The Rich Scottish Heritage in Hong Kong | the Noonday Gun

The Rich Scottish Heritage in Hong Kong | the Noonday Gun

Many have forgotten the Scots have left many marks in Hong Kong. To begin with, there are many famous streets names in Hong Kong are of Scottish origin, such as Lockhart Road, Argyle Street, Cochrane Street, Bute Street, Fife Street, Arran Street and the Wylie Road (founders of Clansman Lifestyle also bear the same surname Wyllie, the double "L"). Other than street names, Aberdeen Harbour, Braemar Hill, the popular MacLehose Trail all owe its names to the Scots. 

The Hong Kong St. Andrews Society, a Scottish club in Hong Kong was established in 1881 and has been celebrating St. Andrew's Day annually in Hong Kong for that many years since its inception. It is a membership society for Scots in Hong Kong or anyone who has affinity with Scotland. 

The Noonday Gun. a former naval artillery piece mounted on a small enclose situated next to the Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter on Hong Kong Island is fired every day at noon and is a popular tourist attraction. Do you know its location was formerly known as the "East Point" (which is the present day Causeway Bay) and was the first plot of land in Hong Kong sold by the then colonial government by public auction in 1841. It was Jardine Matheson who bought this lot of land and over the years due to land reclamation, the exact location had been shifted northward. The tradition of firing at noon originated over an incident which took place in the 1860s. Mr. Jardine's main godowns (or "Gudang" in Malay word, meaning warehouse) and offices were located at East Point. Its private militia would fire a gun salute to welcome Mr. Jardine's taipan's arrival by sea. In one occasion, a senior British naval officer became annoyed by such practice as he was new to Hong Kong and did not know of such tradition (such salute was normally reserved for government officials and senior officers of the British armed services). As a result, Mr. Jardines was ordered (as a penalty) to fire a gun every day at noon in perpetuity. Such practice continues today.