The Main Building, completed in 1912, is the oldest building in The University of Hong Kong (HKU). The Great Hall in the building was used as an important venue for academic and social events of the university. On 20 February 1923, Dr Sun Yat-sen gave a public speech in the Great Hall and spoke of the origin of his revolutionary ideas: “Hongkong [Hong Kong] and its university [The University of Hong Kong] are my intellectual birthplace...”. In the occasion, he answered the question “Where and how did I get my revolutionary and modern ideas?”, which had been put to him many times: “That is the answer to the question… It is entirely from Hong Kong." Thus, we see that Dr Sun considered Hong Kong and the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the predecessor of HKU, the source of his knowledge and thoughts.
After the fall of Guangzhou during the Japanese Invasion, Lingnan University was left without a campus. HKU stepped in and allowed Lingnan University to use part of its campus, including the Main Building and the laboratories, to conduct lessons daily starting from 2:30 p.m. After the Fall of Hong Kong in 1941, academic institutions in the Mainland repaid the kindness of HKU. Shantung Christian University (Cheeloo), which had relocated to Chengdu at the time, took in HKU medical students who had fled to Sichuan. They included Gerald Choa, a former Professor of Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine of HKU, Director of Medical and Health Services of the Hong Kong government, and Founding Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In 1956, the Great Hall was renamed Loke Yew Hall in honour of Dr Loke Yew, an early benefactor of the university. Of Jiangmen, Guangdong origin, Loke Yew was a reputable merchant and Chinese leader in Malaya. In 1915, he made a 25-year interest-free loan of 500,000 Hong Kong dollars to HKU, which was crucial for the early development of the university.
In addition, Loke Yew established the Loke Yew Scholarships at HKU to sponsor Malay Chinese students attending the university. Many Malay Chinese were drawn to the university, including students whose families originated from Guangdong. This shows that Hong Kong was not only a gateway for emigration in the early days, with education, it was also an important platform that appealed to overseas Chinese returning to their home country.
All visitors to HKU campus should make an online reservation to visit the campus up to 14 days in advance. No registration is needed for entry on public holidays in Hong Kong, Sundays, or weekdays before 8am or after 6:30pm.
For updated information on tourist flow management and to make reservations, please visit HKU's website: https://www.hku.hk/visitors/visiting-hku.html
Address:
The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong.
General Enquiry: (852) 3917 2882
Tang Chi-ngong was a native of Nanhai, Guangdong. He came to Hong Kong to do business in the late nineteenth century on his own and founded Tang Tin Fook Bank, one of the few Chinese-funded local banks. Tang was a philanthropist. He served as chairman of Tung Wah Hospital and was among the first Chinese to be appointed a Justice of the Peace.
In the 1920s, Chinese merchants advocated Chinese education, and thus leading to the establishment of the School of Chinese at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) in 1927. Tang Chi-ngong then donated all the funds for the construction of a building for the School of Chinese to preserve the quintessence of Chinese culture and promote research on the Chinese classics. The building, completed in 1931, was named after him. Subsequently, Chinese associations, prompted by Tang Chi-ngong, donated 200,000 Hong Kong dollars to the School of Chinese to promote Chinese as the medium of instruction for teaching.
The Tang Chi Ngong Building is a three-storey structure featuring iconic Shanghai plaster exterior. The names of the graduates from 1932 to 1962 are written with gold paint on the wooden plaques on both sides of the main lobby. The first entry on the list of 1932 graduates is Fung Ping-wah, the son of Fung Ping-shan, another major benefactor of the School of Chinese of HKU. All mentioned on the plaques are renowned scholars, such as Professors Lau Din-cheuk and Jin Ying-xi.
The winding path outside Tang Chi Ngong Building leads to a stone gateway of Tang Chi Ngong School of Chinese of HKU on Bonham Road. On the gateway is a set of couplets which tells the mission of the School of Chinese, encouraging students to pursue achievements in both personal and academic endeavours.
Opening Hours of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole:
Monday to Friday: 10am – 5pm
Closed on Saturdays, Sundays & University/Public Holidays
All visitors to HKU campus should make an online reservation to visit the campus up to 14 days in advance. No registration is needed for entry on public holidays in Hong Kong, Sundays, or weekdays before 8am or after 6:30pm.
For updated information on tourist flow management and to make reservations, please visit HKU's website: https://www.hku.hk/visitors/visiting-hku.html
For interior visits, please refer to the website of Jao Tsung-I Petite Ecole: https://www.jaotipe.hku.hk/
Tel: (852) 3917 5598
Address:
The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong.
General Enquiry: (852) 3917 2882
Fung Ping-shan, a renowned Hong Kong entrepreneur and co-founder of The Bank of East Asia, Limited, was an enthusiastic supporter of Chinese education. In 1924, he began making generous donations to The University of Hong Kong (HKU). In 1929, he offered to donate 100,000 Hong Kong dollars to HKU for the establishment of a Chinese library. He subsequently increased his donation to finance the purchase of stationery, electric lights and fans, furniture, bookshelves, and more. Construction of the library began in 1931. It was named Fung Ping Shan Library in honour of his generous donation. The library was officially opened to the public in January 1934.
Fung Ping-shan passed away in 1931 before the completion of the Chinese library built with his donation. At the inauguration of the library, his son Fung Ping-wah, spoke of his father’s expectations for the library: “My late father sponsored the establishment of this library to serve two purposes. He hoped The University of Hong Kong would develop into an important centre in South China for collecting and preserving Chinese classic ancient books and that local Chinese would be encouraged to study the language, history and customs of our motherland. My father was confident that The University of Hong Kong would develop into an academic hub in South China, and he firmly believed that this Chinese library would fill an important gap in Hong Kong’s education system, facilitating the exchange amongst Eastern and Western cultural systems.”
The establishment of Fung Ping Shan Building bore testimony to the remarkable development of Chinese education and the School of Chinese of HKU. Not long after its establishment, in 1935, Professor Hsu Ti-shan, former professor of Yenching University, Peking University and Tsinghua University in Beijing, took office as head of the Chinese Department.
During the early years of Japanese Invasion, to protect invaluable manuscripts and rare books from being looted, Mainland scholars found ways to send the books to faraway places for preservation. Fung Ping Shan Library became a transit point or temporary repository for the books. Professor Hsu Ti-shan, head of the Chinese Department of HKU, and Chan Kwan-po, librarian of Fung Ping Shan Library made every effort to keep the holdings safe. Hsu and Chan acted as intermediaries and collected tens of thousands of invaluable rare books from the Mainland in the name of the library of HKU, contributing immensely to the preservation of Chinese classical texts. In 1942, Chan Kwan-po witnessed the Japanese forces seizing hundreds of cases of the holdings from the library. After the war, he searched relentlessly for the lost books and discovered that they were in the collection of the Imperial Library of the Empire of Japan. Following the extensive efforts by Chan Kwan-po and other parties, the invaluable collection was returned to the Mainland.
Opening Hours of University Museum and Art Gallery:
Tuesday to Saturday: 9:30am – 6pm
Sunday: 1:00pm – 6pm
Closed on Mondays, University/Public Holidays
All visitors to HKU campus should make an online reservation to visit the campus up to 14 days in advance. No registration is needed for entry on public holidays in Hong Kong, Sundays, or weekdays before 8am or after 6:30pm.
For updated information on tourist flow management and to make reservations, please visit HKU’s website: https://www.hku.hk/visitors/visiting-hku.html
For interior visits, please refer to the website of University Museum and Art Gallery: https://umag.hku.hk/tc/visit/
Tel: (852) 2241 5500
Address:
The University of Hong Kong, Pok Fu Lam Road, Hong Kong.
General Enquiry: (852) 3917 2882