Wan Chai
Wan Chai is located in the western part of Wan Chai District on the northern shore of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is bounded by Canal Road to the east, Arsenal Street to the west, and Bowen Road to the south. The area north of Gloucester Road is often called Wan Chai North.
Wan Chai is one of the busiest commercial areas in Hong Kong with offices of many small and medium-sized companies. Wan Chai North features office towers, parks, hotels and an international conference and exhibition centre. Wan Chai is also well known for its famous night life which has evolved over decades. As one of the first areas developed in Hong Kong, the locale is densely populated but facing urban decay. The government has undertaken several urban renewal projects in recent years. There are various landmarks and skyscrapers within the area, most notably the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Central Plaza and Hopewell Centre.
Names
Wan Chai originally began as Ha Wan, literally meaning "a bottom ring" or "lower circuit". As one of the earliest developed areas in Hong Kong along the Victoria Harbour, Central, Sheung Wan, Sai Wan and Wan Chai are collectively known as the four rings by the locals. Wan Chai literally means "a cove" in Cantonese, from the shape of its coastal line; however, owing to drastic city development and continual land reclamation, the area is no longer a cove.History
Wan Chai was the first home to many Chinese villagers living along the undisturbed coastlines in proximity to Hung Shing Temple. Most of them were fishermen, who worked around the area near Hung Shing Temple overlooking the entire harbour. Hung Shing Ye, the God of the Sea, was one of the deities worshipped by the locals.British Colony (from 1842)
With the growth of the British Hong Kong administration, centred in old Victoria, Wan Chai attracted those on the fringes of society, such as "coolie" workers, who came to live on Queen's Road East. A focal point of development at that time was Spring Gardens, a red-light zone.By the 1850s, the area was already becoming a Chinese residential area. There were dockyards on Ship Street and McGregor Street for building and repairing ships. The edge of Sun Street, Moon Street and Star Street was the original site of the first power station in Hong Kong, operated by the Hongkong Electric Company, which began supplying power in 1890.
One of the first waterfront hospitals was the Seaman's Hospital, built in 1843, which was funded by the British merchant group Jardine's. It was then sold to the British Royal Navy in 1873 and subsequently redeveloped into the Royal Naval Hospital. After the Second World War, the hospital was revitalised as the Ruttonjee Hospital and became one of the main public hospitals in Hong Kong.
The district was home to several well-known schools. One of these schools was established by the famous traditional teacher, Mo Dunmei. Started as a shushu in 1919, the school was renamed Dunmei School in 1934 after him. It taught classical Chinese writings and Confucian ethics.
In 1936, the Chinese Methodist Church moved its building from Caine Road, Mid-levels Central, to Hennessy Road, Wanchai, a thoroughfare of the district running from west to east. This church building became the landmark of the district. In 1998, this building was demolished and replaced by a 23-storey building.
Second World War and the Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)
During the Japanese occupation in the early 1940s, many bombardments took place in Wan Chai. There were abundant incidents of cannibalism, starvation, torture and abuses of the local population by the Japanese soldiers, including the illegal use of child labour. Senior residents could recall vividly how they survived the hardships: this oral history became an important, first-hand source of the harsh living conditions in Hong Kong under the Japanese period. The Dunmei school was closed during the Japanese occupation period. After the war, the school continued to provide Chinese education for children from families of higher income.Post-war development (from 1945)
During the 1950s, the pro-Communist underground cell network Hailiushe established their headquarters at the rooftop of a multi-story house on Spring Garden Lane. This group was successfully raided by the Hong Kong Police.Prostitution had been one of the oldest occupations in Wan Chai. There are numerous historical accounts of women trading sexual services for western merchandise, especially with sailors from trading ships visiting this area. In the 1960s, Wan Chai became legendary for its exotic night life, especially for the US servicemen resting there during the War in Vietnam. Despite rapid changes of Wan Chai's demography due to reclamation and redevelopment, the presence of sex workers operating among ordinary residential areas has continued to be a distinctive feature. Some of the lifestyle was illustrated in past movies such as The World of Suzie Wong.
Transfer of sovereignty to China (PRC)
Wan Chai's HKCEC has been home to major political and economic events. It was the site of the Hong Kong handover ceremony in 1997, in which the last governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, formally concluded the British chapter and transferred Hong Kong to China. The WTO Ministerial Conference in 2005 was also one of the largest international events hosted in Hong Kong, with delegates from 148 countries participating.In May 2009, 300 guests and staff members at the Metropark Hotel in Wan Chai were quarantined, suspected of being infected or in contact with the H1N1 virus during the global outbreak of swine flu. A 25-year-old Mexican man who had stayed at the hotel was later found to have caught the viral infection. He had traveled to Hong Kong from Mexico via Shanghai.
Reclamation
Wan Chai's coastline has been extended outwards after a series of land reclamation schemes. Early in 1841, the coastline was located at Queen's Road East. The first reclamation took place and new land was sold to The project was privately funded and the government did not take part. Soon after, in 1858, the Minister and his salesmen sold the land back to after Sir Robert Brown BlackThe next reclamation project in Wan Chai was the Praya East Reclamation Scheme. The coastline was extended to today's Gloucester Road. The reclamation after World War II from 1965 to 1972 pushed the coastline further out to the areas around Convention Avenue and The 1990s Wan Chai Development project added additional land, on which the current HKCEC stands today.
Community life
Arts and culture
Wan Chai is a major hub of foreign and Chinese cultural institutions in Hong Kong. It is home to the French Alliance Francaise, German Goethe-Institut and the British Council. Near the waterfront, there are the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Hong Kong Arts Centre, two of the most popular venues for theatrical and cultural performances in Hong Kong. The Academy for Performing Arts is a higher education institution that trains musicians, performers, actors and dancers, as well as a public venue for drama, concerts, dance, and musicals productions. Every year the academy produces a number of Broadway musicals, including Singin' in the Rain, Saturday Night Fever, and Annie. The Arts Centre, just opposite to the academy, houses a studio theatre, art galleries, rehearsal rooms, the Goethe-Institut and a restaurant overlooking the Victoria Harbour.The Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, a HK$4.8 billion convention centre with an extension completed in 1997, covers over 16 acres of newly reclaimed land that added an extra 38,000 m2 of functional space to the existing convention centre. It remains a venue for international trade fairs, some of which are among the biggest in the world: the annual Hong Kong Book Fair in July, food fair and festival, technology exhibitions, anime conventions and cosplay competitions.
Dining
- Cha chaan teng are local-styled fast-food restaurants, and Chinese pastry. Many of the restaurants can be found all along Jaffe Road. Numerous tea shops offer cheap Chinese herbal tea, like leong cha and 24-mei.
- Dai pai dong, open-air restaurants in a big tent, is another classic restaurant type that appeared in Wan Chai. Despite the often unclean and uncomfortable eating conditions, many people are attracted to the freshly made steamed rice roll, congee and chow mein early in the morning. Due to urban renewal projects in recent years, most of these restaurants are fading away.
- Yum Cha, is the name associated with having dim sum, e.g. Fook Lam Moon restaurant. People usually have "one bowl with two pieces" for breakfast. There were three old-styled dims restaurants remaining in Wan Chai, namely Lung Mun, Lung To, and Lung Tuen. Lung Mun, the last of the trio, closed on 30 November 2009. A number of Buddhist cuisine restaurants are also available in the area.
- The 1980s also saw an expansion of Western-cuisine restaurants in Wan Chai. Nowadays, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai and Indian restaurants are all very common. There are also many fast food restaurants serving Cantonese and other Chinese dishes, including the franchised Maxim's and Café de Coral. Jaffe Road and Lockhart Road are famous for pubs.
Bar district