The name of Hongkong legend

The name of Hongkong story

Do you know where the name Hong Kong comes from?

There are several interesting stories about this. A long time ago, there was a village near Arberdeen called “Hong Kong Ts’un” or “Incense Harbour Village”. The incense grown there was famous throughout China. Some of it was even sent to
the Chinese Emperor. Some people believe that the name Hong Kong comes from this village.

What happened to this village? One day, the Emperor wanted some incense sent to him from the village. The villagers did not send it to him. The Emperor then ordered his officer to arrest the village headmen and cut off their heads. After that, everyone ran away from the village and no more incense was grown there.

But some other people believe that Hong Kong is named after a container for burning incense. Long, long ago, this container was picked up in the harbor. It was kept in a tample at Causeway Bay. The place where it was found was called “Hong Kong” or “Incense Harbour”

There is a third story that Hong Kong is named after a woman called Hong ku. She was the wife of a pirate chief. After her husband died, she became the leader of the pirates. She then moved to the island which is now called Hong Kong. If this story is true, the name “Hong kong” means “Hong’s Harbour”.

According to yet another story, Hong Kong is named after a stream near Pokfulan Road. The water was very pleasant to drink. Many years ago, people used to go there to collect drinking water. The stream was called “Hong Kong” or “sweet stream”.

Narrative teks - Kam Tin

Kam Tin story

Kam Tin is one of the oldest villages in the New Territories. Do you know how it got its name?

Over 1,000 years ago most of the houses there belonged to the Chan family. The place was called “Chan Tin” meaning Chan’s fields. Later the name was changed to “Sham Tin” or a small hill surrounded by fields. The present name of Kam Tin was first used about 400 years ago.

In those days, the richest man living there was Tang Yuen Fan. He owned a very large farm. One year, there was a terrible famine. Nobody had enough food
to eat and many people starved. The District Magistrate ordered his officers to give away rice from the government store to the poor people. Soon the rice was finished but there were still many people who did not have enough to eat. The District Magistrate did not know what to do.

“Can anyone help?” he asked, “We need more rice.”

“I can give you 1,000 bags of rice,” said Tang.

The District Magistrate was surprised, “How can you give so much?” he asked.

“I have plenty in my store,” said Tang. “If you don’t believe me, please come to see for yourself.”

The District Magistrate visited tang’s store. He saw that it was full of rice. Tang then gave away 1,000 bags of rice to the poor people.

The District Magistrate said that he had never seen such large buildings, green fields, and pleasant scenery before.

“Why is this place called ‘Sham Tin’?” he asked. “it should be called “Kam Tin”, which means embroidered fields. The scenery is so beautiful that it looks like a piece of embroidery.”

Source: Favourite stories from Hong Kong by Leon Comber

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