Hung Shing Temple, Wanchai [c.1847- ] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Hung Shing Temple, Wanchai [c.1847- ]

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Submitted by Admin on Tue, 2009-02-03 22:43
Current condition: 
In use
Date Place completed: 
c.1847-01-01 (Year, Month, Day are approximate)

Phil has an introduction to, and photo of, this temple.

Tags: 
temple
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Photos that show this place

1860

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Submitted by Herostratus on Fri, 2016-05-27 12:31.

Hung Shing Temple was probably erected in 1847 in dedication of Hung Shing Tai Wong, a deity protecting fishermen. The latest renovation in 1992 restored the original inscription on the granite lintel in the extension, Kwun Yum Temple, which was built in 1867. The Temple related to the naming of Tai Wong Street West and Tai Wong Street East, with Tai Wong refers to Hung Shing Tai Wong. The management of the Temple has been delegated to the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals by the Chinese Temples Committee since pre-war times

Source here

Submitted by Herostratus on Thu, 2018-09-20 08:18.

Eitel states that the Tai Wong Temple in Spring Gardens was in existence at the time of the British occupation of Hong Kong. If so, title to the Queen's Road East property on which it is built was not obtained until 1847. Lee Fun-wei, a compradore, then obtained a Crown Lease for Inland Lot 257. In 1852, Lee Muy, "carer of Joss House", was witness to the transfer of a nearby house. He may be the same as Lee Amoy, "formerly a butcher, but now of no occupation", who obtained a court order in 1864 prohibiting Lee Fun-wei from selling or further mortgaging the temple property. In the following year the two parties exhanged properties. Lee Amoy conveyed to Lee Fun Wei a lot with five houses and in return received Inland Lot 257 with "Joss House, dwelling house and building erected thereon". Lee Amoy immediately mortgaged the temple property to Delfino Noronha, a Portuguese printer, for $1,500. The mortgage remained unpaid, and in 1869 Noronha sold the temple to a committee composed of Tam Achoy, Ho Asik, and Lee Yuk Hang. It thus passed out of the private ownership of the Lee family to the representatives of the Chinese community.

 

If Eitel's statement is correct, that the temple on Queen's Road East at Spring Gardens was in existence before the British occupation of the Island, its proprietors the Lee family may have been settled in the Spring Gardens area, now better known as Wanchai, before the occupation. When Crown Leases were issued for land in this area in 1847, several members of the Lee family secured lots

 

Source: Notes on Chinese Temples in Hong Kong. Carl T Smith RASHK Vol 13 1973 p136