It’s surely laughable how the ads of those “shams” stage the totally irrelevant European mansions, horse carriages, castles, aristocratic clubhouses and fair-haired models. That said, Hong Kong has been an international trade port after all, which brought up some preeminent families such as the clans of Jardine, Dent, Swire, Sasson, Belilios, Chater, Mody, Li Sing, Ho Tung, Ho Kom Tong, Ruttonjee, Eu Tong Sen, Lee Hysan, Fung Ping Shan, Kadoorie, Aw Boon-Haw, Ma Ying Piu of Sincere and the Kwok’s of Wing On. There had indeed been genuine “homes of splendour” in Hong Kong.
The story dates back to 1841, when the British started to rule over Hong Kong. Merchants, both westerners and Chinese, flocked to the city — like the “gold rush”. With their arrival, luxury homes emerged. At the beginning there were the two giant trading houses, the Jardines and the Dent, which bought Causeway Bay and Wan Chai and erected on the spots two extravagant tai-pan mansions, The Jardine Gardens and The Spring Gardens.
When the city was opened to foreign trade, the government adopted a near racial segregation policy and the foreigners, almost always wealthy, tended to have their lavish homes built on the Mid-Levels, away from the “abysmal environment” in which the Chinese concentrated. The Hill District Reservation Ordinance was later enacted to keep the area between Wellington Street and Caine Road exclusively for western buildings, and the Peak District (Residence) Ordinance was also passed, restricting Chinese from acquiring properties and living in the peak district.
