Amahs baulked at accompanying their employers if they moved to Mount Davis Road in the post-war years, seeing it as the equivalent of moving to the jungle. These days, residents of the sloping, still-green street prize it as a leafy refuge - close to Central but a world of calm away from the chaos.
Pok Fu Lam's massive cemeteries explain why property prices here have stayed about a third lower than in the island's other luxury neighbourhoods. But, given its convenience, no more than 15 minutes to the heart of the business district, the prices are still surprising - the dead, after all, make for quiet neighbours.
On a bright early summer's day, the clear air and calm make it hard to believe you're on Hong Kong Island. Joggers dodge the double-deckers that barrel along Victoria Road and take their minds off the grind with a glimpse out over the Lamma Channel, with views of Cheung Chau and Lantau. Somehow it always seems a little sunnier and a little breezier on this side of The Peak.
Continue down the road and there is a cluster of fading apartment blocks that attract expats who don't mind looking out over the graveyards. Greenery Garden may be shedding its dragon skin of green mosaic tiles, but, at sunset, there's an audible clink of cocktail glasses - its bubble-shaped balconies are perfect perches from which to watch the sun set over Lamma's power stacks. Across the road, Mount Davis Garden and Greenvale have large townhouses looking down into the valley and out to sea.
Near the junction with Victoria Road is a row of eight large townhouses, Felix Villas, built in the 1920s and owned by the University of Hong Kong. Like much of the street, they're purported to be haunted, having been used first by British and then Japanese troops during the war. There used to be another row of 10 townhouses up the hill, but they were razed after landslides in the 60s.
The Villas Sorrento development now stands in their place, new towers looming over some of Hong Kong's last pre-war residential buildings.