Chou Wong Yi Kung Study Hall was built in 1684 to honour Chou Yau Tak, Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi, and Wong Loi Yam, Governor of Guangdong, whose pleading with the Emperor ended the forced coastal evacuation and allowed the clan to return to Kam Tin. The study hall houses the soul tablets of the two officials and a number of stone tablets recording the history of the coastal evacuation and the study hall, making them valuable artefacts.
Built in 1930, Yau Ma Tei Theatre is a blend of Chinese and Western architectural styles. The two pillars at the front entrance are engraved with crying and laughing masks. The theatre features a Chinese tiled roof, an Art Deco facade and gable walls. Yau Ma Tei Theatre is the oldest surviving theatre in the urban district, and has been revitalised as a performing arts centre for promoting Cantonese opera.
Yau Ma Tei Fruit Market, founded in 1913, was originally a wholesale market for vegetables and fish. From 1965 onwards, it has been used solely by fruit wholesalers. The rectangular market consists of several blocks of one to two storeys high brick-and-stone buildings. The gables and pediments of some of the buildings are in Dutch Colonial style, while some facades are engraved with shop names, which are the architectural highlights of the Fruit Market.
This is a square located in front of Tin Hau Temple in Yau Ma Tei. It is well known as Yung Shue Tau (Banyan Tree Stump) because of the big banyan trees there. In the old days, entertainers gathered in this market commonly known as Poor Man's Nightclub, offering fortune-telling, Cantonese opera singing and storytelling, which attracted large numbers of spectators.
The Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens were opened to the public in 1864, making it the oldest public garden in Hong Kong. It was first named the Botanical Garden because it was intended to be for research on plants in Hong Kong. Later animals were introduced, and in 1975 it was renamed the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens. The site of the Botanical Garden once served as temporary Government House, and subsequently, the official Government House was built on northern side of the garden. Since the Governor commanded the armed forces, he was called Bing Tau (chief commander) and the garden was called Bing Tau Fa Yuen (chief commander's garden).
Fountain in the Botanical Garden in 1869, with a cast-iron bandstand in the background. Martial music performance took place in the bandstand in the old days.
Haw Par Mansion and the adjoining Tiger Balm Garden were built in Tai Hang by Aw Boon Haw in 1935. Part of the garden was open to the public. It featured sculptures depicting Chinese folk stories and stories of retribution, which are now part of the collective memory of the older generations in Hong Kong. Tiger Balm Garden was demolished in 2004, but Haw Par Mansion remains and is being revitalised as Haw Par Music Farm.
Lin Fa Temple was built in 1863 in honour of Kwun Yam (Goddess of Mercy). Its front hall has a rare octagonal lotus shape. On the fourteenth day of the eighth lunar month every year, the "fire dragon" visits Kwun Yam and is consecrated at Lin Fa Temple before starting the parade of the fire dragon dance in Tai Hang. The Fire Dragon Dance of Tai Hang is inscribed on the national list of intangible cultural heritage.
