and will be replaced by Kevin Johnson. The company took the name of the mate in the book Moby-Dick, Starbuck, after considering Cargo House. Bowker recalls that Terry Heckler, with whom Bowker owned an advertising agency, the founders brainstormed a list of words beginning with st. Someone pulled out an old mining map of the Cascade Range and saw a mining town named Starbo, Bowker said, Moby-Dick didnt have anything to do with Starbucks directly, it was only coincidental that the sound seemed to make sense. The first Starbucks store was located in Seattle at 2000 Western Avenue from 1971–1976 and this cafe was later moved to 1912 Pike Place, never to be relocated again. During this time, the only sold roasted whole coffee beans. The only brewed coffee served in the store were free samples, during their first year of operation, they purchased green coffee beans from Peets, then began buying directly from growers. In 1984, the owners of Starbucks, led by Jerry Baldwin. During the 1980s, total sales of coffee in the US were falling, by 1986, the company operated six stores in Seattle and had only just begun to sell espresso coffee. In 1987, the owners sold the Starbucks chain to former manager Howard Schultz. In the same year, Starbucks opened its first locations outside Seattle at Waterfront Station in Vancouver, British Columbia, by 1989,46 stores existed across the Northwest and Midwest and annually, Starbucks was roasting over 2,000,000 pounds of coffee. At the time of its public offering on the stock market in June 1992, Starbucks had 140 outlets, with a revenue of US$73.5 million. The companys market value was US$271 million by this time, the 12% portion of the company that was sold raised around US$25 million for the company, which facilitated a doubling of the number of stores over the next two years
11.
Aberdeen Street
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Aberdeen Street is a border street dividing Sheung Wan and Central on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It ascends from Queens Road Central to Caine Road in the Mid-levels, the street is named after George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Foreign Secretary at the time of the cession of Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom in 1842. South of Hollywood Road was the Alice Memorial Hospital and the College of Medicine where Sun Yat-sen graduated with distinction in 1892, after the college was merged into the University of Hong Kong, the hospital was also moved to Bonham Road and renamed to Nethersole Hospital. After reclamation of island north, Aberdeen Street was extended in the north by Wing Kut Street, the following list follows a north-south order. Indicates the western side of the street, while indicates the eastern side, > Junction with Queens Road Central This section is a ladder street > intersection with Wellington Street Lin Heung Tea House Located at 160-164 Wellington Street, at the corner with Aberdeen Street. The restaurant opened in 1928 and changed several times before opening at its present location. It serves dim sum for breakfast and lunch and traditional Cantonese dishes for dinner, > junction with Kau U Fong Lan Kwai Fong Hotel Located at No.3 Kau U Fong, at the corner with Aberdeen Street. Despite the name, it is not located at Lan Kwai Fong, > junction with Wa On Lane > junction with Gough Street > junction with Gage Street Original site of the school where Yang Quyun was assassinated by Qing agents in 1911. Located at No.52 Gage Street, at the corner with Aberdeen Street, a marker, part of the Dr Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail is located in Aberdeen Street. The site is included in the Central and Western Heritage Trail. > junction with Sam Ka Lane > intersection with Hollywood Road PMQ The compound occupies the block west of Aberdeen Street and it is located on the site of the former Central School. The school had established in 1862 at Gough Street and moved to the Aberdeen Street location in 1889. At that time, the school was one of the largest and most expensive buildings in Hong Kong and it was renamed Queens College in 1894. The campus was destroyed during World War II, and the school was subsequently relocated, the buildings at Aberdeen Street were demolished in 1948 and the Quarters were opened in 1951. They were completely vacated in 2000 and it has been revitalized as a creative hub for local design talents in 2014. N. A gatepost of the remains in front of the building on Caine Road. St. 41–55, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol.44
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