Noon-Day Gun (Jardine's Gun)

On the stroke of noon every day, opposite the Excelsior Hotel, a brief but historically significant event takes place: after a symbolic chime of a bell, a liveried gunner fires a shot from a cannon to give the official time signal for Hong Kong.

This firing of a cannon goes back to the time when the firm of Jardine Matheson and Co., which still exists, was the colony's largest trading company. After moving its head offices from Canton and Macau to Hong Kong when "Lot No. 1" (actually on the opposite side of the street, immediately in front of the Excelsior Hotel) came up for auction, the firm played a large part in making Hong Kong one of the world's leading financial centers.

The obligation to fire the cannon goes back to a sentence imposed on the firm by the British governor. To protect their tea-clippers, Jardine Matheson kept their own company of troops, and whenever one of the ships with a taipan (important businessman) on board reached Hong Kong harbor after a dangerous voyage through pirate-infested waters the cannon was fired to greet it, even though this was against regulations.