East Point was a spit on the northern shore of

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. Known colloquially and on road signs simply as Hong Kong, the island has a population of 1,289,500 and its population density is 16,390/km2, . The island had a population of a ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a List of cities in China, city and Special administrative regions of China, special ...

. It was a spit that extended from East Point Hill, i.e.

Lee Garden Lee Gardens () is a hill south of East Point and west of Causeway Bay on the Hong Kong Island in Hong Kong, approximately the area between Percival Street, Hennessy Road and Leighton Road. It was also known as Jardine's Hill or East Point Hill ...

towards

Kellett Island Kellett Island is a former island of Victoria Harbour, off East Point in Hong Kong. It is now connected to Hong Kong Island at Causeway Bay following land reclamation in 1969. It is located in Wan Chai District. Facilities The main bu ...

. It marked the eastern limits of the early City of Victoria. The piece of land separated

Causeway Bay Causeway Bay is an area and a bay on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong, straddling the border of the Eastern and the Wan Chai districts. It is a major shopping, leisure and cultural centre in Hong Kong, with a number of major shopping centres. Th ...

in the east and in the west. Streams and muds from Tai Hang and Wong Nai Chung (now buried beneath Canal Road as a

subterranean river A subterranean river is a river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface – one where the riverbed does not represent the surface of the Earth. It is distinct from an aquifer, which may flow like a river but is contained within a per ...

) shaped the spit.

Geography

Two sides of the spit were

reclaimed Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

over a hundred years. The first stage was in the mid-19th century. The east of the cape was reclaimed to the edge of Victoria Park and the west to

Hennessy Road Hennessy Road () is a thoroughfare on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It connects Yee Wo Street on the east in Causeway Bay, at the junction with East Point Road, Jardine's Bazaar and Great George Street in East Point, through Bowrington, to ...

. The second stage was between

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

and

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Its west was reclaimed to Gloucester Road. The shape of the cape was mostly lost. For the construction of

Cross-Harbour Tunnel The Cross-Harbour Tunnel (abbreviated ''CHT'' or ''XHT'') is the first tunnel in Hong Kong built underwater. It consists of two steel road tunnels each with two lanes constructed using the single shell immersed tube method. It is the earl ...

, further reclamation extended the land to Kellett Island and the cape was completely buried. Physically, the

Causeway Bay station Causeway Bay () is a station on the MTR network on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The station is between and stations on the . It serves the locality of East Point within Wan Chai District. The station is at the core of the historical East Po ...

of the

MTR The Mass Transit Railway (MTR) is a major public transport network serving :Hong Kong. Operated by the MTR Corporation Limited (MTRCL), it consists of heavy rail, light rail, and feeder bus service centred on a 10-line rapid transit network ...

and World Trade Centre are built on the body of East Point. Windsor House and

Paterson Street Paterson Street () is a street in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It starts north at Victoria Park Road, crosses Kingston Street and Great George Street and ends at Yee Wo Street or Canadian Street to the south. The street was nam ...

fall on its first stage reclamation. The above two areas were referred to as East Point, while to its west was Bowrington. Large scale reclamations make the geographic feature and division less obvious. Causeway Bay originally referred to the circular ''tung lo''-shaped bay. It also referred to the east shore of the bay, i.e. the present-day area in Tin Hau station. It gradually replaced East Point as the name of that area.

History

Having briefly named "Matheson's Point", much of the land of East Point was historically in the hands of

Jardine Matheson Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong-based Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and ...

, which had their original Hong Kong

godown A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities, tow ...

s and offices there.

Swire Swire Group () is a Hong Kong- and London-based British conglomerate. Many of its core businesses can be found within the Asia Pacific region, where traditionally Swire's operations have centred on Hong Kong and mainland China. Within Asia, ...

once had a

sugar refinery A sugar refinery is a refinery which processes raw sugar from cane or beets into white refined sugar. Many cane sugar mills produce raw sugar, which is sugar that still contains molasses, giving it more colour (and impurities) than the w ...

in Sugar Street.

Present Features

East Point is one of Hong Kong's major shopping districts. It includes the 13-storey Japanese-style department store Sogo, as well as shopping centres such as

Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...

and

Hysan Place Hysan Place () is a shopping centre and office building at 500 Hennessy Road, Lee Garden, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. It was developed by Hysan Development Company Limited at the former site of and was designed by international architecture fir ...

. There are also smaller malls such as World Trade Centre, Windsor House, Hang Lung Centre, Fashion Island, Fashion Walk,

Lee Garden One Manulife Plaza, also known as Lee Garden One, is an office skyscraper in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. The triangular-shaped tower stands tall and contains 52 floors of office space. The building is currently the 16th tallest i ...

and Lee Garden Two. Causeway Bay is one of the most crowded and central areas in Hong Kong. The area contains many trendy shops carrying both locally made and imported fashion and products from around the world. As such, it is a popular social spot for young people. Many shops are open until after midnight. Notable hotels in East Point include the demolished

The Excelsior The Excelsior () was a four-star hotel located at 281 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island, in Hong Kong. It was owned and operated by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, a member of the Jardine Matheson Group, and served as the Mandari ...

and Regal Hong Kong Hotel. Several boutique hotels have opened recently including Mira Moon Hotel on Jaffe Road. For years,

has fired a shot off the Noonday Gun at noon every day at East Point, by

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. The harbour's deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea were instrume ...

, slightly eastward of the former Kellett Island. The gunshots have served as time signals for many generations of old inhabitants of Hong Kong. This tradition still continues today. This is the "Noonday Gun" mentioned in the

Noël Coward Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 189926 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what ''Time'' magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and ...

song " Mad Dogs and Englishmen".

Legacy

The name East Point is still found in East Point Road () and East Point Centre ().

External links

Gwulo entry

''Jardine, Matheson & Co. afterwards Jardine, Matheson & Co. Limited: an outline of the history of a China House for a hundred years 1832–1932''
Hong Kong: Privately Printed, 1934.Extract: Illustrations facing pages 12, 16, 26, & pp. 26–27 {{HongKongIsland-geo-stub

Geography

History

Present Features

Legacy

See also

External links