Hong Kong architectural gems saved from the wrecking ball - five you should see, from Lantau to the northern New Territories

Against the odds in profit-mad, land-scarce Hong Kong, more than 120 valuable old buildings have been declared monuments, sparing them the wrecking ball

From a Hakka mansion to a Qing dynasty fort and a former police station, we have picked five worth a visit, and suggested places where you can eat afterwards

Reading Time:4 minutes

The Old Stanley Police Station building is one of Hong Kong’s 120 declared monuments – and is open every day and free to enter thanks to it being a supermarket. Photo: SCMP

Published: 9:15am, 6 Feb 2022Updated: 9:29am, 6 Feb 2022

Hong Kong does reclamation better than it handles renovation. It reveres brand-new, glittery structures of steel and glass rather than a centuries-old pile of bricks.

Still, here and there across the city can be found more than 120 of what the government’s Antiquities and Monuments Office calls dedicated monuments – but which someone with a more poetic turn of phrase might describe as “treasures of Hong Kong”.

These architectural gems have been left standing where dozens of other historic structures such as Queen’s Pier and the Hong Kong Club building erected in 1897 have been bulldozed in the pursuit of profit and progress.

The Heritage Discovery Centre in Kowloon Park, Tsim Sha Tsui, for example, is housed in two former barrack blocks, shaded by towering banyans which must have been planted when the British army set up camp here in the 1890s.

It makes an excellent starting point for an alternative tour of Hong Kong via some of its “dedicated monuments”:

1. Fat Tat Tong, Sha Tau Kok

Nothing blighted the New Territories quite so much as the small-house policy, introduced 50 years ago, that granted indigenous adult male villagers the right to build a home in their own backyard.