Haiphong Road

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

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

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. "Haiphong Road", South China Morning Post, 2 January 2000.
  4. Jason Wordie, Streets: Exploring Kowloon (Hong Kong University Press, 2007), ISBN 978-9622098138, pp. 35-40. Excerpts available at Google Books.


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