Hong Kong Snapshot (65) – Admiralty, it’s Chinese name is “Golden Bell” and night view of Victoria Harbour… 金鐘，為何叫金鐘？還有維港夜景

The topic today is Admiralty in the Hong Kong Island. Admiralty is just beside Central. In the history, Central and Admiralty is sticking together. Central is the Busiest district in Hong Kong. It overtakes London to become the world’s most expensive market for office space in the last two years. Hong Kong is the city having most number of skyscrapers and most of them are at Central. So why is Central now such a busy place and what is the relationship between Central and Admiralty?

今次的主題是香港島的金鐘，金鐘位於中環的旁邊，在歷史的發展與中環不可分割。中環是香港最繁榮的地區，已經連續兩年成為全球最昂貴寫字樓城市，而香港擁有全班最多的摩天大廈，其中很多都座落於中環。那為何香港的中環會發展成現在的模樣，而金鐘與中環又有何關係？

Admiralty is initially part of Central until the HK MTR set up the Admiralty station. In 1841, The British landed Hong Kong Island at Sheung Wan and they built three barracks there. But later, they found a lot of problem in Sheung Wan……

In 1841, Hong Kong Island was an undeveloped island. To British, the hygiene of the people there was bad, very bad. They couldn’t stand for it. As Sheung Wan was a populated place for Chinese, the British soon decided to seek for a new place for their main center.

金鐘本來是中環的一部份，直到香港地鐵設立金鐘站，才漸漸成為一個獨立的地名。1841年，英國正式進駐香港島，本來他們在香港島的上環登陸發展，並建有三個軍營，但慢慢的，他們發現很多問題，生活上的問題。

1841年的香港仍未開始發展，對當時的英國人來說，香港人的衛生很差，是英國人完全不能接受的，而上環又是香港島華人其中一個聚居點，所以很快，他們就決定尋找一個合適的地方作為政商總部。

Central 中環, 1839
(photo from http://www.master-insight.com/「一帶一路」與香港的開埠/)

There were two places for consideration. The first one was Stanley at the south of HK Island. Stanley was the most populated town in HK Island with around 2000 people. It was far away from China and should be the best place. But the British were far-sighted. They already found out the advantage having the Victoria Harbour between HK Island and Kowloon and Kowloon was their next target. At the same time, they didn’t think China had the courage to attack HK Island. So finally they chose Central which was closest to Kowloon. Since then, the future of Central was changed.

他們主要考慮的地方有兩個，第一個是香港島南面的赤柱。當時赤柱是香港島人口最多的地方，約有2000人居住，在地理上遠離北面的中國，易於防守。不過，英國人目光遠大，且有野心，他們早已看上了香港島與九龍半島的維多利亞港，故九龍半島已是他們的下一個目標，同時，他們不認為中國有膽量攻打香港島，與其將總部設在赤柱，倒不如設於最接近尖沙咀的中環，自此，中環就改變了它的命運。

The British set up Central as the main commercial and administration districk and Admiralty as the main military district. They moved the barracks in Sheung Wan to Admiralty and built the second largest naval base in Asia there. It’s also the origin of the name “Admiralty”. But the name of Admiralty in Chinese is “金鐘” which means a golden bell. It’s because there was a Big golden bell at the barracks in Admiralty. The big bell was to report time to the soldiers and the staffs. And so the people around just called it “Golden Bell”. When HK built the MTR in 1980s, the station was also named as “Golden Bell”.

英國人將中環劃為主要商業區及行政區，將金鐘劃為軍事區，將上環的三個軍營遷往金鐘，且建成英國在遠東第二大的海軍基地，所以金鐘的英文名字叫「Admiralty」，也就是海軍總部的意思。至於為何金鐘的中文名字是金鐘？那時因為當時金鐘的兵房有一個大金色銅鐘，用以及士兵及辦公人員報時，故附近居民就稱之為金鐘，直到香港興建地鐵，便順理成章稱這裡為「金鐘」了。

Admiralty 金鐘, 1870 (photo from Wikipedia)

Today the naval base has been moved to Stonecutters Island. There is no navy in Admiralty anymore. But the Central Government Office, The Legislative Council and also the High Court are now at Admiralty. And the coast of Admiralty, the former naval base, is now the Tamar Park.

Tamer Park is one of the best place to shoot the view of Victoria Harbor in Hong Kong. The 1.76 hectares’ park always attract a lot of tourists and photographers. Today I also took some shots. You may take the beautiful night view here but I think the view from Kowloon is more beautiful.

今天的海軍總部已遷往昂船洲，金鐘再沒有海軍，但香港的政府總部、立法會、高等法院等都在金鐘，而金鐘的海傍，則成為了「添馬公園」。

添馬公園是香港島其中一個拍攝維港夜景的最佳地點，佔地1.76公頃的添馬公園，在週末都堆滿了遊客及拍攝者，我這天也來了這裡拍攝。在晚上，你就可以拍攝維港的漂亮景色，不過我覺得在九龍那邊拍攝的維港景色比較漂亮。

Tamar Park at day time 日間的添馬公園

A mood shot haha

Night view from Tamar Park 在添馬公園拍攝的夜景

A light trail photo at Admiralty 在金鐘拍攝的車軌照

I initially planned to introduce the name of the Hollywood Road Park but I found I need to introduce Admiralty first. So the next posts I will talk about the name of Hollywood Road Park. Don’t miss it!

本來上一回說要介紹荷李活道公園的名字由來，但發現我要先說完這篇文章才能說荷李活道公園，所以我下一篇文章才會說荷李活道公園，大家留意呀！

!steemitworldmap 22.2815974 lat 114.1635765 long d3scr

---

Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！