Hong Kong Snapshot (68) – Boundary Street, A Boundary in Hong Kong 香港隨拍 (68) - 界限街, 分隔中英兩地的界限線

The CNY Holiday ended, and my CNY series ended also. HK Snapshot is back! The recent posts of HK snapshot are following the history of HK. So, the topic today will be the Boundary Street.

愉快的新年假期結束了，我這幾天的新年系列文章也完結了，香港隨拍又回來了！這一段時間的香港隨拍都是追隨著香港的歷史而走，所以這次的主角將是界限街。

Boundary Street is a long street in Kowloon. From its name “Boundary”, you may figure out something. So what does this “boundary” actually mean? It was the former boundary between British Hong Kong and China.

界限街是位於九龍的一條街道，大家看它的中文名字「界限」可能覺得不夠清楚，但看它的英文名字「Boundary Street」，就會知道這條街跟邊界有關，什麼邊界？這條街曾經時英屬香港與中國的邊界線。

Let us go back to year 1856. In 1856, a ship called the “Arrow”, which was registered in Hong Kong, arrived Guangzhou. The Chinese fleet suspected that the ship was involved in smuggling. They searched the ship and arrested 12 sailors. Later, the captain said that the fleet tore a British flag. The British demanded an apology but the Chinese refused. The incident was later named as “The Arrow Incident”. At the dame year, Father Auguste Chapdelaine, a French Catholic missionsary was killed in China. Because of the two incidents, France and UK formed an alliance and attacked China in the next year. We now call it “The Second Opium War”.

故事回到1856年，一隻在香港註冊，名為「亞羅號」的船在廣州停泊，中國水軍懷疑該船走私，便上船搜查及扣留了十二名水手。事後，亞羅號船長聲稱中國官員在船上撕毀英國船隻，英方要求中方道歉，但中方拒絕道歉，這事件被後人稱為「亞羅號事件」。同年，法國傳教士在中國廣西西林被殺，史稱「西林教案」，這兩件事促成了英國及法國合作，在1857年攻打中國，史稱「第二次鴉片戰爭」。

A picture of the Arrow Incident descripted by the captain
一幅描述了船長口中亞羅號事件的畫像
(photo from Wikipedia)

The War lasted for 4 years. In 1860, the British sent 10,000 local and Indian soldiers to reinforce. When they arrived HK, they just landed Kowloon, which was still under China. At the same time, Harry Smith Parkes, the acting British Consul in Guangzhou, sent a letter to Lao Chongguang and said that “the bad status of Kowloon Peninsula will affect the profit of Great Britain in Hong Kong”. He requested renting Kowloon with annual fee 500 taels of silver. The agreement will remain valid until Britain stop it. At that moment, Guangzhou was already under the control of France and Britain. What can Lao say? So, they drew a line of the HK map and the south of the line was what we so call Kowloon. The line is now called the Boundary Street.

這場戰爭一直打了4年，在1860年，英軍在本土及印度再組一萬名士兵支援戰事，來到香港時，便強行登陸九龍做行軍的準備。同時，英國駐廣州領事巴夏禮致函兩廣總督，稱「九龍半島的混亂狀態對維護英國利益帶來不利之處」，要求以每年500兩銀的租金租借九龍半島，只要英國一直交租金，租約就一直保持。當時的廣州根本就在英法聯軍的控制，勞崇光又如何敢說不，結果，雙方在香港地圖上劃了一條界線，界線以南的地方就是租借給英國的九龍，那條界線，就是今日的界限街。

The “Boundary Line” on the map 當年雙方所劃的界限線
(photo from Wikipedia)

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At that time, the Boundary was just a chain link fence. It was opened at the day time and closed at night. It was the boundary between British HK and China until 1898 when the New Territories was leased to the British. in 1934, the HK Government started to develop Kowloon Tong and so built the “Boundary Street” on the boundary line.
Time passes and we may see that Boundary Street is just a normal street. But you may find that most houses around the street are quite old. Also, we can found that except Kowloon Tong, almost all area north of Boundary Street was not developed until the 1970s. It’s all related to this “boundary line” and also the lease of the New Territories. But I won’t talk about it now until we go to the topic of the New Territories. Oh sorry forgot to say. HK is mainly divided into HK Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. The divide is based on the 3 cessions and lease of HK in 1842, 1860 and 1898 respectively.

這條界限街當年是一排的鐵絲網，只在每天的日間開放出入，直到1898年英國再租借新界為止。到了1934年，為配合九龍塘的發展，政府就在這條界線建了「界限街」。時移世易，今天的界限街已沒有什麼特別，不過你會留意到有大半條界限街兩旁的樓宇都比較舊。這是一個有趣的地方，而界限街以北的地方，除了九龍塘，其他地方一直到1970年代才開始陸續發展，這應該是跟英國後來只是「租借新界99年」有關，不過，我們留待故事去到新界才再說吧～對了忘記說了，香港現時共分為三個主要區域：香港島、九龍及新界，其分割是由三次分別於1842年，1860年及1898年香港的割讓及租借予英國決定的。

Part of the Boundary 當年其中一段的界線
(photo from the National Achieves)

There are many old HK houses in different shapes around the street 很多不同形狀的舊唐樓

West end of the street 西邊的盡頭

A cleaner on the street 街道上的清道夫

found a CNY accessories shop! 找到一家賣新年用品的店

Brothel on the street 這條街也有色情場所

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The Boundary line separated the people of the two places. But it also brought us a great place. It’s the most famous flower market in Hong Kong. The name of the flower market is just “Flower Market”. We will talk about it, and also the story of Kowloon from being leased to ceded in the next post.

雖然界限街從此分隔了兩地的人民，但它亦造就了一個地方的誕生，它就是今日香港最著名的鮮花市場，旺角花墟，下一次，我們來說說旺角花墟，還有，九龍由租借變成割讓的過程。

!steemitworldmap 22.3264532 lat 114.1653855 long d3scr

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Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！