BOOK: The Peak: An Illustrated History of Hong Kong’s Top District

The Peak is Hong Kong’s top residential district, where property prices are as high as the altitude. How did it become an exclusive enclave in the bustling business centre of 19th-century Asia?

The Peak is Hong Kong’s top residential district, where property prices are as high as the altitude. How did it become an exclusive enclave in the bustling business centre of 19th-century Asia? The British wanted relief from summer heat and the Peak was the obvious place to escape it. When the Governor adopted Mountain Lodge as a summer getaway, development accelerated and the opening of the Peak Tram in 1888 made access easier. Gradually a community developed and a church, a club and a school were established. This book describes how the now-popular tourist area grew over time and adapted as needs changed.

“As a civil engineer, historian, Peak resident for decades, and someone who knows the Peak area inside out, no one is better qualifed than Richard Garrett to write about it. The author has traced the Peak District’s development over the past 150 years from its beginnings as a signal station and failed military sanatorium in and above the area of the present upper Peak Tram station. He has chronicled the whole through a close and painstaking examination of its building sites, and of the buildings old and new which have occupied them, thereby revealing its full extent, something not apparent to the casual visitor who travels there only by the funicular railway. The result is a well-illustrated account containing a wealth of carefully researched and accurate facts that cannot fail but interest those who would like to know more about this fascinating and historic part of Hong Kong.” — Dr James Hayes, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong

This fully illustrated book describes how the now-popular tourist area developed over time and adapted as needs changed.

Details

• Pages: 220
• Binding: Hardback
• Illustration: Approximately 80 colour photographs and 40 B&W images