A historic account of afforestation and tree planting campaign in Hong Kong, from 1872–1890.
The afforestation campaign in Hong Kong, which officially began in 1872 and tapered towards the end of the 19th century, was an extensive operation to plant millions of trees within the city and on the hills of Hong Kong. The afforestation of Hong Kong would create a sense of colonial civility and health that would secure the future of the port city as an official colony and transform the ‘barren-rock’ into a liveable city.
The afforestation campaign, led by the Gardens and Tree Planting Department, later known as the Gardens and Plantations Department and finally the Botanic and Afforestation Department, [1] agglomerated the street tree planting operations formerly carried out by the Surveying Department, and took on the massive task of vegetating Hong Kong’s hills too. [2] In historical narrative, the hills are believed to have been deforested by Chinese settlers in the Song Dynasty for fuel and timber and remained bare for years. When colonialists arrived, all that remained was ‘barren rock.’ [3] Colonialists took on a mission of afforestation, the process of introducing trees to an unforested area. This mission would contribute to a healthy, thriving and productive foundation for the colony, and ensure its recognition and long-term prosperity as an official British colony.
First impressions and Colonial anxieties
Hong Kong is known to be a bustling economic hub, but when colonial settlers first arrived, it was hardly seen as such. The island of Hong Kong was often described as being a ‘barren rock’ [4] and hence infertile, impoverished, lacking and deficient. Lord Stanley, in 1843, three years after Hong Kong’s handover to the British, even believed that ‘Hong Kong could never be a colony’ due to its ‘limited size, and its barrenness that could never produce the necessities of life’. [5] Moreover, it was an island with plentiful wastelands (marshes and wetlands). [6] The bare hills of Hong Kong and its wastelands triggered the anxieties colonialists had over the productivity, sustainability and success of the colony. The bare hills and wastelands reminded the colonialists that the island was yet to be officially tamed, settled and cultivated.
yond concerns regarding resource productivity, colonialists were concerned about the island’s climate and biogeography on human health. In early writings, the island was described as ‘destructive to sea men and troops’ who often fell severely ill. [7] The tropical climate was believed to be harmful to European health, where the bare rocks amplified the affects of heat, and ‘unhealthy’ bodies such as marshes, paddy fields and wetlands brought disease. [8] The environmental inhospitality of the island would need to be addressed to create a suitable place for the Crown’s occupation.
Colonialists believed that urban greenery could be the solution. As a result of changing and industrializing conditions in their own homelands, and wariness of urban ailments, colonialists developed a sensibility towards the necessity of urban greenery to combat the environmental and health impacts of urbanization. [9] Tree planting was believed to ‘add to the health of the colony,” and even small improvements in plantings on the hills and in the city were found to notably improve the health of the colony. [10] Afforestation and tree planting in conjunction with the construction of parks made Hong Kong a productive, livable city that established the colony’s enduring civilization.
Trees and Health
Tree planting on streets and afforestation over the island was advocated for frequently on the basis of ‘hygienic and sanitary means.’ [11] Seen as essential to the success of the colony, the ambitions and urgency for tree planting were often high, as reported in exchanges between the Superintendent of the Afforestation Department, the Surveyor General and the Governor’s office. In the first year, 1872, 2,616 trees were planted along the streets, in recreation grounds, and the ravines of Victoria Peak. [12] By, 1877, 76,455 trees had been planted, with between 5,000 and 20,000 being planted a year. [13] As favor for the trees grew, and planting practices were perfected, the number of trees planted per year also grew. By 1890, half a million trees were regularly planted per year. [14] Plantings were both strategic and expansive. With strategic plantings, colonialists could achieve specific health outcomes, such as the riddance of miasmic air and sites, as well achieve disease control, and resource protection. At the landscape level, afforestation created climatic changes to benefit European health.
Trees were believed to ameliorate ‘unhealthy areas’ and foul air, of which Hong Kong was believed to have plenty of, and prevent associated disease. In 1852, Robert Fortune, a botanist advised the planting of street trees in Hong Kong to combat poor air, to ‘decompose the toxic carbonic acid in the atmosphere’ and make it fit for respiration. [15] In 1853, the Surgeon General too urged the government to undertake more tree planting for health. [16]
Tree plantings were of particular importance in areas where miasma was strongest, such as cemeteries and low-lying water-logged land. Plantings were encouraged around burial grounds for ‘hygienic treatment’ and ‘sanitary improvement’ too. [17] Trees were valuable on cemeteries where the roots of plants could convert the decomposing matter into health giving, living vegetable matter and absorb injurious gases which emanated from soil’, and ‘assimilated the unhealthy matter.’ The drainage and afforestation of low-lying wet areas and wastelands was also common practice. For example, the low-lying area of Wong Nei Chong Valley, was drained and converted into a recreational ground, whereas the surrounding area was planted heavily to both clean the air, and to prevent flooding and pooling.[18] Wastelands, marshes and wetlands were planted and converted into woodlands to keep miasma at bay and to generate greater ‘productivity.’ [19]
While trees were used to combat miasma and miasmic ills, they were also used to combat Hong Kong Fever, the mysterious and widespread illness that would later be known as malaria. Hong Kong Fever was a severe disease that broke out numerous times among troops during British occupation and threatened the colonial mission, especially early on. [20] The planting of eucalyptus and camphor from Australia, were used as a ‘prophylactic’ and sanitary agent against malaria. [21] Draining low-lying water collecting areas and afforesting the surrounding areas, which began with miasma, was now done to combat malaria. Colonialist made ‘small plantations in the more malarious districts of the island.’ [22] Trees were used as ‘sanitary agents’ [23]to target specific ailments and to protect the human capital that sustained the city.
Plantings around the ravines of the peak, and reservoir also protected the essential resources, of water and soil, that granted the colony life. For example, planting in Pok Fu Lam, near the reservoir, was advocated as ‘beneficial to water supply by consolidating the ground and thus neutralising the evils which have arisen from the extensive earth movements within this area.’ [24]
Afforestation protected resources such as water and soil, but also was promoted timber resources. Afforestation granted resource stability, promoting the colony’s prosperity through health and resource wealth.
Afforestation, while creating site specific responses, also worked on a massive scale to acclimatize Hong Kong, for colonial settler comfort. Trees provided shade and cooling both on the streets and the forested hills provided ambient cooling.
As Hong Kong grew rather organically, operating without a master plan, trees were planted opportunistically — “in open places where shade was required, and where trees were likely to grow.” [25] Tree plantings were opportunistic but also strategized for colonial success. For example, tree plantings were abundant on the commercial street of Queen’s Road, where they provided the comfort for economic activity to thrive below.
Colonialists planted colonial areas abundantly with trees. The parade grounds, the colonial recreation grounds and residential areas all possessed tree canopies to shade and cool their colonial inhabitants. [26] The hills, specifically the Peak, where white colonial houses were perched to receive the cooling effects of elevation, were also uncoincidentally a primary target for afforestation. With the climatic cooling provided by afforestation, colonial settlers were protected from the harshest heat of the tropics, which allowed them to stay and develop roots in the colony. The Chinese neighborhood of Tai Ping Shan, on the other hand was considered too dense, too steep and too narrow to be planted with trees. [27] The geopolitical placement of tree plantings no less is indicative of the ways in which the campaign, and the Afforestation Department worked for the prosperity of the colony. The relentless effort to afforest the hills on masse too was critical to the overall mission of creating a cooler, more hospitable colony for colonial settlers.
Colonial civility
Afforestation within the city and among the hills established a healthy foundation for the colony but also symbolized an establishment of material wealth and stability. Under the afforestation and tree planting campaign, Hong Kong was transformed from a primitive ‘barren-rock,’ to a thriving, healthy and robust colonial civilization.
Within the city, ‘due attention was paid to select shade trees for roads and public walks’ [28] and functional streets became covered with a lush canopy. ‘Trees in streets were then systematically pruned and reduced to shape, suitable dimension’[29] bringing an aesthetic of western civility to the streets on Hong Kong. The establishment of trees indicated that the colony had moved on from being a temporary encampment of military occupation. Tree planting indicated that the colonialists were here to stay, to build lives, and were invested in bringing European civility to the colony.
The afforested hills of Hong Kong, the greatest feat of the Afforestation Department, also indicated the stability, sustainability and prosperity the island would hold for the Crown.
A persistent blight, the ‘naked,’ ‘bald,’ [30] hills perceived to be infertile and impoverished, had been doggedly and obsessively planted as a part of the colonial mission to settle and civilise Hong Kong, and were now sufficiently productive and green. In 1890 the Superintendent of the Afforestation Department reported that the afforestation campaign had been successful enough, where the “planted trees have attained sufficient dimensions to catch the eye from adjacent or distant roads which the public travel have effected a most marked and beautiful effect compared with the once barren and naked appearance of the hill.” [31] The greened hills no longer revealed the desperation for fuel and timber which drove their deforestation nor the primitive grazing activities of the locals. The transition towards preservation and resource abundance on the hills implied a superior, civilised economy, material wealth and prosperity. Now forested and growing in lushness, Hong Kong invited investment and tourism.
Afforesting the hills brought visual civility to the colony. The city now had a view towards a forest and the government houses and colonial residences which were situated on the hills [32], now also had a lush backdrop to match the grandeur of their homes.
The satisfaction in with the results of the afforestation campaign also indicated to the Colonialists that their duty in colonising and settling Hong Kong was complete. The afforestation and tree planting campaign had planted colonial civility in Hong Kong and was promised to grow.
Hong Kong was a hot, unhealthy and unsuitable environment for European settlers at first arrival. It’s barren, harsh and disease-ridden landscape even threatened the colonial project. The afforestation and tree campaign, however, was a god — like intervention to secure its success and promise prosperity.
Over a century later, afforestation has been a tactic for securing elite reputations of urban prosperity and affluence. In cities like Vancouver and Singapore, urban tree canopy has become a symbol of livability, prosperity, modernity, and progressiveness. The canopy is an attribute of cities thriving on a tertiary economy, where timber and resource extraction has been outsourced. Its a symbol of an economic, wealth and class divide.
Figures
Figure 1: Roger Gibbons. View of the Peak, Hong Kong, January 1, 1910, color print. Gwulo, accessed December 2020, https://gwulo.com/node/36126/photos
Figure 2: Uploaded by Keith D.P. Wilson, ‘Barren and tree-less’ Victoria Peak, Hong Kong Island viewed from Mt. Gough ca 1870. in “Odonata recolonization of Hong Kong’s Forests.” (paper presented at the 17th International Symposium of Odonatology, Hong Kong, 30th July — 5th August 2006), Photograph, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Barren-and-tree-less-Victoria-Peak-Hong-Kong-Island-viewed-from-Mt-Gough-ca-1870_fig1_274069476
Figure 3: Lai Fong (Afong). Plate 10: Pedder Wharf 1880s. Photograph. Marine Department, accessed December 2020, https://www.mardep.gov.hk/theme/port_hk/en/p1ch3_5.html; https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/13/d9cdee68-85a5-11e8-99b0-7de4d17a9c3a_972x_131726.jpg
Figure 4: Original Site of Possession Point ( Shui Hang Hau), Hollywood Road Park, 1930, Photograph, Antiquities and Monuments Office, accessed December 2020, https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_sheungwan1.php?tid=29
Figure 5: Plan of Victoria, in The Directory & chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c.: with which are incorporated “The China directory” and “The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East” (Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office, 1879): 244. Accessed from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082429253&view=1up&seq=288&q1=pLAN%20%20OF%20VICTORIA
Figure 6: William Pryor Floyd, Hong Kong: the waterfall at Pokfulum, 1873, 20 x 25 cm, albumen photoprint, Wellcome Collection, accessed December 2020, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/u5kmey49.
Figure 7: Plan of the City of Victoria 1905, Map, originally published in The Directory & chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c.: with which are incorporated “The China directory” and “The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East” (Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office, 1905), republished by Chinarail, Gwulo , accessed December 2020, https://gwulo.com/atom/24022, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b581040&view=1up&seq=65
Figure 8: John Thomson, Lanterns and decorations in Queen’s Road, Hong Kong, 1 November 1869, Black and white photograph, National Archives, Kew London, accessed from https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/na16-002
Figure 9: Victoria Barracks. 1870. Black and white photograph, 25 x 20 cm, Hong Kong: Museum of History, accessed from mmis.hkpl.gov.hk
Figure 10: 1900 Panorama of Hong Kong. 1900. Gwulo, accessed from https://gwulo.com/node/33301
Figure 11: William Pryor Floyd, Tai Ping Shan (Chinese quarter), Hong Kong, 1868, Vacher-Hilditch Collection, Bath royal Literary and Scientific Institution, accessed from https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/vh03-38
Figure 12: Lai Fong (Afong). The Grove, May 161879in Grant’s world Tour China, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 1879. Photograph. Accessed from https://www.loc.gov/item/2015650862; https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/13/f342273c-85a6-11e8-99b0-7de4d17a9c3a_972x_131726.jpg
Figure 13: George Ernest Morrison, Botanical Gardens and the Albany 1870, 1870, Gwulo accessed https://gwulo.com/atom/27938
Figure 14: Andrew Robert Kinross, View from The Peak, Hong Kong, 1898, Gwulo accessed December 2020 https://gwulo.com/atom/15189.
Figure 15: 1950s Central Waterfront. 1950, Gwulo accessed December 2020, https://gwulo.com/atom/14509
Notes
[1] J.M. Price, “Report of the Superintendent of Gardens and Plantation,” The Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 181 (July, 1880): 575–576. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1880/684481.pdf; Charles Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890” The Hong Kong Government Gazette. no. 26 (June, 1891): 317. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/s1891/1310.pdf
[2] Charles Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Government Gardens” The Hong Kong Government Gazette 19, no. 15 (December 1872): 33–35.https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1873/697435.pdf
[3] Keith D.P. Wilson. “Odonata recolonization of Hong Kong’s Forests” (paper presented at the 17th International Symposium of Odonatology, Hong Kong, 30th July — 5th August 2006): 8, 9. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274069476_Odonata_recolonisation_of_Hong_Kong’s_Forests
[4] J. M. Price. “Tree Planting” The Hong Kong Government Gazette. no. 103 (August 1877): 507, 509. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1877/691303.pdf
[5] Robert Montgomery Martin, “Memorandum on Hong Kong for Lord Stanley,” Reports, minutes, and despatches on the British position and prospects in China. (London: Harrison, 1846), 29.;Meaghan Jeannine Marian, “Fever Dreams: Infectious Disease, Epidemic Events, and the Making of Hong Kong.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2016. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/89282/1/Marian_Meaghan_J_201606_PhD_thesis.pdf
[6] Price. “Tree Planting,” 508
[7] John Wilson, Medical notes on China (London: J. Churchill, 1846), 161; Marian, “Fever Dreams,” 40.
[8] Marian, “Fever Dreams,” 50.
[9] Gregory Barton, “Empire Forestry and the origins of environmentalism,” Journal of Historical Geography 27, no. 4 (2001): 529–533. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhge.2001.0353; James Beattie, Empire and Environmental Anxiety (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011): 1–30.
[10] Price. “Tree Planting,” 509.; J.D. Humphries, “Tree Planting,” Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 103 (October 1877): 510.
[11] John Pope Hennessy, “Government Notification: Despatches on Tree Planting,” The Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 116 (February 1881): 89, 90. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1881/680677.pdf; Price, “Tree Planting,” 506.
[12] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Government Gardens,” 34.
[13] Charles Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of Gardens and Plantations,” Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 181(July 1880): 576.
[14] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890”
[15] Robert Fortune, “Chapter 1” in a A Journey to the Tea Countries of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012): 5.
[16] Mathew Robert Pryor. “Street Tree Planting in Hong Kong in the Early Colonial Period (1842–98),” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 55 (2015): 42. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jroyaaisasocihkb.55.33
[17] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890,” 324.
[18] Marian, “Fever Dreams,” 45.
[19] Price, “Tree Planting,” 508.
[20] Christopher Cowell. “The Hong Kong Fever of 1843: Collective Trauma and the Reconfiguring of Colonial Space.” Modern Asian Studies 47, no. 2 (2013): 329–64. doi:10.1017/S0026749X12000418
[21] Price, “Tree Planting,” 507.; Hennessy, “Government Notification: Despatches on Tree Planting,” 89–90.
[22] Price, “Tree Planting,” 507.
[23] Robert Peckham, “Hygienic Nature: Afforestation and the greening of colonial Hong Kong.” Modern Asian Studies (December 2014): 26. doi:10.1017/ S0026749X13000620
[24] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890,” 324.
[25] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Government Gardens,” 34.
[26] Pryor. “Street Tree Planting in Hong Kong in the Early Colonial Period (1842–98),” 40.
[27] Ibid. 36.
[28] Price, “Tree Planting,” 507.
[29] Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890,” 323–324.
[30] Price, “Tree Planting,” 507; Ford, “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890,” 322.
[31] Ibid.
[32] Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore. East to the West: A Guide to the Principal Cities of the Straits Settlements, China and Japan and the Great Railway Route Across the American Continent. (China: Canadian Pacific Railway Company, 1898): 16–17.
Bibliography
Antiquities and Monuments Office. Original Site of Possession Point ( Shui Hang Hau), Hollywood Road Park. 1930. Photograph, Antiquities and Monuments Office. Accessed December 2020. https://www.amo.gov.hk/en/trails_sheungwan1.php?tid=29
Barton, Gregory. “Empire Forestry and the origins of environmentalism,” Journal of Historical Geography 27, no. 4 (2001): 529–533. https://doi.org/10.1006/jhge.2001.0353
Beattie, James. Empire and Environmental Anxiety. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2011): 1–30. http://www.library.uc.edu.kh/userfiles/pdf/9.Empire%20and%20environmental%20anxiety%20health%20science%20art%20and%20conservation%20in%20South%20Asia%20and%20Australasia%201800-1920.pdf
Cowell, Christopher. “The Hong Kong Fever of 1843: Collective Trauma and the Reconfiguring of Colonial Space.” Modern Asian Studies 47, no. 2 (2013): 329–64. doi:10.1017/S0026749X12000418
Floyd, William Pryor. Hong Kong: the waterfall at Pokfulum. 1873, 20 x 25 cm. photoprint albumen. Wellcome Collection. Accessed December 2020. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/u5kmey49.
Floyd, William Pryor. Tai Ping Shan (Chinese quarter), Hong Kong. 1868. Vacher-Hilditch Collection. Bath royal Literary and Scientific Institution. Accessed December 2020. from https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/vh03-38
Fong, Lai (Afong). Plate 10: Pedder Wharf 1880s. Photograph. Marine Department. Accessed December 2020. https://www.mardep.gov.hk/theme/port_hk/en/p1ch3_5.html; https://cdn2.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/13/d9cdee68-85a5-11e8-99b0-7de4d17a9c3a_972x_131726.jpg
Fong, Lai (Afong). The Grove. May 161879in Grant’s world Tour China, Hong Kong. Hong Kong, China. 1879. Photograph. Accessed from https://www.loc.gov/item/2015650862; https://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2018/07/13/f342273c-85a6-11e8-99b0-7de4d17a9c3a_972x_131726.jpg
Ford, Charles. “Report of the Superintendent of the Government Gardens” The Hong Kong Government Gazette 19, no. 15 (December 1872): 33–35.https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1873/697435.pdf
Ford, Charles. “Report of the Superintendent of Gardens and Plantations,” Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 181(July 1880): 576–578.
Ford, Charles. “Report of the Superintendent of the Botanical and Afforestation Department for 1890” The Hong Kong Government Gazette. no. 26 (June 1891): 317–325. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/s1891/1310.pdf
Fortune, Robert. “Chapter 1” In A Journey to the Tea Countries of China: Including Sung-Lo and the Bohea Hills; with a Short Notice of the East India Company’s Tea Plantations in the Himalaya Mountains, 1–18. Cambridge Library Collection — Travel and Exploration in Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139198554.003.
Gibbons, Roger. View of the Peak, Hong Kong. January 1, 1910. Color print. Gwulo, Accessed December 2020. https://gwulo.com/node/36126/photos
Gwulo. 1950s Central Waterfront. 1950. Gwulo. Accessed December 2020. https://gwulo.com/atom/14509
Gwulo. 1900 Panorama of Hong Kong. 1900. Gwulo, Accessed December 2020. https://gwulo.com/node/33301
Hong Kong Museum of History. Victoria Barracks. 1870. Black and white photograph. 25 x 20 cm. Hong Kong: Museum of History. Accessed December 2020. mmis.hkpl.gov.hk.
Hennessy, John Pope “Government Notification: Despatches on Tree Planting,” The Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 116 (February 1881): 89–92. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1881/680677.pdf
J.D. Humphries, “Tree Planting,” Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 103 (October 1877): 510. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1877/691303.pdf
Kinross, Andrew Robert. View from The Peak, Hong Kong. 1898. Gwulo. accessed December 2020 https://gwulo.com/atom/15189.
Marian, Meaghan Jeannine, “Fever Dreams: Infectious Disease, Epidemic Events, and the Making of Hong Kong.” PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2016. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/89282/1/Marian_Meaghan_J_201606_PhD_thesis.pdf
Martin, Robert Montgomery. “Memorandum on Hong Kong for Lord Stanley”. Reports, minutes, and despatches on the British position and prospects in China. London: Harrison, 1846.
Morrison, George Ernest. Botanical Gardens and the Albany 1870. 1870. Gwulo. Accessed December 2020. https://gwulo.com/atom/27938
Price, J.M. “Tree Planting” The Hong Kong Government Gazette. no. 103 (August 1877): 506–510. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1877/691303.pdf
Price, J.M. “Report of the Superintendent of Gardens and Plantation,” The Hong Kong Government Gazette no. 181 (July 1880): 575–576. https://lib.hku.hk/hkgro/view/g1880/684481.pdf
Pryor, Mathew Robert. “Street Tree Planting in Hong Kong in the Early Colonial Period (1842–98),” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Vol. 55 (2015): 42. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/jroyaaisasocihkb.55.33
Peckham, Robert. “Hygienic Nature: Afforestation and the greening of colonial Hong Kong.” Modern Asian Studies (December 2014). doi:10.1017/ S0026749X13000620
Scidmore, Eliza Ruhamah. East to the West: A Guide to the Principal Cities of the Straits Settlements, China and Japan and the Great Railway Route Across the American Continent. China: Canadian Pacific Railway Company, 1898: 16–17. https://books.google.ca/books?id=spHVAAAAMAAJ&dq=East+to+west+%22+all+the+luxuriant+green+of+the+slopes+is+due+to+mans+agency&source=gbs_navlinks_s
The Hongkong Daily Press Office. Plan of Victoria, in The Directory & chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c.: with which are incorporated “The China directory” and “The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East” (Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office, 1879): 244. Accessed from https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433082429253&view=1up&seq=288&q1=pLAN%20%20OF%20VICTORIA
The Hongkong Daily Press Office. Plan of the City of Victoria 1905, Map, originally published in The Directory & chronicle for China, Japan, Corea, Indo-China, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Netherlands India, Borneo, the Philippines, &c.: with which are incorporated “The China directory” and “The Hongkong directory and Hong list for the Far East” (Hong Kong: The Hongkong Daily Press Office, 1905), republished by Chinarail, Gwulo , accessed December 2020, https://gwulo.com/atom/24022, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b581040&view=1up&seq=65
Thomson, John. Lanterns and decorations in Queen’s Road, Hong Kong. 1 November 1869.Black and white photograph. National Archives, Kew, London. Accessed from December 2020. https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/na16-002
Wilson, Keith D.P. “Odonata recolonization of Hong Kong’s Forests” Paper presented at the 17th International Symposium of Odonatology, Hong Kong, 30th July — 5th August 2006. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274069476_Odonata_recolonisation_of_Hong_Kong’s_Forests
Wilson, John. Medical notes on China. London: J. Churchill, 1846.
