We talked about Haiphong Road and Tsim Sha Tsui Village in the last post. The Lin WeiXi Incident in Tsim Sha Tsui Village touched off the First Opium War, which changed the history of modern China. After the Lin WeiXi incident, what’s happened? Let’s go to the Kwun Chung Street in Jordon of Kowloon, Hong Kong!
在上一次的香港隨拍，我們講到了海防道和尖沙咀村。尖沙咀林維喜案是中英兩國第一次鴉片戰爭的導火戰，也是改變了近代中國歷史的重要事件，在林維喜案後，事情又如何發展呢？我們就要去到香港九龍佐敦的官涌街了。
In 1839, China scholar-official Lin Zexu built an army on the Kwun Chung Hill to strengthen the coastal defense of Kowloon. In the same year, after Lin WeiXi Incident, Lin Zexu banned all the trading with British opium traders. Charles Elliot, the Chief Superintendent of British Trade in China, try to compromise with Lin but failed.
在1839年，中國清朝欽差大臣林則徐為了加強海防，早就在香港的官涌山佈防。同年，林維喜案發生後，林則徐下令禁止所有與英國鴉片商人的交易。英國駐華商務總監義律，試圖與林則徐和解，尋找和平通商的方法，但林則徐卻不予理會。
Elliot was angered and took military action. All the British traders were not allowed to trade with China. What did the British traders think? They spent time and money just to earn money. They didn’t care any wars, any orders. Lin Zexu still allow the trading with British traders who guaranteed not to trade opium. The Royal Saxon was one of them. The trading ship ignored the order of Elliot and kept travelling to the coast of China.
義律一怒之下，開始採取軍事行動，並禁止所有英商與中國貿易來往。但英商們遠渡中國，為的就是做生意，哪理得你禁止不禁止，其時英商只要簽保證書，保證不出售鴉片，就可以在中國通商，英商中的皇家撒克遜號就是其中之一，它不理會義律的命令，繼續前往中國貿易。
Elliot sent to warships to stop Royal Saxon. When the three ships met at around Chuenpi, the British fired a warning shot across Royal Saxon. Guan Tianpei, Chinese admiral of the China Qing Dynasty came to protect Royal Saxon. The flag on the Chinese vessels was red in color. The British misunderstood it was the signal and war and war began which is now named as the “Battle of Chuenpi”. It resulted in 1 wounded among the Bristish and 15 killed, 4 junks sunk among the Chinese. After war, Royal Saxon succeeded to sailed to Canton and the British navy returned to Tsim Sha Tsui in Hong Kong.
義律得知後，派出兩艘軍艦阻止皇家撒克遜號，去到穿鼻洋一帶時，英軍向皇家撒克遜號發射警告炮，清朝水師提督關天培見狀即領軍保護皇家撒克遜，但其艦上的紅旗讓英軍誤以為宣戰，戰爭一觸即發，史稱「穿鼻之戰」，結果英軍一人受傷，清軍十五人戰死，四船沉沒。戰後，皇家撒克遜號成功靠岸，英軍回航至香港尖沙咀 。
Battle of Chuenpi 穿鼻海戰
(photo source: Wikipedia)
Lin Zexu was just on the Kwun Chung Hill which was beside Tsim Sha Tsui. When the British navy came back. Lin fought back. The war was called the Battle of Kwun Chung and the Lin’s army won the war among the 6 battles in 10 days. At this moment, the news of “Destruction of Opium at Humen”, as well as a little written by Lin to the Queen was sent back to Britain. Initially Britain didn’t plan to fight China. But the letter by Lin wasn’t to the Queen. It was sent to The Times. The tone of Lin was translated to be very arrogant (the original letter was in Chinese) and raise the discontent of the public. Together with the British navy defeated in the Battle of Kwun Chung, the British Parliament finally passed the decision of war. It was the begin of the First Opium War.
當時林則徐正在尖沙咀附近的官涌山，待英軍回來後，便率軍還擊！10天內中英雙方交戰了6次，史稱「官涌之戰」，以中國勝利結束。同時，虎門銷煙一事，還有林則徐寫給英女王的信傳回英國本土，本來英國並未打算與中國開戰，但林則徐的書信並沒有去到英女王手上，而是《泰晤士報》，書信被翻譯成英語後，卻變成一封極傲慢的信，加上英軍在官涌之戰的失敗，在社會壓力下，英國國會終於通過與中國開戰的決定，第一次鴉片戰爭正式開始。
The letter of Lin to the Queen 林則徐的信
(photo source: Wikipedia)
Today I just came to the Kwun Chung Hill where Battle of Kwun Chung happened. Kwun Chung Hill? Where’s the hill. Yes, it’s gone. In 1906, the 1906 Hong Kong typhoon attacked Hong Kong and the Guangdong province of China. In Hong Kong. 4000-15000 people were killed. It was a major natural disaster, even the Empress Dowager Cixi sent 100,000 tael of silver to relief. After the disaster, the HK government took a number of steps to prevent it happening again. One of them is to build the Yau Ma Tei Typhoon Shelter. The Kwun Chung Hill was removed for the reclamation of the typhoon shelter. In 1979, the Jordon MTR station was built in Kwun Chung. And now people forgot the name of Kwun Chung and called the place “Jordon”. The only left was Kwun Chung Street.
這次我就來到當年官涌之戰發生地的官涌山，官涌山？山在哪？原來，於1906年，香港發生了「丙午風災」，導致香港4000-15000人喪生，這場風災嚴重影響香港及廣東一帶，就連慈禧太后都撥了十萬兩白銀賑災！其後港英政府訂立了一系列的防風措施，其中一項就是建立油麻地避風塘，填海的地就是從官涌山而來，整個官涌山被夷平了。隨著1979年港鐵通車，佐敦站落成，慢慢人們都忘記了官涌這個名字，將此處稱呼為佐敦，只留下官涌街的存在。
We cannot see barracks, forts and hills anymore in Kwun Chung Street. It’s just a normal street.
今天的官涌街已見不到軍營、見不到炮台，也見不到山的痕跡，就只是一條尋常的街道。
Even the name Kwun Chung is now being forgotten by people. The remaining are only the Kwun Chung Street, and the Kwun Chung Municipal Services Building, preserving the history.
甚至，連官涌這個名字都開始被人忘掉，只餘下官涌街，和街尾的官涌市政大廈，保存著這段珍貴的歷史。
The story of Kwun Chung ends. After the First Opium War, Hong Kong Island was ceded to Briatain, which change the history of Hong Kong. Next time, let’s continue from the story of colonized Hong Kong Island.
官涌山的故事結束了，第一次鴉片戰爭爆發，香港島被劃入英國殖民地，亦改變了香港的歷史。下一次，就由香港島成為殖民地的故事繼續。
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Thanks for spending your time to read my articles. I like to share stories of Hong Kong. I wish you may support me and I will keep going!
謝謝你能抽空閱讀這篇文章，我平日喜歡分享香港的故事，希望大家多多支持，我會繼續努力！
