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Hong Kong has officially named two more historic sites as declared monuments under the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance. On October 2, the AMO gazetted the formal declaration of Hung Shing Temple in Wan Chai and Stanley Mosque, adding both sites to the city’s growing list of protected landmarks.
The first of the newly designated monuments is Hung Shing Temple, located along Queen’s Road East. Dedicated to Hung Shing, the ‘God of the South Sea’, the temple is estimated to have been built somewhere between 1847 and 1852, making it one of the oldest surviving temples in the district. Architecturally, the structure carries huge significance, with intricate and well-preserved features reminiscent of traditional Lingnan vernacular designs, including stone carvings, plaster mouldings, granite figures, and Shiwan ceramic ridge decorations.
In its earlier days, the temple also played a vital role in local life by housing soul tablets – inscribed wooden plaques for worshipping ancestral spirits – serving as both a social and spiritual gathering place for the community as Wan Chai’s landscape evolved.
Heading further south, Stanley Mosque holds the distinction of being the second oldest mosque in Hong Kong, as well as the only one located inside a prison compound. Built between 1936 and 1937 inside Stanley Prison, the structure was funded and built by Indian and Pakistani Muslim staff of the Prisons Department, together with members of the local Indian community. The design is modelled after the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan, and features an elegant symmetrical layout with Islamic architectural elements such as a flat concrete roof with battlement edges, an arcaded facade with horseshoe and ogee ornamental arches, and minaret-like columns as decoration.
If you’re hoping to visit the sites, Hung Shing Temple is open to the general public, with coil incense on offer for worshippers. The Stanley Mosque, however, is completely off limits as it’s under the management of the Correctional Services Department and is not open to the public.
Find out more about these historic sites or other declared monuments at amo.gov.hk.
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