FYI: Hong Kong has some unusual place names - how did they come about?

The origins of many Hong Kong place names are fairly obvious; Causeway Bay takes its name from the causeway (modern Causeway Road), first constructed in the 1850s to link East Point (as Causeway Bay was then known) and North Point.

Other locations require a little historical knowledge to be clearly understood. Admiralty recalls the vanished Royal Navy presence in Central. The Chinese name, Gum Chong (Golden Bell), derives from the highly polished brass bell that hung at the dockyard gates. The naval dockyard was closed in 1957 and the dry dock itself was filled in.

Other place names cause confusion. Statue Square is a prime example. In English the name seems self-explanatory and a quick walk around the area reveals a statue of Sir Thomas Jackson, chief manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in the late 19th century.

But the Chinese name, Wong Hau Cheung Kwong Cheung - Queen's Statue Square - complicates the matter. If this is the place's name, then where is the statue of the queen? A large bronze statue of Britain's Queen Victoria was donated to Hong Kong in time for her diamond jubilee in 1897 by Sir Paul Chater, the Armenian magnate responsible for the first major Central reclamation. This remained a prominent landmark in the middle of Chater Road until it was removed by the Japanese in 1942. Recovered after the war, the statue was eventually placed at the entrance to Victoria Park in Causeway Bay in 1953. It still stands there today - several kilometres east of the square that bears its name.

Another once well-known place name that has completely vanished from popular usage is Matto Moro - 'field of the Muslims' in Portuguese. This area of small streets and lanes, focused around Central's Shelley Street, was for decades home to Hong Kong's Portuguese community. The name was taken from the Jamia mosque, the area's most prominent landmark, constructed in 1849 and rebuilt in 1915.

This hillside area, now popularly known as SoHo, is studded with restaurants, bars and galleries. Time was when the area possessed an identity derived from its origins, rather than a 'me-too' designation mindlessly poached from hip nightlife areas in other cities.