Praya ( Chinese : 海旁 ; lit. 'next to the sea') was a term used in 19th-century Hong Kong to refer to a promenade by the waterfront. The name comes from the Portuguese word praia , which means "beach," but in China it came to mean a stone-faced waterfront road. In Hong Kong , it was a broad road running parallel along the harbour in front of the city. HSBC and Dent & Co. were just some of the major companies based in the area.
26-538: British occupation of Hong Kong Island began on 26 January 1841, and the colonial government held its first land sale on 14 June of that year. Purchasers were mostly the British, Indian and Parsee traders such as Dent, Jardines and Lindsay. These traders were mainly import and export merchants and required land with frontage along Victoria Harbour. Queen's Road , to the south, was the first road opened. The land lots acquired were subsequently much expanded and reclaimed from
52-473: A French Man-of-War . The latter book resulted from an invitation to join a French ship put into service for the Bishop of Samoa so that he could visit remote parts of his far-flung diocese. Miss Gordon-Cumming received much criticism from male writers of the era, perhaps because she did not fit in the traditional Victorian role of women, as she often traveled alone and unaided. Henry Adams said her books are
78-811: A collection of anecdotes without much interest. In any case, her landscape drawings and watercolors seem to be universally admired. Gordon-Cumming visited Yosemite Valley in April 1878, after visiting Tahiti . She intended to visit for 3 days, but ended up staying 3 months. She says "I for one have wandered far enough over the wide world to know a unique glory when I am blessed by the sight of one . . ." She published her letters back home as Granite Crags in 1884. While in Yosemite Miss Gordon-Cumming also drew watercolor sketches, which she displayed in Yosemite Valley—;making it
104-416: A local songwriter, and Albert Leung have therefore composed Queen's Road East in 1991. This song was performed by the songwriter himself and Ram Cheung Chi Kwong (蔣志光) in 1991, to describe their fear of change once the communists have taken over. In the 1941 crime noir movie, "The Maltese Falcon", Humphrey Bogart's character (Sam Spade) looks into Mary Astor's character's (Brigid O' Shaughnessy) hat, there
130-480: A pocked dirt path that was prone to dust clouds and puddles of mud. On Christmas Day 1878, a fire broke out and destroyed a large area of the slums along Queen's Road. An eyewitness account was recorded by Constance Gordon-Cumming in her 1886 book Wanderings in China . The fire raged for 17 hours and burnt down 400 houses across a 10 acres (4.0 ha) area. Thousands of residents were left homeless. Nevertheless,
156-586: A series of land reclamation projects. The earliest series was known as Praya East Reclamation Scheme . The filled in area is known as today's Johnston Road and Hennessy Road in Wan Chai . The Hong Kong Tramways first opened its service in 1904 in Praya East. There are at least seven waterfront roads in Hong Kong that still retain the name praya: Queen%27s Road, Hong Kong Queen's Road
182-579: A thousand watercolors and worked with a motto to ‘never a day without at least one careful-coloured sketch’ starting her day at 5 am while in India. Places she visited include Australia , New Zealand , America , China , and Japan . She arrived in Hilo, Hawaii in October 1879, and was among the first artists to paint the active volcanoes. Her Hawaii travelogue, Fire Fountains: The Kingdom of Hawaii ,
208-626: A year there she wrote In the Himalayas and on the Indian Plains (1884). This was followed by, twelve years of enchanting travel which followed would never have been dreamt of, for link by link that pleasant chain wove itself , as she described it. Gordon-Cumming was a prolific travel writer and landscape painter who traveled the world, mostly in Asia and the Pacific. She painted over
234-467: Is a collection of roads along the northern coast of Hong Kong Island , in Hong Kong, within the limit of Victoria City . It was the first road in Hong Kong, constructed by the British between 1841 and 1843, spanning across Victoria City from Shek Tong Tsui to Wan Chai . At various points along the route, Queen's Road marks the original shoreline before land reclamation projects permanently extended land into Victoria Harbour . The four sections of
260-488: The Hong Kong governor . Hence many of the major Praya areas were named after him. The long names are usually "Bowring Praya East", "Bowring Praya Central" for example. The Praya Reclamation Scheme began in 1868 in this area. It was completed in 1873, adding significant land to Praya West and Central. Praya west is now Des Voeux Road West . Praya central is now Des Voeux Road Central . The Praya East area went through
286-617: The Victoria Harbour, Queen's Road East runs along the old, original shoreline of Hong Kong Island . Queen's Road has become an icon of the British Crown colony of Hong Kong . During the transition period before sovereignty transfer , there were rumours that all streets and roads named after the British and Commonwealth colonial figures, such as Queen's Road, would be renamed in honour of the Chinese communists . Lo Ta-yu ,
SECTION 10
#1732772672830312-573: The beach where Sir Henry Pottinger set up his tent in 1842. Originally named Main Street , it was officially renamed Queen's Road in March 1842 after Queen Victoria of the British Empire . It was mistakenly translated into Chinese as 皇后, meaning " queen consort ", instead of referring to the sovereign ruler (女皇). When Hong Kong was founded as a British Crown Colony in 1842, Queen's Road
338-611: The devastated ruins were recycled for reclamation adjacent to the area (modern-day Bonham Strand ). After the Great Fire of 1878, Queen's Road become home to some of Hong Kong's most expensive land and famous buildings. Queen's Road West (皇后大道西) runs from Sheung Wan to Shek Tong Tsui. It begins in Sheung Wan at the junction with Possession Street and ends where it meets the coastal road, Kennedy Town Praya. Queen's Road Central (皇后大道中) runs from Central to Sheung Wan . It
364-532: The development of Admiralty as a business district next to Central, this section was renamed Queensway (金鐘道) in 1967. It links Queen's Road Central to Queen's Road East and Hennessy Road . Queen's Road East (皇后大道東) runs between Wan Chai and Happy Valley . At the western end, Queen's Road East starts at a fork junction with Queensway and Hennessy Road near Justice Drive . Although situated inland and south of five trunk routes ( Gloucester Road , Jaffe Road , Lockhart Road , Hennessy Road and Johnston Road ) from
390-516: The first art exhibition in Yosemite. In 1879, while visiting Peking, China, Miss Gordon-Cumming met William Hill Murray, a Scottish missionary to China. He had invented the Numeral Type system, through which blind and illiterate Chinese learned to read and write, by assigning numbers to each of the 408 Chinese Mandarin sounds. Gordon-Cumming wrote a book (1899) about the system and supported
416-554: The grand-daughter of the Nile explorer James Bruce of Kinnaird. Her brother Alexander had been Canada while another, Roualeyn had been Africa where he had been famous as a big-game hunter. Another brother John was a planter in Ceylon while William was a soldier in India. William wrote about his hunting in "Wild Men and Wild Beasts" (1871) dedicated to Col. Walter Campbell ("The Old Forest Ranger"). Her travelling phase began around 1866 when she
442-538: The name changes to Queen's Road West. At the eastern end, it merges with Des Voeux Road Central to become Queensway at the junction of Garden Road . When Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese Empire from 1942 to 1945, Queen's Road Central was briefly renamed Meiji-dori, after Emperor Meiji, by the Japanese occupation government. Queensway was originally the westernmost section of Queen's Road East. After
468-410: The roads are, from west to east: Queen's Road West ( Chinese: 皇后大道西), Queen's Road Central (皇后大道中), Queensway (金鐘道), and Queen's Road East (皇后大道東). The road was originally 4 miles (6.5 km) long. The Royal Engineers built the first section to Sai Ying Pun with the help of 300 coolies from Kowloon (Hong Kong), then a territory of China. This section of Queen's Road ran parallel to
494-500: The sea without paying rent to the government. The first land reclamations after 1841 were private ones without any planning at all, making the shoreline very irregular. Lisa Lim of the South China Morning Post argued that the proximity of Macau meant that Hong Kongers kept using the word "praya" as opposed to the word "bund". A number of reclamation schemes took place around the time that John Bowring served as
520-519: The wealth of his wife and the name and arms of Gordon of Gordonstoun in 1804 and used the hyphenated double surname which was not consistently used by family members. She was born on 26 May 1837 at Altyre, near Forres in Scotland , the 12th child of a wealthy family. Her parents were Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming, 2nd Baronet , and Eliza Maria Gordon-Cumming , granddaughter of the Duke of Argyll. Eka
546-501: Was a maker's label that read; "Lucille Shop – Queen's Road C Hong Kong". Constance Gordon-Cumming Constance Frederica “Eka” Gordon-Cumming (26 May 1837 – 4 September 1924) was a Scottish travel writer and painter. Born in a wealthy family, she travelled around the world and painted described scenes and life as she saw them. She was a friend and influencer of the travel writers and artists Marianne North and Isabella Bird . Eka's grandfather Sir Alexander Cumming inherited
SECTION 20
#1732772672830572-619: Was in Loch Ness where her terminally ill brother Roualeyn was being nursed by another sister. In 1868 she went on a painting tour with her half-brother Frederick to the Western Islands. She taught herself how to paint, and had help from artists visiting her home, including one of Queen Victoria 's favorite painters, Sir Edwin Landseer . She also took an invitation from her half-sister Emilia Sergison to visit India and after spending
598-567: Was one of the first roads, along with Hollywood Road to be built by the British. The road became an important infrastructure to Queen's Town, which was later renamed the City of Victoria . Queen's Road Central intersects with the similarly named Queen Victoria Street , a short street perpendicular to the road and leads to a few blocks away from the International Finance Centre . At the western end of Queen's Road Central,
624-634: Was published in Edinburgh in 1883. She had several dangerous moments but her travel ended in 1880 when the Montana that she was on ran into rocks at Holyhead. While most of the passengers took the lifeboat, she stayed on last along with the captain to save her paintings and was rescued many hours later. She returned to live at Crieff with her widowed sister Eleanor and continued to write books. Her best known books are At Home in Fiji and A Lady's Cruise on
650-576: Was the aunt of Sir William Gordon-Cumming, 4th Baronet . Little is known about her early education but she would have had private home tutors. Her mother was interested in geology and was familiar with the works of Robert Murchison. A Swiss maid, Cherie, taught her French and after the death of her mother in 1848, she went to live with an aunt in Northumberland . She went to Hermitage Lodge at Fulham leaving it in 1853. Many of her family members were travellers, an uncle Charles Cumming-Bruce married
676-484: Was the hub of the island's activity. The development of this island had been haphazard: winding paths connected the Hong Kong Club for tai-pans and ran along squatter huts, military encampments and taverns. The first governors built their homes along Queen's Road; subsequently, the first post office and Christian churches soon arrived. Instead of a properly paved road, newcomers to Hong Kong found Queen's Road as
#829170