Blackhead Point
Blackhead Point (黑頭山, lit. "black head hill"), also known as Tai Pau Mai (Chinese: 大包米) indigenously, Tsim Sha Tsui Point or Signal Hill (Chinese: 訊號山), was a cape before any reclamation in Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong. It remains as a small hill near the coast.
History
Blackhead Point was named after a German businessman in Hong Kong named Friedrich Johan Berthold Schwarzkopf, who naturalised as a British citizen and anglicised his name as Blackhead.
It was where typhoon signals were hoisted in Hong Kong because it is the highest hill near the middle of Victoria Harbour. Signal Hill Tower (訊號塔) was built in Edwardian style in 1907[1] to house a time ball apparatus previously located in the nearby present-day Former Marine Police Headquarters Compound.[2]
From January 1908 to June 1933, the time ball tower of the Hong Kong Observatory was located on the hill.
Today
Blackhead Point is now the site of a park, Signal Hill Garden, opened in 1980. Signal Hill Tower is still standing and has been listed as a Grade II historic building[3] since 1981.[4]
References
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Blackhead Point. |
- Details from Hong Kong Tourism Board website
- The Film Services Office - Signal Hill Garden
- Carl T. Smith: "The German Speaking Community in Hong Kong 1846-1918", in Journal of the RASHKB, Vol. 34, 1994 PDF
Coordinates: 22°17′46″N 114°10′27″E / 22.29611°N 114.17417°E