REVD. CARL T. SMITH'S NOTES ON THE SO KON PO VALLEY AND VILLAGE
So Kon Po can be translated as "the straw broom plain", or possibly, "the straw broom landing place". The valley is a pocket with hills closing in at its seaward end. The hill to the north is the site of Tai Hang Village and Tiger Balm Garden. To the south-west is Jardine's Lookout, and to the south-east is Caroline Hill. There are two principal roads, both circular, the Eastern Hospital Road and the Caroline Hill Road. The original So Kon Po district extended to the north-west of the valley itself, that is, to the north-east side of the old East Point Hill, now the area of Hysan Avenue and Lee Gardens. In the present area of Jardine's Bazaar, Irving Street and Keswick Street there was probably a Chinese settlement at the time the British occupied Hong Kong. In 1842 the population of this village of So Kon Po was given as eighty. The valley drained into the sea near the present junctions of Yee Woh Street, Causeway Road and Tung Lo Wan Road. Tung Lo Wan was the name of the bay at the seaward end of the valley; the bay has now been reclaimed to form the Patterson Street and Victoria Park area.
The original cultivators of the valley seem to have been the Wong (#) family. A few people in the village were engaged in ship-building and fishing.
Capt. Belcher, commander of H.M. survey ship "Sulphur", landed on Hong Kong island in January 1841. As the most suitable site for a settlement, he suggested a spot "at nearly the east end of Hong Kong bay, in two small indents; one opening into the valley of Wongneichong and another to the north-east [the So Kon Po valley]. A small promontory [East Point] of about 220 yards in length and 120 in breadth, with a frontage on both sides, has a landing place for boats at the point at all times of the tide. Both of these small bays are dry at low water spring tides, and would be easily gained from the sea". (Canton Register, 7 Dec. 1841)
Captain Belcher's suggestion was not followed, but Jardine, Matheson and Company considered the East Point promontory,