Hong Kong Snapshot (69) – the biggest Flower Market of HK and its history with “Burning of the Old Summer Palace” 香港隨拍 (69) – 旺角花墟市場及它與「火燒圓明園」的關係

In the centre of Hong Kong, we find a place called “Mong Kok”. The meaning of Mong Kok in Chinese is “prosperous corner”. So we may know that Mong Kok is one of the major shopping areas in HK. Mong Kok was described as the busiest district in the world and broke the Guinness World Records. It is also a must-go district for tourists.
In this busy district, we can find a flower market, which is the biggest flower market in HK. We don’t have a name for this market. We just call it “the Flower Market”. Long time ago I started to wonder why there is a flower market in a shopping area. Later when I knew more about HK history, I found it’s related to the history of HK, and even related to one of the most important incident of China history – Burning of the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan)!

在香港的中心有一個地方，叫旺角，顧名思義，旺角是香港最「旺」的地區，它的人口密度位於世界的前列，曾打破健力士世界紀錄，也是遊客必到的潮流之地。而在這個最旺之地，卻有一個與其格格不入的鮮花市園，且是香港最大的鮮花市場。這個鮮花市場沒有一個特別的名字，我們就叫它做花墟，很久以前我就很想知道為何香港最大的鮮花市場會在旺角，後來了解香港歷史，才知道它與香港歷史緊緊相扣，更可說是因「火燒圓明園」事件造成。

Continued from the story of last posts. Britain and France formed alliance and attacked China in 1856. Later USA and Russia joined. In 1858, China signed the Treaty of Tientsin. The Treaty was not related to HK and it should be the end of the war. But when the diplomat of Britain, France and USA went Beijing in 1859, China required them to follow the assigned route but was refused. It made the war break out again.
In 1860, Kowloon was leased to Britain. At the same year, the alliance of Britain and France entered Beijing and burnt the Old Summer Palace, which was the biggest Imperial Gardens in the world. The fire kept totally 3 days! China was afraid that they would burn the Imperial Palace (The Forbidden City) also and finally signed the “Convention of Beijing”. Kowloon was ceded to Britain.

接回上一回的故事，1856年英法兩國聯攻中國，後來美國及俄國加入，令中國在1858年簽署天津條約，但這條約與香港無關。1859年，英、法、美三個公使出使北京，清廷要求他們沿指定路線進入北京但遭拒，令到清朝與其中英法兩國再度交戰。1860年，如上一篇文章所說，英國租借了九龍的土地，同年英法攻入北京，更放火燒了當時全世界最大的花園圓明園，聞說這場大火足足燒了三天才燒完。當這座皇家花園都被燒了，清廷害怕英法聯軍會將紫禁城都燒掉，最後與英法兩國簽訂了《北京條約》，九龍正式被割讓給英國。

Drawing of the scene “Burning of Old Summer Palace”
(photo source: website of Yuan Ming Palace in Hengdian World Studios)

According to my last post, Kowloon was leased to Britain in 1860. They drew a line on the map and it was the boundary line of the lease. After the Convention of Beijing, it became the boundary line of the two countries. There were three ports of entry through the boundary line. The ports were only opened during day time. One of the ports was located at Mong Kok. At the time, Monk Kok was a big piece of farm. People planted vegetable and flowers. After the boundary line was set, people of the north carried the flowers they planted to the south and sell. Eventually, the place where they sold flowers became a market of flowers, and we now call it the “Flower Market”.

如上文所說，英國與中國在九龍劃了一條線作為租界，經過《北京條約》後，這條租界變成國界，這條國界就是今天的界限街。整條界限街只有三個地方在日間開於給市民出入，而在今天旺角的一帶，就有著其中一個出入口。當年的旺角是一片農地，種稙著花朵和蔬菜，旺角被界限街分割後，位於北界的農民，每天都會帶著種好的鮮花，穿過國界，到南方擺賣，經過多年歲月，這個擺賣的地方逐漸成為今天的花墟。

Old photos of the boundary line and the farms!
(Photo Source: Apple Daily)

We can find a lot of interesting stories from the name of the streets in HK. There are three streets in the Flower Market: Flower Market Road, Yuen Ngai Street (Horticulture Street) and Yuen Po Street (Gardening Street). Beside the Flower Market, there are two roads called the Tung Choi Street (Spinach Street) and the Sai Yeung Choi Street (Watercress Street). We may know that they were the farm of Spinach and Watercress! Although the two streets become shopping area now, the Flower Market is still the Flower Market.

香港的街道名字都是很有趣的，從它們的名字我們大約可以猜到它們的故事，今天的花墟有幾條街道，分別是花墟道、園藝街、園圃街，而花墟附近有一條通菜街，亦是因它以前是通菜農地而命名，還有西洋菜街也是，不過今天通菜街和西洋菜街而成為購物區，只剩下花墟，仍是花墟。

I visited the Flower Market during the Chinese New Year. So there were also a lot of tangerine selling! But, there were also many many people! I could not take good photos! If you like flowers, you must visit the Flower Market! There are almost 100 flower shops and also lot of accessories shops! You must find something you like!

我到訪花墟的那天正值農曆新年，故除了花之外，也有很多年桔出售。不過，當時買花的人太多了，真的很多！多到我根本不能好好拍照，所以，未能拍下一些很好的照片！不過我想說，如果你是愛花之人，一定要到訪花墟，這裡有近一百家花店，也有很多周邊產品出售，你一定會找到你的心頭好！

After getting Kowloon, Britain also get the New Territories in 1898. But we won’t talk about it now. We will talk about the development of HK in these years first. In the next post, we will talk about the pirates of HK! See you!

英國得到九龍後，在39年後的1898年再得到了新界。不過，我們就先不說英國租借新界的經過，下一回，我們回看一下這些年來香港的發展，首先我們會說的是海盗，下回見！

!steemitworldmap 22.3261114 lat 114.1703687 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！