On my recent trip to Hong Kong, I discovered an interesting and lesser-known site – the Noon-Day Gun at Causeway Bay. This gun is fired every day at noon and on New Year’s eve and has a fascinating history. Established around the 1860s, it was originally intended to announce the arrival of the Tai-pan of Jardine Matheson, one of the largest companies in Hong Kong. “Tai-pan” roughly translates to “top boss” and refers to senior foreign business executives in China, particularly heads of British trading houses in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The first Tai-pan was William Jardine, an enterprising Scotsman and the largest opium smuggler of his time. He sourced opium from India and shipped it to China. Initially licensed by the East India Company, Jardine quickly built a huge market of opium addicts thus significantly increasing his wealth and power. His influence was so strong that when the Chinese tried to stop this illegal trade, he played a key role in starting the First Opium War,(1841) which led to the ceding of Hong Kong Island to the British. Later, Kowloon and the Northern Territories were added, remaining under British control until 1997 when Hong Kong was handed back to China.

Jardine and his partner Matheson founded the Jardine Matherson company who were the first owners of the land located around what is today the Victoria Harbour Front. This is where the Noon-Day Gun is located on Gloucester Road. While its initial role was limited to gun salutes to the Taipan, story has it that a British army officer ruled that gun salutes were the prerogative of only the Governor and senior military commanders and not the Taipan of Jardine Matheson!! And thus directed that the gun would be fired each day only at Noon. A diplomatic way of enforcing his viewpoint. While there minor variations to this story the gun has now become a part of Hong Kong tradition and is fired each day at noon with the exception of the war years when the island was under Japanese Occupation.

Post the war the gun was lost by the Japanese and was replaced by a six pounder gun gifted by the Royal Navy. The tradition continued till the gun was declared too noisy and a threat for the buildings around. This was than replaced by a smaller Hotchkiss three pound quick firing gun of the 1880s vintage.This iconic gun has seen service through the two world wars and a few of them including this one are still in service albeit for ceremonial duty.

Situated alongside the busy Gloucester Road,the Noon-Day Gun is accessible from a subway whose entrance is in the parking lot of the World Trade Centre ( wwwtc) mall. Why the extra “w’s” puzzles me. I was not sure of locating the entrance to the subway and locals couldn’t help either. They had not even heard of the Gun and so i decided to navigate directly to the gun on Uber. Luckily there was a break in the fence which led us to the Victoria harbour front, where this Gun is located along side the subway and the typhoon shelter. We got in a little early and walked around the harbour front. A little before noon the Guard (employee of the Jardine Matheson group ) enters the complex. At a minute before noon he climbs up the platform and rings a bell alerting the visiting public. At exactly Noon he pulls the lanyard and the gun goes boom ! The guard then opens the gates for the public. We walked around the premises for a while, took some photographs and headed back through the subway which led us into the parking lot of the wwwtc mall and back on to the other side of Gloucester road. I am not sure if I could have located the entrance from the mall end as it is hidden in corner of the parking lot. An interesting hour spent on a 160 year old tradition of the Jardine Matheson and an introduction to the enterprising William Jardine, his partner Matheson and their company which still exists today as one of the large conglomerates in Hong Kong .