While we are all familiar with “Kennedy Town”, the new town developed by Arthur Kennedy during his term as the 7th Governor of Hong Kong, a similar creation met a very different destiny — “Bowring Town”, developed by John Bowring, the 4th Governor of Hong Kong, had long ceased to exist even in our memory.

Wong Nai Chung was the only natural flatland in Hong Kong Island. Originally a swampland, it attracted settlement as early as the Qianlong reign, then called Wong Nai Chung Village. The land there belonged to the Tang Clan of Kam Tin, who leased it to the villagers for farming. It was a valley ringed by mountains on three sides, hence a convergence zone of mountain streams that flowed towards Victoria Harbour. As the winding watercourse resembled a goose’s neck, the indigenous people called it Ngo Kan (lit. “Goose Stream”), while the shore was a muddy shallow bay. Every year in the monsoon season the region around Wong Nai Chung and Ngo Keng was struck by floods, which bred malarial mosquito and brought about hygienic problem.