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Government House, Upper Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong

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Government House, Upper Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong

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Government House, Upper Albert Road, Central, Hong Kong

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The Government House is located in Government Hill in Central.

The designer of this building was Charles St George Cleverly.  Now it is a building made out of white concrete with two floors.  The building features Neoclassical architecture and Renaissance Revival architecture. For the roof, it features the neoclassical architecture because of the shape.  The neoclassical architecture can be found in Greek shrines and some Roman buildings.  There is also a lantern on top of the building, just like the Court of Final Appeal.  The Government building features the Renaissance Revival architecture because there are arches at the first floor. This feature also does appear in the Court of Final Appeal.  The reason that the Court of Final Appeal and the Government House had so much similarities was because it was built around the same time.

There were no permanent changes in this structure because it didn’t need to be renovated.  Though there were some short changes that occurred.  During World War 2 (1939-1945), the Japanese took over the Government building.  The entire interior and exterior had changed.  The whole exterior was plastered in a mixture of expressionistic and Art Deco styles, making it a building full of Japanese influences.  The Central tower still remained, but it had little details added.  There was an extra platform.  In 1946, it was restored back to its Western Style after the war in 1946.  There were also new gardens added.  This garden opened in 1968.  Some of the features that were added were 2 sculptured stone lions, a swimming pool and a fountain.  Its uses are mostly holding very important agreements and the chief executive of Hong Kong’s home.

This building is a pride of Hong Kong and also a very important part of it.  It has stood for almost 200 years.  To me, this is a pride of Hong Kong and you should definitely visit it as it has experienced a lot and it features a lot of British and Chinese architectural designs.  The last Governor of Hong Kong before the handover was Chris Patten.  After that, all of the four chief executives lived in it except for the first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. Currently, Carrie Lam currently lives in the Government house because she is the current Chief executive.

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Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

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Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

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Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

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I strongly recommend you to visit the Man Mo temple.  This is because this building symbolizes the chinese's traditions and the chinese’s beliefs.  There are a lot of chinese architectural details in it. This temple was built in 1847, by wealthy Chinese merchants.  This temple was mainly built to honor the gods Man Cheong (god of literature) and Mo Tai (god of martial arts). This is a Grade I historic building.  In the olden days, people went to war so they prayed for success.  Nowadays, people pray for success in their academics or literary endeavors.

In concluding my tour, I would highlight Hong Kong has a vast number of symbolic tourist attractions that signifies and contrast the different cultural perspectives. We have only touched the surface today, I would also strongly recommend you to visit some of the other structures in Central and the other districts in Hong Kong. Below is a useful link for you to continue your tour.

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Tsui Hang Village, New World Tower, Queen's Road Central, Central, Hong Kong

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This restaurant serves a very good traditional Chinese food - dim sum.  Also they serve special dishes on special occasions. For example, during Dragon Boat festival, it sells rice dumplings which is a tradition of the festival.  This is a very good opportunity for these people that have never been to Hong Kong to understand our culture.

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Two International Finance Centre, Finance Street, Central, Hong Kong

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The IFC Two is the second tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong.  It is also the 33rd tallest building worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, with a height of 412 meters.  This building is located in Level 19, Two International Finance Centre, 8 Finance St, Central.

This building was designed by Cesar Pelli.  This building is the financial centre in Hong Kong. People all over the world come to Hong Kong and use this place to chat about businesses. This building started in 1996, but it was postponed so it started in 2000 and ended in 2003.

It is modern as most of its exterior is made out of glass. The tops of the building are something that looked like elephant tusks that are flipped and installed that way at the top.  This building plays a big part in Hong Kong as it is mostly used for very important business meetings. Some of which might be representatives of important companies coming to Hong Kong to partner.  This building was completed at the end of 2003.  This building did not have any holes in it as it was too slim to install one.  Installing one might cause the building to collapse because of the lack of balance.  Some buildings have installed holes because of Feng shui.  People believed that you have to put holes in buildings so that dragons from the mountain could go to the sea.  If there wasn’t a hole, the people would get bad luck.

This post-colonial building reflects modernity.  One of the evident examples is the use of glass.  Most modern buildings nowadays use glass as the exterior. Another reason was that it had the airport express so you could just go to IFC Two and ride the express to the airport.  This is a really great transportation system.  There is also a shopping mall and it sells a huge variety of things.

This building is one of the pride of Hong Kong.  It symbolizes greatly about the one country two systems policy. This building brings success to Hong Kong and shapes an excellent future of stability and triumph.

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Legislative Council Complex, Central, Hong Kong

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The Court of Final Appeal, also known as the Old Supreme Court 

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The Court of Final Appeal, also known as the Old Supreme Court 

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The Court of Final Appeal is located at 8 Jackson Road in Central.

This building’s designers were Ingress Bell and Aston Webb.  The building style that the Court of Final Appeal had was the Neoclassic with some Chinese architectural elements.  The western elements that it had were the pediment, the ionic column, lantern, arch and also the statue of Themis. These details were very similar to the ancient Greek and Roman architectural style. However, the architectural style with the greek and Roman style had slight changes when constructing the Court of Final Appeal because of the conditions. This mixed adaptive style is also known as the colonial style.  At the very top of this building, on top of the dome, is a thing called a lantern.  Below that is the dome, which looks something like a bowl that has flipped 180 degrees over.  Below that is the statue of Themis, also known as the “Lady of Justice”  The goddess is blindfolded and holds a scale that is balanced.  On her other hand, she holds a sword and a book.  Below that is the pediment.  A pediment is like the top of one of those Greek shrines.  There is a triangle pointing upwards, and a logo in the triangle.  Below that is an ionic column, in which there are 24 of them. The top of these columns also features the Greek style.  Finally, there are arches in the bottom.  They are like upside down “U”s.  This building was opened in 1912, and served as the supreme court of Hong Kong until 1980, it was used as the legative council. During world war 2 (1939-1945) it was used as the headquarters of the military police during the Japanese occupation.

This culture came to Hong Kong in the first place because the British had won the opium wars and China was forced to give Hong Kong to the British.  The British ruled and shaped Hong Kong until 1997.  This building signifies a lot about the colonial style because of its architectural details.  It hasn’t been renovated much and many of the colonial buildings have been either destroyed or maybe renovated into something completely new.

This is one of the most important buildings in Hong Kong because this is a very important part of Hong Kong.  It has converted its roles a lot of times.  For example, it served as the supreme court from 1912- 1985, when it was changed into the legislative council,  and has also serviced Hong Kong for more than 100 years.

This structure symbolizes law and order.  It symbolises the British Legal system and it has maintained peace and justice for the past 100 years.  This structure will service Hong Kong for another long period of time and will shape an excellent future of stability and order.

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Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong

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The Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts, also known as the Victoria Prison 

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The Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts, also known as the Victoria Prison 

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The Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts is located on 10 Hollywood Road, Central.

This building was built in 1841, a year before the British colony took over.  The architect of this building is Jess Tse.  This building is renovated because of the destruction from World War 2 (1939- 1945).  When it was first built, it had the chinese architectural designs. If you take a closer look at the picture of the building in 1841. You will notice that the tops of the roof of the prison is like a “V” but flipped upside down.  This is one of the famous chinese designs and symbolizes greatly the  architecture of the chinese before the British took over.  Another feature are the windows in this building. Unlike the Final Court of Appeal which had glass in their windows of the court, but if you look closer to the windows in the prison, you will see no glass in the windows.  This is another special feature about the traditional chinese architects.   This place was held for debtors and people awaiting trials.

When the British colony took over Hong Kong, they split the prisoners according to their sex, age, offenses, punishments and more. In 1925, it moved to the Hong Kong Prison (nowadays known as the Stanley Prison).  However, the prison was full at the time and some of the prisoners had to be moved back to the Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts.  In WW2 it was occupied by the Japanese and was damaged heavily in 1941. It was repaired in 1946.  Nowadays, it is used as an exhibition, making people understand a prisoner’s life in Hong Kong in the 19th Century.  It is also known as Tai Kwun - Centre for Heritage and Arts. Now it looks like a building made out of white concrete. It also has carvings that mirror the colonial times.  As the building was rebuilt in 1946, the time of the colonial influence had a major impact on the design of the building. Some of the design features that it has arches, just like the Court of Final Appeal.  The roof of the prison now looks like the ones in the pre-colonial times, it has the “V” Shaped roof.  If you look closely, you will realise the prison is symmetrical.

It signifies a lot about Hong Kong before the British took over.  One of the most evident examples is the architecture.  As I had mentioned earlier, it has a V shaped roof and also there is no glass in the windows.  This building has stood for almost 170 years.