Hong Kong Museum of History

(This page is about the Museum of History, you can find a brief version of the history of Hong Kong under Hong Kong history)

Located in eastern Tsim Sha Tsui, The Hong Kong Museum of History is fairly new, as well as being very large compared to many other Hong Kong museums which are often quite modest. As the name suggests, it deals with the local history of Hong Kong.

Once inside the visitor is taken on a tour through a chronological set of eight sections showing different parts of Hong Kong's history, starting at the very beginning. If you're very interested in the subject (as I am) you can easily spend hours to go through this place. What makes this museum great is that it has big panels where you can really see the varying historical environments. It has real colour and atmosphere, and doesn't feel just like any old boring museum.

The downstairs area includes exhibits on the natural environment of South China and activities of paleolithic humans in the area. It also shows the different indigenous groups of people and traditional local culture, including Cantonese opera and the Cheung Chau bunsnatching festival.

After taking escalators two floors up the visitor reaches the real era of Hong Kong, with exhibits on the colonial era, including the Opium Wars, the Japanese occupation and a very nice reconstruction where you get to walk down a post-war Hong Kong street. Finally, there's a video of China telling everyone how massively proud they are of having Hong Kong back.

TIP: If you really want to know more about Hong Kong, my advice would be to browse through the bottom floor a little bit quicker and to spend more time upstairs.

Bias

Without getting too deeply into politics, it's interesting to note that the current installation of the museum was built in 1998, the year after Hong Kong returned to Chinese hands. If you read between the lines, there seems to be clear attempts to show how "Hong Kong has always been Chinese", implying that the British only occupied it temporarily, sort of like the Japanese during the war.

Nobody should deny that this was part of China's territory for thousands of years, nor that the British Empire deserves criticism for some things it has done. But to try to make it as though Hong Kong is just like any other part of China is disingenuous.

Hong Kong was only a rural area of farming and fishing villages until it was colonised, unlike the sprawling world city that it then became. And it was the British rule that allowed Hong Kong to become a massively successful capitalist economy while the rest of China struggled under Maoism.

Even in spite of this annoyance, this is by far one of the city's most ambitious museums, as well as being among the most relevant to an interested vacationer. It is absolutely worth a visit, and the tickets are just 10 HKD.

Website: Hong Kong Museum of History

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