My Favourite Buildings in Hong Kong – SAR – 2010

Tags

blue and yellow building, Hong Kong, SAR

So many interesting buildings to see in Hong Kong

In 2010, I lived in Hong Kong and on the weekends I loved to walk around Hong Kong Island and look at the wonderful buildings; not the modern ones but the old ones.  For some reason I just loved the residential buildings with the washing hanging from a rod out the window!!

I lived in Wanchai in a wonderful apartment overlooking Victoria Harbour which was next to the Hyatt Hotel – such a gorgeous place and wonderfully placed near the Star Ferry Terminal and also the MTR.  My views over the Harbour were spectacular, both during the day and at night during the ‘symphony of lights’.

Walking along the streets always gave me the opportunity to look up and see the very interesting and different buildings and the colourful signs.

But three of my most favourite buildings ever are ones that are brightly painted; one blue, one green and the other yellow.  I really don’t know why I love these buildings but every time I have returned to Hong Kong since 2010, I try and visit.

The blue building is called, not surprisingly, the Blue House and is a four-storey tenement block with balconies and located in Wan Chai. It has a lengthy history of tenants as it was the original site of the first hospital in Hong Kong then after the hospital was closed the building was used as a temple for a revered Chinese physician.

The building was demolished around late 1910s or early 1920s and was then used as a martial arts school in the 1950s and as an osteopathy clinic in the 1960s. And finally, it was  acquired by the Government in the 1970s, and the outer walls painted blue, and was thus named the Blue House.

The Yellow House is next to the Blue House and I don’t know the history of this building nor could I find anything about it but I do love it as it’s lovely and bright and looks wonderful next to the blue building.

And as for the Green House, it’s a block of ten tenement houses also located in Wan Chai. And again named from the colour painted on the external walls of the building. It is one of the few remaining buildings with a particular type of balcony in Hong Kong. The building was first owned by an American company and then used as a timber years, a boat building yard and then in the mid-1920s it was developed into ten tenement houses.

I never got tired of just walking around Hong Kong Island looking at buildings; there was always something different to see – families sitting out on balconies chatting, men smoking, washing out on lines or at night it was fun just to peek into windows and see people’s nightly rituals.

Of course some apartments were hard to look into as they were so incredibly tall and the windows so incredibly small…

But there was always a window to look into or a washing line to look at…

And of course one of the most iconic views of tall buildings in Hong Kong is from The Peak.  On a clear day the views along Hong Kong Island and Kowloon over the Harbour are just amazing.

And some other things I loved about Hong Kong was walking along Hollywood Road in Central and browsing in the both inexpensive and dreadfully expensive shops selling Mao memorabilia, paintings, and other fabulous things…and along the way checking out the various street sculptures.

I do love Hong Kong and this is just a glimpse of its fabulousness!!