Hong Kong Island - Central District (Victoria)

Victoria, now better known as the Central District, is the official capital of Hong Kong and its throbbing business center, situated half way along the north coast of Hong Kong Island. The price of land in this area has soared to astronomical heights, and it is now a district of high-rise blocks occupied by banks and commercial firms which have almost completely displaced the handsome old buildings of the early colonial period.

Looking round the streets and squares between the Mandarin and Hilton Hotels, for example, it is difficult to imagine that right up to the 1960s this was an area of whitewashed four- and five-story buildings with verandas. The tower blocks which now predominate are gradually spreading and insidiously swallowing up the old-fashioned offices and business premises along the shores of the harbor.

The only surviving buildings of colonial days are the Supreme Court opposite the War Memorial; the old Officers' Mess, a long gray two-story building with verandas to the east of the Hilton Hotel; St John's Cathedral (1847-49) opposite the lower station of the Victoria Peak Tramway; and Flagstaff House with its Museum of Teaware. Also worth seeing, though not presently open to the public, is Government House on Upper Albert Road, the former residence of the British governor, which is to become a museum illustrating the history of the colonial period in Hong Kong. Southwest of Government House are the Zoological and Botanical Gardens, separated by Albany Road. Early in the morning Chinese can be seen here indulging in the traditional sport of shadow-boxing.

Also among the oldest buildings is the luxurious Mandarin Oriental Hotel near Prince's Building, which is decorated with ceramic reliefs and noted for its high-quality shops.

West along Queen's Road the street scene, with its open shop fronts, takes on an increasingly Chinese aspect. It has been decided, however, to pull down these old buildings, and some of them have already gone. To the southwest, branching off uphill from the main street, are numerous steep and narrow stepped lanes lined with tiny stalls and shops offering an unimaginable array of goods for sale. Particularly picturesque is Ladder Street with its junk shops; and curios of every kind are to be found in Cat Street, properly named Upper and Lower Lascar Row. It is also worth paying a visit to the two Taoist temples at nearby 124 Hollywood Road, the Man Mo and Lit Shing Kung Temples.