The Green Island lighthouse compound was yesterday officially declared a monument, after 100 years' service lighting the western sea approaches to Hong Kong harbour.
The compound comprises two lighthouses - one built in 1875, which is not open to the public, and the other in 1905 - and a former European quarters and keeper's house on the small island off Western.
The older lighthouse began operating on July 1, 1875, just three months after Hong Kong's first lighthouse came into operation at Cape D' Aguilar, paving the way for the area's development as a strategic port in the region.
The two lighthouses were among the three proposed by harbourmaster H.G. Thomsett in 1873, after a naval surveyor's original recommendation in 1867 to build them on Waglan Island and Gap Rock was deemed not politically feasible.
On Green Island, the first lighthouse was superseded by a new one completed in 1905 and fitted with light gear relocated from the Cape D'Aguilar lighthouse
Since the 1970s, the newer lighthouse has been fully automated and is still in use.