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Articles tagged "All"

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Why Wan Chai is not called Bowrington

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 21:16

I mentioned the business of the Government leasing you bits of seabed, didn't I?

The Summer Palace and another land grab.

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 21:12
I propose to pass quickly over the rest of the Second Opium War, which of course broadened out beyond the private war between Bowring and Yeh and extended up the length of the coast of China and ultimately to Beijing. Harry Parkes features prominently in this story as one of the Ambassadors kidnapped and tortured (some to death) by the Chinese government whilst trying to negotiate a Peace treaty which is why the British and French forces burned down the Summer Palace.

A tale of two xenophobic intellectuals...

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 21:11
Now, where to start with the disastrous Governorship of Sir John Bowring, a liberal intellectual who managed, in the course of his Governorship, to launch the most unsucessful invasion of Russia ever, to have a poisoning scare and terrorism in Hong Kong, to start a war with China and to bring down his own Liberal government in Britain?

A disastrous intellectual Governor, and a Harry Flashman rogue...

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 21:09
Meanwhile, back in little Hong Kong, we now come to the Governorship of Sir John Bowring, one of two former MPs to hold the post of Governor of Hong Kong, both of whom greatly annoyed the Chinese Government. Chris Patten, however, did not go so far as John Bowring and actually start a war...



"The Empire, long united, must divide..."

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 09:34
I am going to turn aside at this point, with the young colony of Hong Kong starting to sort itself out and to develop the characteristic pattern of Hong Kong politics (which can be summarised as “The World is Coming to An End – and what is far worse – nobody has emptied my dustbin this morning!”) and consider the situation elsewhere in China in the 1840s and 1850s.

It is a very grim picture indeed.

How to pay for Hong Kong - a brilliant solution

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 09:30

Now the time has come to talk about taxes.

The start of foreign mud

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 09:24

The HEIC had supported the Macartney Embassy - really a trade mission - because they desperately needed to persuade the Chinese to buy something.

There was a problem with the HEIC's monopoly of the British trade with China - rather a familiar one. China exported without importing. The exports were tea, porcelain and silks. Everyone in Europe wanted those. The only thing that China wanted in exchange was silver.

A simple history of Hong Kong .Part One - The HEIC plan

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 09:20

To begin at the beginning, lets start with the visit to Macau made by the twenty two year old Alexander Dalrymple:



aboard an Indiaman in a significant year for Britain - 1759. 

ACB's History of Hong Kong

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Sat, 2010-05-01 08:50

This short history of the place known in English as Hong Kong is intended, above all, to be fun to read.

on-going construction off hollywood road

Submitted by boardnasty on Thu, 2010-04-29 17:56

i live in central just off hollywood road and for as long as i've lived here there has been construction working going on. as far as i can see from my window there is no progress over ground, for the past 2 years workers have been installing huge long pipes and rebar deep into the ground.

the site sites between hollywood road, pottinger street, lyndhurst terrace and cochrane street, can anyone tell me what is going on here and what the plans are to construct?

big thanks :)

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