There were two landforms near Causeway Bay that we had lost forever. In the water off East Point was a small island, which the British called Kellett Island and the Chinese called Tang Lung Chau (lit. Lantern Island). After the British Army took over Hong Kong Island in 1841, they installed a battery on Kellett Island in defence against the Imperial Army in Kowloon. The island’s fortifying function, however, became unnecessary when Kowloon was also ceded to Britain, and on that account the British turned it into a gunpowder magazine. In 1939, Kellett Island became the headquarters of the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.

South of East Point was a forested hill, acquired by Jardine Matheson & Co. after the city’s open-up. It was developed into the company’s tai-pan mansion, thus received the name Jardine’s Hill (to be identified from today’s Jardine’s Lookout). After it was sold to the Lee Hysan family in the 1920s, the hill was renamed Lee Garden.

The origin of “Causeway” Bay can be traced to the days before the colonial era (some say it went back to 1724): to open up the mangrove swamp and wetland for cultivation, the indigenous inhabitants built a small, stone-paved raised road, that is, a causeway, on the shallow bay to prevent the river from overflowing. The area around Queen’s College and Hong Kong Central Library, therefore, was already turned into farmland when the city was first opened up, and the stone causeway was then a shortcut between East Point and North Point. It was because of this causeway that the British called the place Causeway Bay.