126
NOTES AND QUERIES
THE SUNG WONG TOI INSCRIPTION
In the year 1277 A.D. Mongol troops overran the Canton area and the one but last Sung emperor, Ti Cheng, who was still a boy, took refuge in the neighbourhood of the present Kowloon City. In this area there was a small hill with a flat top and on this the followers of the boy emperor constructed a lookout, which afterwards became known as Sung Wong T’oi ('terrace of the Sung emperor') while the hill was called the 'Sacred Mount'.
In 1807 the three characters 宋皇台 (Sung-wong t'oi) were carved on a very large boulder on the Sacred Mount, and remained there until 1943 when the Japanese partially demolished the hill during their occupation of Hong Kong in order to make room for an extension to the airport. Eventually the inscription from the great rock of Sung Wong Toi was placed in its present position in the Sung Wong Toi Park which is off Sung Wong Toi Road near Kai Tak airport.
Thus this stone inscription has been preserved and provides a permanent reminder of Kowloon's association with the end of the Sung Dynasty.
There is a detailed account of these events written in Chinese by Mr. Lo Hsiang-lin ✯ of the Department of Oriental Studies in the University of Hong Kong which can be found in his book Hong Kong and its External Communications before 1842 (Hong Kong, 1959).
J. L. C-B.