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Victoria Harbour
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Victoria Harbour
22°17′15.91″N 114°10′25.03″E / 22.2877528°N 114.1736194°E
Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in the middle of the territory's dense urban region, the harbour is also the site of annual fireworks displays and promenades which are used as gathering attractions for local residents and tourists.
The harbour has historically been defined by its deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea. These factors were also instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony in 1841 and its subsequent development as a trading hub.
Additionally, throughout its history, the harbour has seen numerous reclamation projects undertaken on both shores, many of which have caused controversy in recent years. Environmental concerns have been expressed about the effects of these expansions, in terms of water quality and loss of natural habitat. It has also been proposed that benefits of land reclamation may be less than the effects of decreased harbour width, affecting the number of vessels passing through the harbour. Nonetheless Victoria Harbour still retains its founding role as a port for thousands of international vessels each year.
The first reference to what is now called Victoria Harbour is found in Zheng He's sailing maps of the China coast, dated c.1425, which appear in the Wubei Zhi (A Treatise on Armament Technology), a comprehensive 17th-century military book. While the harbour was charted in later maps, the first map depicting it in detail is an 1810 marine chart prepared for the East India Company by Daniel Ross and Philip Maughan, lieutenants of the Bombay Marine.
Some of the first recreational activities to take place in the harbour were water competitions such as swimming and water polo in the 1850s, undertaken by members of Hong Kong's first sports club, the Victoria Recreation Club.
During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong. On 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a naval battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities. These incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbour was originally called "Hong Kong Harbour", but was later renamed to "Victoria Harbour", to assure shelter for the British fleet under Queen Victoria.
The subject of pollution came to the fore in the 1970s with the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, a year after the former RMS Queen Elizabeth burned and sank at the Tsing Yi island anchorage. Studies also showed excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades.
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Victoria Harbour
22°17′15.91″N 114°10′25.03″E / 22.2877528°N 114.1736194°E
Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in the middle of the territory's dense urban region, the harbour is also the site of annual fireworks displays and promenades which are used as gathering attractions for local residents and tourists.
The harbour has historically been defined by its deep, sheltered waters and strategic location on South China Sea. These factors were also instrumental in Hong Kong's establishment as a British colony in 1841 and its subsequent development as a trading hub.
Additionally, throughout its history, the harbour has seen numerous reclamation projects undertaken on both shores, many of which have caused controversy in recent years. Environmental concerns have been expressed about the effects of these expansions, in terms of water quality and loss of natural habitat. It has also been proposed that benefits of land reclamation may be less than the effects of decreased harbour width, affecting the number of vessels passing through the harbour. Nonetheless Victoria Harbour still retains its founding role as a port for thousands of international vessels each year.
The first reference to what is now called Victoria Harbour is found in Zheng He's sailing maps of the China coast, dated c.1425, which appear in the Wubei Zhi (A Treatise on Armament Technology), a comprehensive 17th-century military book. While the harbour was charted in later maps, the first map depicting it in detail is an 1810 marine chart prepared for the East India Company by Daniel Ross and Philip Maughan, lieutenants of the Bombay Marine.
Some of the first recreational activities to take place in the harbour were water competitions such as swimming and water polo in the 1850s, undertaken by members of Hong Kong's first sports club, the Victoria Recreation Club.
During the Taiping Rebellion, armed rebels paraded the streets of Hong Kong. On 21 December 1854, the Hong Kong police arrested several armed rebels who were about to attack Kowloon City. On 23 January 1855, a fleet of Taiping war boats was on the verge of a naval battle against Chinese imperial war boats defending the harbour. The Chinese defenders were ordered away by the British colonial authorities. These incidents caused rising tension that would eventually lead to the Arrow War. The harbour was originally called "Hong Kong Harbour", but was later renamed to "Victoria Harbour", to assure shelter for the British fleet under Queen Victoria.
The subject of pollution came to the fore in the 1970s with the rapid growth of the manufacturing sector. The water club races were stopped in 1973 due to pollution in the harbour, a year after the former RMS Queen Elizabeth burned and sank at the Tsing Yi island anchorage. Studies also showed excessive nitrogen input from discharges of the Pearl River Delta into the harbour for decades.
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