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Victoria Park
維多利亞公園
General view of the park.
Location on Hong Kong Island
Type	Urban park
Location	1 Hing Fat Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong Island
Coordinates	22°16′55″N 114°11′17″E / 22.28194°N 114.18806°E / 22.28194; 114.18806
Area	19 hectares (47 acres)
Opened	October 1957; 67 years ago (1957-10)
Managed by	Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Status	Open all year
Website	www.lcsd.gov.hk
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	維多利亞公園
Simplified Chinese	维多利亚公园
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Wéiduōlìyà Gōngyuán IPA Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Wàihdōleih'a Gūngyùhn Jyutping Wai4 do1 lei6 aa3 Gung1 jyun4 IPA [wɐ̏itɔ́ːlèiāː kʊ́ŋjy̏ːn]

Victoria Park (simplified Chinese: 维多利亚公园; traditional Chinese: 維多利亞公園; pinyin: Wéiduōlìyà Gōngyuán) is a large public park in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. The park is named after Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, whose monument is erected here. It is around 190,000 square metres (19 ha) in size and contains several sporting facilities for tennis, association football, basketball, handball, volleyball, swimming, jogging, fitness, roller skating, and bowling.

The park first opened to the public in October 1957 and was revamped in the early 2000s. The Leisure and Cultural Services Department of Hong Kong owns and operates it. The park is open all year and is free of admission charge. It is Hong Kong's most popular public park, with more visitors than Hong Kong and Kowloon parks combined.

Site

Victoria Park is located on Hong Kong Island, in the Causeway Bay area of Wan Chai District. It is situated on the shore of the Causeway Bay typhoon shelter and separated by a breakwater from Victoria Harbour. The park is bounded by Causeway Road to the southeast, Gloucester Road to the west, Victoria Park Road and Island Eastern Corridor to the north, and Hing Fat Street to the east.

The park is bordered on the south by the Hong Kong Central Library and the Regal Hongkong Hotel, on the east by the Park Towers residential complex, on the north by a fire station and Citicorp Centre office tower, and on the west by Windsor House retail mall and The Park Lane Hong Kong hotel. A small square, Tung Lo Wan Garden, is located in the northeastern portion of Victoria Park. Two stations of Island Line, Causeway Bay and Tin Hau, are located near the park. There are bus lines and a tramline along Causeway Road, which run beside the park. Several pedestrian bridges with escalators and elevators have been built to connect the park to the Causeway Road.

History

Previously, the park's location served as a typhoon shelter, known as Causeway Bay Typhoon Shelter, used by small fishing boats and yachts during typhoon seasons. In the 1950s, the former bay was filled in, the shoreline was pushed north, and the government decided to create a public park on the reclaimed land. A new shelter was moved north of the park.

In 1955, a renovated statue of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom was installed at the site. The statue was cast in Pimlico, London towards the end of the nineteenth century and subsequently erected in Hong Kong's Central District. It was transferred to Japan to be melted down during the Japanese occupation, but was retrieved in the aftermath of World War II. The park officially opened in October of 1957. In 1972, embankments in the park's northern half were completed in conjunction with the construction of the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, and the Victoria Park Road was paved.

A central lawn was laid in the park in 1974, while a tennis court was built in 1981. In 1984, an overpass of the Island Eastern Corridor was built along Victoria Park Road, connecting Causeway Bay with the Tai Koo Shing estate. In September 1996, a mainland Chinese artist protested Hong Kong's "dull, colonial culture" by painting the statue of Queen Victoria crimson and bending its nose with a hammer. The nose of the statue was rebuilt costing $150,000, and the perpetrator was sentenced to 28 days in prison.

From 2000 to 2002, the park received a major revamp and sports grounds were established. The park's popularity then increased especially among the Indonesian domestic workers, while Sugar Street, adjacent to the park, is home to numerous Indonesian food, spice, book, magazine and music shops, as well as restaurants and bureau de change. The Consulate General of Indonesia is located on Leighton Road, just a few streets from the park.

In 2013, a modern indoor complex was built on the site of the old outdoor pools. In 2014, new construction work began at the northern end of Victoria Park, sparking public outcry. A portion of the park was occupied by construction of a slip road for the Central–Wan Chai Bypass project. This was "hugely controversial" as local councillors and residents alleged they were not informed that the road would cut through the park. In March 2015, construction unearthed unexploded ordnance dating from World War II and the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force was called in to dispose of it.

Features

Vegetation

Trees such as Jacaranda mimosifolia, Melia azedarach, Spathodea, Delonix regia and Casuarina equisetifolia are found in the park. It also houses many trees that are registered as "old and valuable", including Ceiba pentandra, Erythrina variegata, Mimusops elengi, Ficus virens and Ficus altissima.

Facilities

In the central section of Victoria Park, there is a complex of fourteen tennis courts, with the main court, which opened in 1981, seating approximately 3,600 spectators. Two fields with artificial turf for playing bowls are nearby. A two-hectare central lawn is surrounded by pathways with trees to the west of the tennis courts. A 625-meter jogging path around the lawn features six stops for diverse fitness training. Six public football pitches are located south of the courts and central lawn, and a sitting statue of Queen Victoria stands next to them. Four basketball courts are located in the southeast section of the park, between the football pitches and the swimming pool.

There are public roller rinks, handball and volleyball courts, and a small audience stand to the north of the swimming pool. There are four playgrounds to the north of the tennis courts, each with its own set of slides, swings, and exercise equipment, as well as a pebble walking trail. A 954 square meter in size and a half-meter deep pond where model yachting takes place and an open stage with a bandstand suitable for a hundred spectators are located to the north of the central lawn. There is a public table tennis court with two tables. Most sports fields have restrooms, changing rooms, and drinking fountains. For security reasons, open portions of the park are patrolled around the clock by both local policemen and police teams.

The indoor swimming complex, which was built at a cost of nearly HK$800 million and opened in September 2013, is located in the park's eastern section, on the location of the Old Victoria Park Swimming Pool. It includes two pools with 2,500-seat spectator stands and an electronic scoreboard, as well as changing rooms, showers, restrooms, and wheelchair lifts. The Old Victoria Park Swimming Pool was opened with the park itself in 1957 and was the first public swimming pool in Hong Kong.

Events

Cultural events

In the days leading up to Chinese New Year, the park hosts the annual Lunar New Year Fair, which includes a plant market. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was canceled in 2022. Other annual events such as Hong Kong Flower Show, Hong Kong Brands and Products Expo, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Hong Kong Marathon are also held in the park.

Apart from annual events, employees of the Consulate General of Indonesia frequently arrange meetings and open-air training courses in the park as well. The United Buddy Bears exhibition, which was held on the central lawn of Victoria Park in 2004 under the patronage of Jackie Chan. The exhibition drew over 2 million visitors, making it Hong Kong's largest open-air art exposition. The "Arts Corner" is hosted in the South Pavilion Square every Sunday, except when there are citywide events. Here, artists sell their works, souvenirs, handicrafts, paintings, drawings, cartoons, and photographs in kiosks and small booths.

Political gatherings

Victoria Park serves as a gathering point for the annual 1 July marches, and a place of commemoration to the Tiananmen Square massacre of 4 June 1989, with huge crowds gathering each year to mark the anniversary of the massacre, although the park was closed in June 2021 due to law enforcement restrictions imposed following the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which was enacted in 2020. The park became a focal point for pro-democracy protests in December 2005, 2014 Occupy Movement, and widespread anti-government demonstrations in the summer of 2019.

City Forum, attended by government officials, politicians and business figures, and pundits who debate on the new government policies, was held at the park weekly on Sunday. The forum was inspired by Speakers' Corner in London and was aired by Hong Kong government's broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong. It was discontinued in September 2021.

References

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30. Ng 2009, p. 71.
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35. "Model Boat Pool". Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2022. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 25 June 2020 suggested (help)
36. "Bandstand". Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Archived from the original on 15 October 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
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47. Ying, Li (17 September 2021). "【中秋節2021】3大公園中秋燈飾今起亮燈　維園6米高迴旋木馬最啱打卡！" [The lanters of Mid-Autumn Festival are lit up today in the 3 major parks, and the 6-meter-high carousel in Victoria Park is the best punch!]. Hong Kong Economic Times (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 19 February 2022. Retrieved 19 February 2022.
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Sources

• Bailey, Steven K. (2009). Exploring Hong Kong: A Visitor's Guide to Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories. Things Asian Press. ISBN 9781934159163.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Constable, Nicola (2007). Maid to Order in Hong Kong: Stories of Migrant Workers. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9780801446474.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Curry, Janel; Hanstedt, Paul (2014). Reading Hong Kong, Reading Ourselves. City University of HK Press. ISBN 9789629372354.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Ho, Elizabeth (2012). Neo-Victorianism and the Memory of Empire. A&C Black. ISBN 9781441187703.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Ingham, Mike (2007). Hong Kong: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195314977.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Inversini, Alessandro; Schegg, Roland (2016). Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2016. Springer. ISBN 9783319282312.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Miao, Pu (2013). Public Places in Asia Pacific Cities: Current Issues and Strategies. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 9789401728157.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Ng, Janet (2009). Paradigm City: Space, Culture, and Capitalism in Hong Kong. State University of New York Press. ISBN 9780791477229.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• O'Connor, Paul (2012). Islam in Hong Kong: Muslims and Everyday Life in China's World City. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 9789888139576.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Wai-ting, Stephanie Cheung (2004). "Public art in Hong Kong". HKU Scholars Hub. University of Hong Kong.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)
• Wordie, Jason (2002). Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 9789622095632.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

Further reading

• Chau, Ka-Kin Helen (2017). An Oasis for Children: Nursery and Daycare Centre in Victoria Park. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781361116074.
• Crowell, Todd (2016). Tales from Victoria Park. Blacksmith Books. ISBN 9789881613936.
• Luk, Hing-Pong Jimmy (2017). Sports Hall of Fame: A Sports and Museum Complex on Victoria Park. BiblioBazaar. ISBN 9781361092224.

External links

• Official website of Victoria Park
• Photo gallery of the park
• Images from commemorations of 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Victoria Park
• Discover Hong Kong – Victoria Park