Canton Road

Canton Road

Harbour City (left side of the road) in the Tsim Sha Tsui section.
Traditional Chinese 廣東道
Simplified Chinese 广东道
Gucci store in the Tsim Sha Tsui section.

Canton Road is a major road in Hong Kong, linking the former west reclamation shore in Tsim Sha Tsui, Jordan, Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok on the Kowloon Peninsula. The road runs mostly parallel and west to Nathan Road. It starts from the junction with Salisbury Road in the south and ends in the north at the junction with Lai Chi Kok Road in the Prince Edward area. The southern part Canton Road is home to many upscale retail shops, shopping centres and others business establishments, with busy traffic from both vehicles and pedestrians from morning till late night.

Name

The road was originally named as MacDonnell Road. To avoid confusion with MacDonnell Road on the Hong Kong Island, its name changed to Canton Road in 1909.[1] The roads in the area were mainly named after cities of China and Vietnam. The translator of Canton Road misinterpreted Canton as Guangdong (廣東) instead of the city of Canton (廣州).

Sections and features

Canton Road is not one continuous road, instead it is divided into 3 sections, interrupted by a major housing estate (Prosperous Garden) and disjointed by a traffic intersection (Jordan Road) as the result of urban development in the past hundred years.

The following list follows a south-north order. (W) indicates the western side of the road, while (E) indicates the eastern side.

Tsim Sha Tsui section

Southern end of Canton Road, along the 1881 Heritage.

The section starts at Salisbury Road and ends at Jordan Road. Features include:

Jordan to Yau Ma Tei section

Jade monument in Canton Road, near the intersection with Jordan Road.
Yau Ma Tei Police Station, at the intersection of Canton Road and Public Square Street.

The section starts at Jordan Road and ends at Public Square Street. The part of this section between Jordan Road and Kansu Street is sometimes called "Jade Street" because of the number of jewellery shops selling jade.[3][4]

The road is interrupted north of Public Square Street, and Prosperous Garden, a housing estate, is located in its place. The Broadway Cinematheque is located within Prosperous Garden.

Yau Ma Tei section

Yau Ma Tei section: a primary school occupies the whole eastern side of this section. The vehicles are within Canton Road.

This very short section (about 30m long) starts at Tung Kun Street, north of Prosperous Garden and ends at the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market, a Grade III historic building. This section is bordered by two schools:

Yau Ma Tei to Prince Edward section

No. 1235 Canton Road.

The section starts at Waterloo Road, north of the Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market and ends at Lai Chi Kok Road. This section features a street market in the Mong Kok area.[8]

West Rail Line

It was proposed that a station, Canton Road on the Kowloon Southern Link of the West Rail Line extension, could be built beneath the Tsim Sha Tsui section of the road, outside Harbour City. The plan was put off after unsuccessful negotiation between KCRC and The Wharf on financial arrangement. Another station, Austin, near the junction of Canton Road and Wui Cheung Road in Kwun Chung opened in August 2009.

Gallery

Tsim Sha Tsui section

  1. ^ bloomberg.com "Hong Kong Recession Cuts Jobs at Hard Rock, Retailer, SCMP Says", Bloomberg. 15 November 2008

See also

References

  1. The Hong Kong Government Gazette, March 19, 1909
  2. Film Services Offices: Canton Road Government Offices
  3. Hong Kong Tourism Board: Theme Shopping Streets
  4. Film Services Office: Canton Road (between Jordan Road and Kansu Street)
  5. "Giant jade lure in survival fight", The Standard. 25 June 2008
  6. Jade Market & Jade Street. Hong Kong Tourism Board
  7. Brief Information on Proposed Grade III Items, pp. 997–998
  8. Kinoshita, Hikaru (2001). "Chapter 2: The Street Market as an Urban Facility in Hong Kong". In Miao, Pu. Public places in Asia Pacific cities: current issues and strategies. Springer. pp. 71–86. ISBN 978-0-7923-7083-3.
  9. 中國冰室 China Cafe
  10. "Cha Chaan Chow", HK magazine 18 September 2009
  11. Fulltime Killer – China Cafe. Hong Kong on Film
  12. "They Haven't Torn It Down... Yet", HK magazine 11 January 2008
  13. "48 hours in cinematic Hong Kong", The Vancouver Sun 24 April 2008
  14. Brief Information on Proposed Grade III Items, pp. 625–626
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Canton Road.

Coordinates: 22°19′03″N 114°10′03″E / 22.31759°N 114.16749°E