Tucked away between Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, Bowrington is one of Hong Kong Island's more interesting neighbourhoods. The area was once defined by two distinct (but now extinct) geographical features - the Bowrington Canal and Morrison Hill. The main landmark that still bears the Bowrington name is the area's large market.
Bowrington was laid out in the late 1850s and named after governor Sir John Bowring. A scholar and sinologist, Bowring negotiated the first commercial agreement between Britain and Siam (Thailand).
Morrison Hill - named after John Morrison, Hong Kong's first colonial secretary and a noted linguist, who died in 1843 - nestled against Bowrington's southern edge. This landmark was steadily quarried in the 1920s to provide landfill for a massive reclamation project; the remains were finally flattened and removed in the early 50s.
Wong Nai Chung Creek was channelled into a canal, which became known as the Bowrington Canal. The canal mouth was marked by a bridge known as Ngor Geng Kiu ('Goose-Neck Bridge') and was the boundary between Wan Chai and East Point, as Causeway Bay used to be known. The canal was covered in the 60s and the creek still flows out under the Canal Road flyover into Victoria Harbour.
Ngor Geng Kiu was once located on the waterfront, but is now marooned several hundred metres inland due to reclamation. Around the site of the old bridge - still colloquially known as Ngor Geng Kiu - is one of the greatest concentrations of animism in any post-industrial society. This is where the practitioners of dah siu yan ('beating the 'mean' people') operate. Mostly elderly women, they sit on stools, surrounded by incense sticks and burning red candles. This is believed to attract ghosts who, in return for a suitable commission (this is China), will go and do the practitioner's bidding in the spirit world.
For a negotiable fee - and the price depends on how affluent or desperate the dah siu yan practitioner senses you to be - they will curse and abuse your enemy for you. You write the name of the intended victim on a slip of paper (the curse apparently works better if it's in your handwriting) and hand it over.