Victoria City
There were historical provincial and federal electoral districts with the name Victoria City in the Canadian province of British Columbia. For the federal electoral district see Victoria City (electoral district) and for the provincial district see Victoria City (provincial electoral district). |
Victoria City (bottom) in 1915 |
Victoria City or the
City of Victoria (;
Cantonese Jyutping: wai4 do1 lei6 aa3 sing4;
Mandarin Pinyin: Wéiduōlìyà Chéng) was one of the first urban settlements in
Hong Kong after it became a
British colony in
1842. It was initially named Queenstown but was soon known as Victoria. It was located in present-day
Central area, and was named after
Queen Victoria, the then
Queen of the
United Kingdom in
1843. The name Victoria is rarely used today except to refer to the
Victoria Park and the
harbour. It was misquoted as the capital of Hong Kong during its time as a colony of the United Kingdom, but many government and administrative offices of Hong Kong are located there.
The City originally covered the present-day
Central,
Admirality and part of
Sheung Wan on
Hong Kong Island. In
1857, the British government expanded the scope of Victoria City and divided it into four
"wans". The four
wans are
Sai Wan (present-day
Kennedy Town and
Sai Ying Pun,
Sheung Wan (present-day
Sheung Wan),
Choong Wan or
Chung Wan (present-day
Central) and
Ha Wan (present-day
Wanchai). The four
wans (Literally translates to the English word "rings") are further divided into nine
"yeuks" (similar to "district" or "neighbourhood"). The coverage also included parts of
East Point and
Happy Valley (West of Wong Nai Chung Road on the east side of the Racecourse).
In
1903, six boundary stones were established to mark the City's boundary and are still preserved today.
*
History of Hong Kong*
List of buildings, sites and areas in Hong Kong*
List of places named for Queen Victoria, for a list of places named after Queen Victoria
*
Boundary of the City of Victoria as defined in Hong Kong Laws, Cap 1 SCHED 1 of Hong Kong Law
*
Article on history of Hong Kong (in Chinese)
*
Photos of the 1903 boundary stones *
A article on the "four wans and nine yeuks" in Chinese (
Adobe PDF format)
*
Another article on "four wans and nine yeuks" (in Simplified Chinese)
zh-yue:維多利亞城
