Central District

Where Commerce, Empire, And Modernity Converge

For reasons rooted as much in geography as in history, Central District emerged in the mid-nineteenth century as the focal point through which the ambitions of empire and the instincts of commerce were expressed in Hong Kong. Its origins can be traced directly to the aftermath of the First Opium War, concluded by the Treaty of Nanking. With the cession of Hong Kong Island to Britain in 1842, Central—then little more than a narrow strip of reclaimed shoreline—was rapidly developed as the administrative and commercial nucleus of the new colony.

By the 1850s and 1860s, trading houses and government offices had established a durable presence along the waterfront, reflecting both the expansion of global trade and Britain’s determination to anchor its influence in the region. Over subsequent decades, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the district consolidated its role as a financial hub, its architecture mirroring the confidence of empire.

Yet Central is not merely a relic of its nineteenth-century foundations. In the decades following the Second World War, and especially after the 1980s, it transformed into a vertical city of glass and steel. Institutions such as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and landmarks like the International Finance Centre now define its skyline, reinforcing its position as a gateway between China and the global economy.

Government House

Built in 1855 and extended by the Japanese during their four years of rule in Hong Kong this charming neo-classical building served as the residence for 25 of Hong Kong’s Governors. When the British left in 1997 the building was abandoned, but beginning in 2006 the building resumed its purpose. Now it once again houses Hong Kong’s political leader, this time the Chief Executive of the SAR who would, no doubt, sympathize with the sentiment of the British Governor of 1919-25, Sir Reginald E Stubbs, who advised keeping any leanings of the local population toward democracy ‘within the bounds of reason’. It remains to be seen whether it will host the luminaries it has in days gone by, counting among its visitors the yet to be crowned Tsar Nicolas II, and the former US President Ulysses Grant.

The Tin Hau and Man Mo Temples

One of the most striking facets of Hong Kong is that a city that appears so thoroughly modern preserves so many small temples and functions as one of the de facto centers of the Chinese art of Feng Shui. The two worlds may not be as separate as they appear and many of Hong Kong’s landmark buildings have been designed with feng shui principles in mind. None of the buildings, however, can compete with a site near the Lung Cheung Road Lookout, on the Kowloon Peninsula, where they say the dragon energy that has ensured Hong Kong’s success is thickest. To get a feel for the original culture that flourishes yet in Hong Kong then visit a Tin Hau or Hung Sin Temple, both being gods of the sea. The Tin Hau Temple in Causeway Bay, built initially in the early eighteenth century, is still in the hands of the family who put it up. Just around the corner is the Lotus Temple – a terrific example of a small local temple where if you back up to admire the view you’ll bump into a pillar. The Lotus Temple has monks, the delightful coiled cone incense, and is a fine place to see how ancestor worship, religious worship, and scholarship all come together – in this Buddhist temple, in the spirit of Pascal’s Wager, there is also a statue of Confucius in one of the side temples on the way up. The best-known Daoist temple is the Man Mo Temple, a Hong Kong landmark that is popular with everyone, regardless of whether they are Daoist or not. The Temple was constructed during the middle of the nineteenth century and dedicated to the twin gods of literature and the martial arts – a telling sign of how important those two attributes became in Chinese culture is that positions in the imperial governments were often divided along those lines; and if you place the Chinese characters for ‘literature’ and ‘martial’ side by side the resultant character means refined.