The 5 interesting things you may not know about Sheung Wan

Despite how ordinary it now looks, one particular street in Sheung Wan holds a very prominent spot in Hong Kong’s history. In January 1841, the British navy, under the command of Commodore James John Gordon Bremer, disembarked the HMS Calliope and first set foot on Hong Kong soil in Sheung Wan. They found an elevated location nearby suitable for a camp, which was aptly named Possession Point. The Union Jack flag was raised here in a ceremony that symbolised the formal possession of Hong Kong. This spot is now marked by Hollywood Road Park, and the road next to it named Possession Street. The bottom of Possession Street used to be the waterfront where the navy would have docked, but due to years of reclamation, this historic spot has shifted further and further inland.

Built in 1906, Western Market is the oldest surviving market building in Hong Kong. The original Western Market almost stretched the entire length of the city block, all the way up to Queen’s Road Central with two separate buildings. Today, only the North Block of the original structure remains. This Edwardian building is built in the Queen Anne Revival style; it was originally blue, but was repainted a deep red to suit the architecture. Western Market operated as an actual food market until 1988, and now houses small eateries, curio shops, and an array of cloth merchants that occupy the second floor.

This one’s interesting but a bit grim. In 1894, a bubonic plague outbreak spread around the world, reaching Hong Kong in May as many Chinese people had returned to their ancestral homes in mainland China for Ching Ming Festival, unknowingly bringing the disease back with them. 

The tenement houses of Tai Ping Shan in Sheung Wan was one of the city’s most densely populated neighbourhoods and, combined with a dismal lack of hygiene, was where the first plague cases appeared, quickly becoming the site of mass deaths. The health authorities could not even dispose of the dead quick enough and bodies simply clogged the streets – a remnant of this can still be seen in the coffin shops in the area, which were originally set up to cater to the funerary needs of all the deceased. 

The plague killed more than 2,000 individuals within three months, and eventually, Tai Ping Shan had to be fully evacuated and its buildings razed to the ground. The government was very much spurred on to advance medical developments, subsequently setting up Hong Kong’s first bacteriology institute, which is now the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences.

In December of 1851, Sheung Wan was ravaged by a devastating fire that consumed 450 homes and the Sheung Wan Market, tragically resulting in about 30 deaths. The entire neighbourhood was redeveloped under the supervision of Commander and Lieutenant Governor William Jervois – Jervois Street in Sheung Wan is named after him.

In the aftermath of this disaster, the British authorities decided to combine all the rubble from destroyed houses with the soil from hilly slopes nearby, and deposited it in the harbour to create a new road along the coastline. This was essentially Hong Kong’s first land reclamation project, extending the shoreline by 15 metres.

Hong Kong has several trade-specific streets such as Sneakers Street or Goldfish Street, but one such lesser-known street lies in Sheung Wan. Man Wa Lane, also known as Chop Alley, is a little pedestrian lane adorned with stalls that only sell hand-carved seal stamps. Colloquially referred to as ‘chops’, these seals have played an important role in Chinese culture for thousands of years. Everything from imperial mandates, royal decrees, and trade contracts to art pieces, would be stamped with chops to prove their authenticity.

Of course, Hongkongers have long since taken on the Western custom of signatures instead, but companies often still have official seals. Visitors to Man Wa Lane can get their names engraved by hand onto chops of their picking – a personalised piece of Chinese history.