Haiphong Road

Haiphong Road
Chinese 海防道
Haiphong Road view from Canton Road.
Haiphong Road viewed from Kowloon Park.

Haiphong Road is a road south of Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong. The road links Canton Road and Nathan Road.[1]

History

It was initially named as Elgin Street but its name changed in 1909 to Haiphong,[2] a city in Vietnam to avoid confusion with another Elgin Street on the Hong Kong Island. As such, it is one of the few streets in Hong Kong not named for a Chinese or English subject. Along with Nathan Road it was one of the first two streets laid out in Tsim Sha Tsui.[3] Indian merchants, mostly Hindus from the province of Sindh, began establishing shops on the street in the 1920s, supplying Indian goods to soldiers stationed in the adjacent Whitfield Barracks.[4]

Features

Significant locations along this street include the Fok Tak Temple, a century-old temple site that was "once the centre for worship for Kowloon residents";[3] the Kowloon Masjid and Islamic Centre;[4] and the Haiphong Road Temporary Market, thought to be the oldest such market in Hong Kong.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Transport Department". Archived from the original on 2005-08-09.
  2. ↑ The Hong Kong Government Gazette, March 19, 1909
  3. 1 2 3 "Haiphong Road", South China Morning Post, 2 January 2000.
  4. 1 2 3 Jason Wordie, Streets: Exploring Kowloon (Hong Kong University Press, 2007), ISBN 978-9622098138, pp. 35-40. Excerpts available at Google Books.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Haiphong Road.

Coordinates: 22°17′53″N 114°10′13″E / 22.2981°N 114.1704°E / 22.2981; 114.1704


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