Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum and Historical Trail

"More than thirty years ago I was studying in Hong Kong and spent a great deal of spare time in walking the streets of the Colony. Hong Kong impressed me a great deal, because there was orderly calm and because there was artistic work being done without interruption." This remark was made by Dr Sun Yat-sen while he was delivering a speech at the University of Hong Kong on 20 February 1923. The passage of time did not diminish his fascination of Hong Kong's appearance. Since Dr Sun passed by Hong Kong on his return voyage from Honolulu to his native village at Cuiheng in 1883, his life was inseparable from this territory. The Diocesan Home, the Central School (present-day Queen's College) and the College of Medicine for Chinese (the forerunner of the Medical School of the University of Hong Kong) nurtured Dr Sun's epoch-making ideologies. After finishing school, Dr Sun continued to use Hong Kong as a centre for organizing parties, drawing recruits, planning and staging revolutionary attempts. As the Central and Western District bore most of his footprints, the District Board, as early as 1996, set up the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail, which remains as a must for local people and tourists to pay homage to Dr Sun Yat-sen.

The selection of Kom Tong Hall as the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum is partly attributable to its proximity to the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail. Dr Sun's spheres of activities fell within its vicinity, including the Preaching Home of American Congregational Mission where Dr Sun was baptized, the Central School where Dr Sun received secondary education, the To Tsai Church where Dr Sun frequently met with his comrades, the College of Medicine for Chinese where Dr Sun was trained as a doctor, as well as the Qian Heng Hang where Dr Sun set up the Headquarters of Hong Kong Xing Zhong Hui. During its course of preparation, we are therefore keen on drawing a link to the Historical Trail. Additional signposts will be put up along the Historical Trail, so as to direct the visitors to the Museum as a stopover. The Museum will also arrange experienced docents to guide visitors through the Historical Trail. Through the anecdotes of Dr Sun's activities in Hong Kong, it is hoped that our visitors will better understand the role of the territory in Dr Sun's revolutionary career and the modern Chinese history.

Through its exhibitions and interactive programmes, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum will supplement the Historical Trail by providing additional written and visual information on a wide array of topics, such as the history of the Central School, the cause and process of Dr Sun's baptism, the examination results of Dr Sun in the College of Medicine for Chinese, as well as the establishment of the Hong Kong Xing Zhong Hui. Upon its grand opening, the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum and the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail will become an integral facility. People touring around the Historical Trail will enter the Museum to widen their horizons of knowledge, while the Museum's visitors will set foot in the alleys to reminisce Dr Sun's footpaths. With the above complementary facilities, Dr Sun's activities in Hong Kong will be reconstructed in a more concrete and comprehensive manner.

Along the Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail stands a plaque at each point.

At the junction of Staunton Street and Shing Wong Street stood the old site of Queen's College, where Dr Sun Yat-sen attended the foundation stone laying ceremony in 1884. Dr Sun studied at the Central School, which was renamed Queen's College after 1894. The site now stands the former police quarters at Hollywood Road.