- Queensway, Hong Kong
Queensway is a major road in the Admiralty of Central,
Hong Kong . It was originally a section ofQueen's Road East to its westmost before theHong Kong Government separated and renamed it as its present name in1967 . Its Chinese name can be transliterated as "Golden Bell Road", a reference to a golden bell in theAdmiralty Dockyard situated there at that time, and has nothing to do with the Queen. It merges withQueen's Road Central andDes Voeux Road Central at its west-end and connects withHennessy Road andQueen's Road East to the east at its east-end.Important buildings
Despite being only about 600
metre s long, it houses numerous famous and important sites.At Garden Road-
Queen's Road Central -Des Voeux Road Central junction sits theBank of China Tower at the Central end of the road; which in turn sits adjacent toCheung Kong Centre .Cheung Kong Centre is the headquarters of
Cheung Kong Holdings founded byLi Ka Shing withChater Garden - a popular place for protesters to gather - on the opposite. At theWan Chai end, stands theHeadquarters of theHong Kong Police Force .Major sites located along the "hillside" (Southern side) of the road are; in order of position beginning from the west-side of Queensway;
Cheung Kong Centre ,Bank of China Tower , theHong Kong Park (where the Flagstaff House andMuseum of Tea Ware are located), Queensway Government Offices, High Court alongside the Queensway, and theSwire -ownedPacific Place shopping centre, hotels and office towers complex.
The hotels-Conrad Hotel & Island Shangri-La Hotel sits atop the roof of 2 Pacific Place mall while the JW Marriott Hotel and The Swire Offices Building sit atop 1 Pacific Place.On the "waterfront-" (northern side) of the road, there stands; again in order beginning from west-end of Queensway;
Chater Garden , the Lippo Centre,Queensway Plaza shopping mall- a very large one-storey shopping complexsemi-detached with theUnited Centre office block. Queensway Plaza is also linked to Pacific Place; across a width of Queensway by means of a skywalk. Further down the road there stands the recreational park- ""Harcourt Park".The road continues on until it splits into two different roads at the east-end junction.
Military history
Before 1980s, both sides of the road were for British military structures. Located on the South of the road were Wellington Barracks,
Murray Barracks and Victoria Barracks while to the north, the Admiralty Dock. TheFlagstaff House was the residence of the Commander British Forces of Hong Kong between1842 to1978 . These were gradually removed and replaced as Central district expanded.Layout
The road was not as straight as its present form. Two close bends in the mid-section formed an S-shape. It was also known as "death bend of Queensway" (金鐘道死亡彎角) that it frequently resulted in traffic accidents of mobile vehicles and trams. A straightening project was carried out in
1974 and officially completed on12 January 1975 .The present-day Queensway is much wider than before. The carriageways of Queensway are separated by the turn-of-the-century public transport,
Hong Kong Tramways . Pedestrians must make use of footbridges when crossing the road or going to the tramway stop islands.Events
Although Queensway is a main road in Hong Kong, the road has hosted various major marches and protests including July 1 marches since
2003 .Trivia
The road is sometimes mistaken written as Queensway Road by local people. [The Consulate General of India and Consulate General of Greece list their street as Queensway Road, as listed here [http://www.fso-tela.gov.hk/gui/guide_to_filming_06_01.cfm] ] It might be affected by the suffix 道 ("to", lit. road) of its Chinese name, as only few roads like
Glenealy and Smithfield have a single word road name in the territory.ee also
*
List of streets and roads in Hong Kong
*Murray House ,Stanley, Hong Kong References
External links
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=%E9%87%91%E9%90%98%E9%81%93+%4022.277780,+114.168380&daddr=22.279953,114.160647&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=18&mra=dme&sll=22.280003,114.161768&sspn=0.002035,0.003648&ie=UTF8&ll=22.27886,114.16451&spn=0.008141,0.014591&z=16&om=1 Google Maps of Queensway]
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