When I first wrote the walking tour to "the rest of Kowloon" it was a doozy and was over 8km in length. Probably a bit too far for the average person, especially if you are not used to Hong Kong's often hot and sticky climate. Just going to the shops in HK's usual heat can be exhausting.
So anyway, in this relaunch, I've split the walk into 3 parts, each one independent of the other, but as such there are fewer places to see spread over a greater distance. This is the first part which takes in the north and east of Mongkok and Ho Man Tin.
If you recall from the Yau Ma Tei walk, we terminated at King's Park off Waterloo Road, so in this walk we will start from there, that way you can continue on from the previous walk if you still have the energy. If you haven't just done the previous YMT walk, then you can easily get to the start point for this one from Yau Ma Tei MTR Station. Just take Exit D and walk up Waterloo Road.
As a quick reminder, here are the links to the earlier Kowloon based walking tours.
The Bruce Lee Guide to Tsim Sha Tsui
The Bruce Lee Guide to Yau Ma Tei
Anyway, this walk encompasses the following additional locations.
1. Start Point - steps up to King's Park Garden
2. Soares Avenue
3. Foursea Bowling alley site - Kowloon Metropark Hotel
4. Sunlight Garden
5. Perth Street
6. Optional walk to the Ma Tau Chung Ambulance Station
7. St Teresa's Hospital
8. La Salle College + Primary School and Beverly Villas
9. Ho Tung Road
Once again I have created a Google Map for people to view.
9. Ho Tung Road
Once again I have created a Google Map for people to view.
1. King's Park Steps
The steps up to King's Park are a direct but extremely tiring way to get up to the garden at the top. I heard, anecdotally, that Bruce actually used to run up and down these very steps for training, but I'm not sure if that was when he was growing up here or when he came back during the 1960s. For the purpose of this walk, it's just our starting point so feel free to ignore the challenge and crack on with the walk.
2. Soares Avenue
I've included Soares Avenue because of some comments left on Gwulo.com about 10 years ago. You can see the thread for yourself here, it's well worth reading. Soares Avenue is simply a small street that connects Waterloo Road with Argyle Street and was once a favourite shopping spot for Linda when they were living nearby. Its link is only anecdotal but might be interesting to some. It's named after Francisco Paulo Vasconcelos Soares, who was responsible for original development of this part of Ho Man Tin and went on to become the Portuguese Consul for Hong Kong.
Soares Avenue - though probably not in its best years
3. Kowloon Metropark Hotel - formerly Fourseas Bowling alley
Just a few quick steps along the road on the same side as Soares Avenue is the Kowloon Metropark Hotel. It's included here because it was once the location of the Fourseas Bowling Alley, the same place that Jackie Chan supposedly went bowling with Bruce one night. There is a good picture of the venue here, courtesy of Gwulo and a user named Barbaramerchant.
The bowling alley was named after the earlier hotel that stood here, the Fourseas Hotel. I'm not sure when the bowling alley was redeveloped but the hotel that stands here now was opened in 1988 and previous went by the name "Kowloon Metropole Hotel". That name was changed to Metropole though following the hotel being at the epicentre of the 2003 SARS outbreak. An infected mainland Chinese doctor brought the virus with him from China and infected a bunch of other people on the 9th floor where he was staying. It's probably just bad luck that the Wanchai Metropark Hotel (same hotel group) was later to be associated with the 2009 outbreak of Swine Flu that saw that hotel (and all its guests) being quarantined for a week in the early summer. Not all publicity is good publicity.
Just a few quick steps along the road on the same side as Soares Avenue is the Kowloon Metropark Hotel. It's included here because it was once the location of the Fourseas Bowling Alley, the same place that Jackie Chan supposedly went bowling with Bruce one night. There is a good picture of the venue here, courtesy of Gwulo and a user named Barbaramerchant.
The bowling alley was named after the earlier hotel that stood here, the Fourseas Hotel. I'm not sure when the bowling alley was redeveloped but the hotel that stands here now was opened in 1988 and previous went by the name "Kowloon Metropole Hotel". That name was changed to Metropole though following the hotel being at the epicentre of the 2003 SARS outbreak. An infected mainland Chinese doctor brought the virus with him from China and infected a bunch of other people on the 9th floor where he was staying. It's probably just bad luck that the Wanchai Metropark Hotel (same hotel group) was later to be associated with the 2009 outbreak of Swine Flu that saw that hotel (and all its guests) being quarantined for a week in the early summer. Not all publicity is good publicity.
To be honest, after enduring 3 years of lockdown and daily mask wearing in Hong Kong, this all seems a bit tame to me now, especially after experiencing a total of 4 weeks (3 weeks + 1 week) of compulsory hotel quarantine.
Kowloon Metropark Hotel
Anyway, moving on.
4. Sunlight Garden/Ming Tak Yuen
Directly opposite the entrance to Soares Avenue is Pui Ching Road. This is where we head next but stay on the left and take the next left turn into Man Fuk Road. Follow the road around and take the first right onto Man Wan Road. The high rise development immediately on your right is Ming Tak Yuen or Sunlight Garden and is where Bruce and family lived during 1971 through to July 1972. It's possible that this is where Bruce first became friendly with Michael Chan Wai Man because he lived in the opposite building (Star Court) at the time. Sunlight Garden has a rather more notorious reputation in Hong Kong as it was where the popular radio broadcaster, Lam Bun, was murdered by rioters during the 1967 Communist riots. His car was set on fire as he left Sunlight Garden for work. Wiki has a good summary here.
Bruce lived on the 13th floor
Rather than retrace your steps back to Pui Ching Road, you can actually walk to the other end of Man Wan Road and take the steps down onto Princess Margaret Road. We need to go this way to get to the next location on our list, Perth Street.
Man Wan Road steps down to Princess Margaret Road
5. Perth Street
Turn left at the bottom of the steps and walk up to the junction with Argyle Street next to Nairn House. Sadly, this is the earliest opportunity to cross the road here (a frequent annoyance of being a pedestrian in HK is being relegated to the lowest priority in terms of getting from A to B). After crossing Princess Margaret Road, turn right and walk towards Perth Street. We're here because this was the location of the temporary huts where La Salle College was based between 1949 and 1959 - which included Bruce's time as a student there.
Turn left at the bottom of the steps and walk up to the junction with Argyle Street next to Nairn House. Sadly, this is the earliest opportunity to cross the road here (a frequent annoyance of being a pedestrian in HK is being relegated to the lowest priority in terms of getting from A to B). After crossing Princess Margaret Road, turn right and walk towards Perth Street. We're here because this was the location of the temporary huts where La Salle College was based between 1949 and 1959 - which included Bruce's time as a student there.
The following photo from the 1950s shows those huts. The houses/mansion blocks to the north are lining the south side of Argyle Street with Kowloon Hospital through the trees on the other side of Argyle Street. The huts occupied most of the area that was later to become the Homantin Government Secondary School and Perth Street Sports Ground. The sports ground is open to the public and you can usually enter via a gate located on Shek Ku Street. The reason the school had to move here for ten years was because the British Garrison took it over and used it as a military hospital.
As you can see below the school property consisted of seven long huts placed perpendicular to a main hut with some space on the left no doubt for games etc. The area was still fairly undeveloped during this time and quite rocky, and it was just a short walk to the east (the right) before you came to the slope that led up to the large expat school, King George V. The outline map below shows the same area in 1960 with KGV at the far right.
For modern context the north side of the school coincided with Perth nStreet where the Govt school now stands, and the perpendicular huts occupied pretty much all of what is now the Perth Street Sports Ground. The slope in the bottom part of the b&w image below is more or less the southern boundary of the current sports ground. The sports ground is a public space so feel free to walk around.
For modern context the north side of the school coincided with Perth nStreet where the Govt school now stands, and the perpendicular huts occupied pretty much all of what is now the Perth Street Sports Ground. The slope in the bottom part of the b&w image below is more or less the southern boundary of the current sports ground. The sports ground is a public space so feel free to walk around.
Credit: HK Mapviewer
Homantin Govt Secondary School marks where
the temporary La Salle campus was located
the temporary La Salle campus was located
Perth Street Sports Ground also utilises the space once occupiede by La Salle.
Once you have had enough here, head back down to Pert Street and turn right. Follow the road's end loop and at some point you will see a staircase that leads down onto Argyle Street again.
Steps to Argyle Street
6. Ma Tau Chung Ambulance Depot
The next stop is a bit of a walk for not very much. So it's up to you if you can be bothered. I've included the Ma Tau Chung Ambulance depot here because this is the place where the ambulance was dispatched from to pick up Bruce on 20th July 1973. No direct link, but fans might be curious to see the distance the ambulance travelled to get to him.
The ambulance system in Hong Kong is by-and-large run by the Fire Brigade (there is a small contingent operated by St John's Ambulance). Each ambulance station is linked to public hospital within its geographical "cluster" and it just so happens that the Ma Tau Chung depot, from where Bruce's ambulance was dispatched, was linked to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Hence why his body was taken to that hospital on the fateful night and not some place nearer.
The ambulance system in Hong Kong is by-and-large run by the Fire Brigade (there is a small contingent operated by St John's Ambulance). Each ambulance station is linked to public hospital within its geographical "cluster" and it just so happens that the Ma Tau Chung depot, from where Bruce's ambulance was dispatched, was linked to Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Hence why his body was taken to that hospital on the fateful night and not some place nearer.
I've read some recent claims that Bruce was taken to a public hospital to avoid scrutiny/reporting of his drug taking. But for me it doesn't make sense that a private hospital should have to report this and not a public one. Additionally, why was this not an issue back in May?
What you should consider is that calling an ambulance in Hong Kong propels you into the public healthcare system. An emergency ambulance will take you to the emergency ward at a public hospital, and in Bruce's case this was to Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
It was the dispatch records from this depot that were scrutinised by local journalists to reveal the location of the ambulance's pickup - essentially proving that Raymond Chow and Linda Lee had lied about Bruce being at home when he died.
Ma Tau Chung Ambulance Depot
Even if you don't fancy walking to the ambulance depot, you must still turn right along Argyle Street after leaving the previous Perth Street location, because we need to cross Argyle Street and walk up Lomond Road. There are several crossings you can take and all of them will be as quick or slow as the other. But you do need to cross the road and continue along Argyle Street to get to Lomond Road. If you are returning from the ambulance depot, just retrace your steps back to Argyle Street, turn left and walk back down to the Kowloon City Baptist Church. The church is directly opposite Lomond Road and there is a crossing right here as well.
7. St Teresa's Hospital
Walk up Lomond Road, and turn left onto Prince Edward Road West. On the corner here is St Teresa's Hospital. This name should be familiar to Bruce fans as it is the hospital he was referred to later following his first collapse at Golden Harvest Studios in May 1973. After being revived at the Baptist Hospital he was moved to St Teresa's for recovery as there were more beds available and he needed to stay under observation.
Actually, I don't think any of the current buildings at St Teresa's are the original ones, but if you want to see what it looked like in Bruce's time then there is a good image on FLICKR courtesy of HTWong.
Interestingly, the old hospital building can be seen in one of Bruce's childhood movies, The Guiding Light ((1953). I did a location post about it a couple of years ago.
7. St Teresa's Hospital
Walk up Lomond Road, and turn left onto Prince Edward Road West. On the corner here is St Teresa's Hospital. This name should be familiar to Bruce fans as it is the hospital he was referred to later following his first collapse at Golden Harvest Studios in May 1973. After being revived at the Baptist Hospital he was moved to St Teresa's for recovery as there were more beds available and he needed to stay under observation.
Actually, I don't think any of the current buildings at St Teresa's are the original ones, but if you want to see what it looked like in Bruce's time then there is a good image on FLICKR courtesy of HTWong.
Interestingly, the old hospital building can be seen in one of Bruce's childhood movies, The Guiding Light ((1953). I did a location post about it a couple of years ago.
St Teresa's Hospital (Source: The Guiding Light (1953)
8. Beverly Villas, La Salle College and La Salle Primary
Even though Bruce didn't actually attend school at the proper school site, often Lee fans want to see where it used to be located, so this is our next stop on the walk.
Keep walking along Prince Edward Road West. We need to cross this road as well to get to Boundary Street and the next crossing is about 150 metres further past the hospital. On the opposite side of the road is the entrance to LaSalle Road. Cross over Prince edward Road West at the crossing and immediately turn up into LaSalle Road. This section is quite small and just acts as a thoroughfare to get to Boundary Street. Stay on the right hand side pavement and once at Boundary Street, use the crossing again to cross over to Beverly Villas. They look like this.
Beverly Villas
Gwulo has a nice image showing what the old school building looked like though seen from the other end of the building. This was the school building that Bruce would have attended had it not been comandeered for a decade as a military hospital. This front portion of the school grounds was sold to a developer, who in return built a new school at the rear of the old laying fields, and used this section to build Beverly Villas.
It was at the newer building that John Little discovered Bruce's old Marcy training equipment - seemingly donated to the school when Bruce passed away. She should have sold it, it was still fairly new at the time because he had only got hold of it in December 1972. The details of this story can be found in John Little's The Art of Expressing the Human Body. When I spoke to John during his filming trip in 2009, he told me the Marcy trainer had been put up as collateral to fund the Warrior's Journey documentary and had now passed on to a new owner (I only found out later the new owner was John's friend, Johnny-Mike Walker, who also owns Bruce's old Mercedes, who had also been on the same trip).
On the opposite side of LaSalle Road is LaSalle Primary School. It's a new building but the older version of the school (on the same site) was where Brandon attended school between 1971 and 1973. Nothing much more to see here so we're going to carry on walking along Boundary Street towards Waterloo Road direction for the next, and last, location.
The modern LaSalle Primary School
9. Ho Tung Road
The last stop on this walk is another tenuous link but one worth mentioning. Bruce's maternal grandfather, Ho Kom Tong, was a half-brother of Sir Robert Ho Tung (same mother, different fathers). The latter being one of Hong Kong's most famous and influential businessmen. Other than a direct family link, Bruce's life is sprinkled with other small connections to the great man. It was in the Tung Ying Building, built by Ho Tung (see my Bruce Lee Tsim Sha Tsui walk for more details), that both Bruce and Golden Harvest had offices. If you managed to visit this building before it was torn down in 2006, you may have come across a bust of Sir Robert in the building lobby. I would love to know what happened to it when the building went, so if you know leave a comment. Bruce's mum, Grace, actually lived in her (half-) uncle's opulant house on the Peak when she first moved to Hong Kong with her mother and sister. It was called The Falls and was sadly demolished back in 2013 and redeveloped.
The reason this road is named after Sir Robert is because he came to the rescue of the Kowloon Tong Estate project when it ran out of money in the 1920s. The project was affected by a general strike by Chinese labourers in 1925 and was about to collapse when Sir Robert stumped up the cash to finish it. Bruce's own house at 41 Cumberland Road may never have been built had his Great Uncle not stepped in with the readies (that's hard cash to non-UK peeps).
Anyway, in recognition, he had this rather non-descript street name after him on the Kowloon Tsai side of Waterloo Road.
Well, that's it for now. Unfortunately, quite a few of these places have only tenuous links with Bruce and it's the nature of Hong Kong that the intervevining years have eradicated many of the direct links, but I hope at least this will give the Lee fans out there something to spend their time on. Parts 2 and 3 will follow soon. HOwever, if you are visiting sooner rather than later, feel free to drop a comment with an email address ( I won't publish online) and I can send you details of the walks that haven't yet been published. Until then.
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