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In 1936, Yvonne Yeung became the first athlete born in Hong Kong to participate in the Olympic Games, held that year in Berlin, Germany. However, because, at the time, Hong Kong residents of Chinese descent were not granted British citizenship and because Hong Kong did not yet have a National Olympic Committee, she had to compete under the flag of the Republic of China. While Yvonne Yeung made history as the first athlete from Hong Kong, Arnaldo Augusto de Oliveira Sales, a P

On March 28, 1916, the Kowloon Railway Station opened in Tsim Sha Tsui. The building was designed in an Edwardian Classical Revival style and consisted of a two-story, L-shaped terminal building and a clock tower. It served as the southernmost terminus of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, or KCR (Canton being the former name of present-day Guangzhou). However, due to a lack of space for expansion, the KCR terminus was relocated to Hung Hom in 1974. Now obsolete, the old railway sta

In 1923, the first franchised buses, operated by the China Motor Bus Company (CMB), arrived in Kowloon. Ten years later, in 1933, the Hong Kong government granted CMB exclusivity to operate on Hong Kong Island. That same year, on April 13, 1933, the Kowloon Motor Bus Company (KMB) was founded. Initially, KMB buses were only allowed to operate in Kowloon and the New Territories. By June of that year, KMB had a fleet of 106 single-deck buses. By the time World War II started in

You may not realize it, but every time you enter a Watsons, you are entering Hong Kong’s oldest surviving company. So old, in fact, that it predates the establishment of Hong Kong as a British colony by thirteen years. In 1828, a small dispensary named the Canton Dispensary and Soda Water Establishment was founded in Guangdong Province. In 1843, the dispensary moved to Hong Kong and was renamed the Hong Kong Dispensary. Meanwhile, in 1845, a Scotsman, Dr. Thomas Boswell Watso

Ever since its completion, the Bank of China Tower has been the most iconic building in Hong Kong. When it opened on May 17, 1990, it became the tallest building in Hong Kong as well as in Asia, and the first building outside of New York City and Chicago to exceed 300 meters (approximately 1,000 feet) in height. The architect behind the Bank of China Tower was American-Chinese I. M. Pei, who, in the 1980s, was best known for buildings such as the daring Louvre Pyramid in Pari

Anyone visiting Hong Kong in the 21st century would be hard-pressed to find the City of Victoria (alternatively, Victoria City). Central, however, is easy to find. As its name implies, it is the financial heart and the center of Hong Kong. Yet, any nineteenth-century traveler would have faced the opposite issue. The City of Victoria would have been easily identifiable, as it was the administrative center of the colony; meanwhile, Central simply did not exist yet. However, Hon

Hong Kong is home to 52 species of snakes. Of these, 14 are venomous, and 8 of those venomous species are considered potentially lethal. Among these potentially lethal snakes are the notorious but very rare king cobra and the more common Chinese cobra. Both species are native to Hong Kong. However, there is only one species of cobra native to Hong Kong. How is that possible? Well, it so happens that, although it hoods up like a cobra, looks like a cobra, and is named "cobra,"

In the early years of the colony of Hong Kong, when the British started developing the City of Victoria (northwestern Hong Kong Island), they quickly encountered an important issue: Hong Kong Island was little more than a mountain jutting out from the South China Sea on which constructible land was very scarce or, as the then British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston put it, "a barren rock with nary a house upon it." Faced with chronic overcrowding, starting in the second hal

Stanley, on the southern edge of Hong Kong Island, is known for its two strangely out-of-place structures: Murray House and Blake Pier. In fact, neither of these buildings originally belonged to Stanley’s history, as they were initially built in Central during the early years of Colonial Hong Kong, then known as the City of Victoria, named after Queen Victoria. However, unlike most buildings in the world, Blake Pier has traveled quite a bit. In 1900, the first iteration of Bl

On July 1, 1998, one year after the handover of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong SAR Legislative Council was established under the Hong Kong Basic Law. That same month, the first meeting of the Legislative Council was held. With the notable exception of the first Legislative Council, which lasted only two years, all subsequent legislative sessions have lasted four years. However, the 6th Legislative Council, which should have lasted four years like all previous sessions, became the l

On January 20, 1981, Ronald Reagan became the 40th president of the United States of America. However, before starting a career in politics, Ronald Reagan had achieved considerable success as an actor, which led to this funny scene in Back to the Future , after Marty McFly met Doc Brown in 1955. Doc Brown: "Then tell me, future boy: who’s president of the United States in 1985? Marty: "Ronald Reagan." Doc Brown: "Ronald Reagan? The actor?" Interestingly, in 1952—three years b

Queen’s Road Central is perhaps the most important street in Hong Kong. 1 Queen’s Road Central, for instance, has been the address of Hong Kong’s most influential company, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, or HSBC for short, since 1864. But Queen’s Road is also the oldest street in Hong Kong. Immediately after Commodore Bremer took possession of Hong Kong Island in 1841, the Royal Engineers began constructing a 6.5-kilometer (or 4-mile) section westward, running

In the twentieth century, Kai Tak became synonymous with Hong Kong International Airport, renowned worldwide for its peculiar landing path that grazing only feet above a mountain range and for its location in a densely populated area. However, the story of Kai Tak began 13 years before the first grass strip runway was built on what would become the world's busiest cargo hub in the 1990s. In 1912, two billionaire businessmen, Ho Kai and Au Tak, founded the Kai Tak Investment C

Hong Kong owes its name to an island: Hong Kong Island. This is the island the Qing Dynasty ceded to the British Empire following their defeat in the First Opium War. After a second defeat, in the Second Opium War, the Qing Dynasty ceded the Kowloon Peninsula, along with Stonecutters Island. By then, Hong Kong consisted of two main islands and Kowloon. This all changed on July 1, 1898, when the lease of the New Territories took effect (the lease itself was formalized on June

The infamous Kowloon Walled City has fascinated people for decades. Its narrow, dark, secretive alleyways, where criminals and law-abiding citizens lived side by side—prostitutes soliciting customers across the street from priests—have ignited the imagination of many filmmakers. Numerous films, both in Asia and the West, have depicted either the Kowloon Walled City itself or a reimagined version of this dystopian cluster of shoddily built buildings. The 1993 film Crime Story

Hong Kong is home to 52 species of snakes, 14 of which are venomous. However, although the infamous Chinese cobra and king cobra inhabit the forests and mountains of Hong Kong, it is quite unlikely that you will be bitten by either of these snakes. In fact, of the approximately 100 snakebites recorded in Hong Kong each year, 90% are inflicted by Trimeresurus albolabris , better known by its common name, the bamboo pit viper. With its bright green body and yellow belly, it is

Sharks are rarely seen in the waters surrounding Hong Kong. As of 2024, the last recorded sighting of a shark in Hong Kong dates back to 2020, when a 3-meter shark was spotted in Sai Kung. Yet, Hong Kong is the world’s largest importer of shark fins and accounts for nearly 50% of the global shark fin trade, both legal and illegal. In fact, Hong Kong once had an active shark fishery, supplying local restaurants as well as Mainland China with the highly sought-after shark fins

As of 2024, Sham Shui Po is the second most densely populated district in Hong Kong, recording a population density of 47,190 inhabitants per square kilometre (122,216 inhabitants per square mile). With a total population of 441,600 inhabitants, Sham Shui Po is one of the most urbanized districts in Hong Kong. However, little over a century ago, Sham Shui Po presented a very different face. Sham Shui Po, being part of the so-called New Kowloon, was leased to the British in Ju

In the 155 years of British rule over Hong Kong, 28 governors have represented the British Crown in the colony. Among these governors, Sir Edward Youde, the 26th governor, had a particularly eventful tenure. In 1984, the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed while he was in office. Two years later, however, on December 5, 1986, he suddenly died of a fatal heart attack, becoming the first and only governor of Hong Kong to die in office. His funeral was also the first state

On August 15, 2024, Ocean Park announced the birth of a female and a male giant panda cub, the first panda cubs born in Hong Kong. They weighed 122 grams (4.2 ounces) and 112 grams (4 ounces), respectively. The cubs received intensive care from the park’s veterinarians to ensure their well-being. The announcement came after years of failed attempts and miscarriages, making the unexpected news all the more remarkable, as Ying Ying’s pregnancy was confirmed on August 11—only fo