Out and about
Hong Kong's premier retail hell - or heaven, depending on your susceptibility to shopping - Tsim Sha Tsui offers more historical interest than initial impressions may suggest.
Before the Pacific war, Hong Kong had two battalions of Indian soldiers stationed at Whitfield Barracks, which later became Kowloon Park. The Kowloon Mosque was originally built for Muslim Indian soldiers. Rebuilt in its current location next to the park in 1984, the main prayer hall can hold more than 1,000 people.
Further up Nathan Road, St Andrew's Church is a pleasant reminder of Kowloon's early 20th-century suburban origins. Built in 1905 by Sir Paul Chater, the co-founder of Hongkong Land, the church has recently been restored. Next door, the former Kowloon British School - precursor institution of today's English Schools Foundation - was built in 1902 from funds donated by Eurasian millionaire Sir Robert Hotung. It now houses the Antiquities and Monuments Office.
To see genuine cosmopolitanism within Hong Kong's predominant monoculture - despite hype to the contrary, Hong Kong isn't all that international - Chungking Mansions is an unmissable experience. One of Nathan Road's more desirable apartment complexes when it was built in 1961, Chungking Mansions went downmarket decades ago.
Every race and creed makes its way through here at some point; the upper floors are a warren of backpacker hostels and excellent, unpretentious ethnic restaurants, offering everything from authentic West African fare to the best curries east of Singapore.
Tucked away behind Chungking Mansions is one of the area's hidden gems - the hillside park and time signal tower on Blackhead Point, which recalls one of the city's earliest German trading firms. Schwartzkopf and Co, established in the 1850s and anglicised as Blackhead and Co, was closed down during the first world war.
These are Tsim Sha Tsui's bright spots. But in complete disregard of international heritage conservation, the entire hill on which the Marine Police Station stood from 1884 has been removed to make way for - you guessed it - more shops. And who exactly blessed this conversion? The Hong Kong Tourism Commission, backed up by the Antiquities Advisory Board and rubber-stamped - existing heritage legislation gives them no real alternative - by the Antiquities and Monuments Office.
As part of a 'conservation' deal agreed with Cheung Kong Holdings, developers of the 'declared monument' site, the historic police station and original time-signal tower were preserved and a few old trees precariously survive in huge 'pots'. But the hillside context and thus the station's historical significance have been completely obliterated. And still a few optimists continue to believe that hope remains for Hong Kong's built heritage.
