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Annemarie Evans

Never trust history. Never trust everything you read.

Yes, it is true. There are aspects of Hong Kong history that have become so well known that everybody believes they know the story.

If only that story were true. But then again, it is such a fun story, should we let the truth get in the way?

So, what's the story then?

Well, every day in Causeway Bay you can hear a cannon go off at noon, known as the 'noon-day gun'. That still happens today and is fun to watch, if, very loud.

The reason that it is there today - according to myth - is that the gun was sometimes used by its owners, the company Jardine Matheson, back in the middle of the 19th century to welcome back the opium fleet, or to greet the arriving Jardine Matheson taipan and apparently this offended the British navy admiral based in Hong Kong at the time.

So, as punishment, he condemned the taipan to fire it every day 'for perpetuity' - basically forever - for using the gun for these purposes.

Rubbish, balderdash, garbage, trash.

And now, the truth ...

For starters, who could possess such draconian powers to condemn the taipan of a private company to fire a cannon every day at  noon  forever?

In fact, in those days, cannons were very common - both as a warning device and a timekeeper for people because  not many possessed watches in those days, so  people would know what the time was at certain points in the day.

There used to be a cannon near the Cheung Kong Center  in Central, as well as one on the Murray parade ground, where the Murray barracks were in Central.

So, while the one in Causeway Bay remains, there were quite a few more around the city.

The guns would be fired  in the morning, midday and in the evening to let people know what the time was.

But more people gradually had watches, and  many local residents wanted to sleep later in the morning.

In the days before air conditioning,  people would have the windows open and when one of these cannons would be fired  in the early morning,  the locals started to complain about the noise.

So the navy and army stopped firing their cannons  and by 1869  the  practice had ceased.

And since the firing of the cannons  had stopped, there were requests to keep just one gun operating.

However, the government said it could not do it because it could not afford the gun powder.

So Jardine Matheson volunteered to provide a cannon and ever since the company has been firing the gun at midday purely on a voluntary basis.

The same cannon was used until the second world war when it was lost.  Following the war, Hong Kong's police provided a  new cannon.

So, that is the real story of the noon-day gun. But if you read the free online encyclopedia, Wikipedia - well, it has  the myth version.

Were the guns used for anything else?

Yes. During the 1920s and 1930s, a cannon was also fired at Blackhead Point in Kowloon.

That gun was fired when a typhoon was approaching, but you had no idea how close the typhoon was.

It could also mean  the mail had arrived.

The mail, at that time, used to come in by ship, or the Trans-Siberian Railway.  But the system was not that efficient because  it meant two things.

So, have I received a letter, or should I tape down my windows as it is about to get windy?

They stopped the system in  the mid-1930s when signalling began to get better.

How can I see the cannon in Causeway Bay?

Go to Causeway Bay. Next door to the Excelsior Hotel is the World Trade Centre.

Go down to the basement of the World Trade Centre, to the car park and there is a tunnel that goes under the road and it comes out  at the noon-day gun.



Bang on time