This grave is of an auctioneer, who was strangled in his bed,' says Patricia Lim. Is that a touch of glee in her voice? Turns out he was an 'awful man' in the mid-1800s who treated his Chinese servants despicably until they tired of his treatment and left, only to return with the man who killed him.
'The murderer then fled to his home village in southern China,' Lim says as she wanders along the grass and shrubs between the grey stone graves. 'But the British sent gunboats and threatened to shell the village if the people there did not hand over the killer. He was returned to Hong Kong and hanged.'
The former Happy Valley Cemetery, set up in 1845, stands quietly on a hillside from the main road opposite the racecourse. While the shrubs and bird sound make for a serene backdrop, don't be fooled. There's blood, guts, murder, piracy and revolutionaries that await those looking for the tales behind the stones. That's partly what attracted Lim to first research all the stones, and then write a social history about the people buried here.
Germans, Russians, Freemasons from several countries, Chinese, British, Americans and Eurasians among others mix genteelly in their final resting place. For those buried even up to the mid 20th century they probably mixed better in death than they did in life, with prejudice, lack of understanding, a sense of racial superiority and societal norms dictating that Hong Kong Chinese and Eurasians were second class.
Travellers giving early talks back in London would talk of the 'tricky' Chinese, says Lim, 'who were 'not to be trusted, you couldn't tell what they were thinking. They're all liars'. This carried on for decades, it's extraordinary.'
Several Norfolk pines rise majestically - testament to a time when their wood was used for the masts of Hong Kong's thriving shipping trade. Bird sound competes with the roar of the traffic coming in and out of the Aberdeen tunnel.