NOTES AND QUERIES
203
Territories and neighbouring areas. In this district there was a hill called Kwun Fu Shan, which is said to have been where Argyle Street is now. The San On district records published during the reign of Ka Hing: A.D. 1796-1820: state "Kwun Fu Shan lies to the east of Kap Shui Mun and in the neighbourhood of Fat Tong Mun. The royal barge anchored here, near where the foundations of the Emperor's Palace still stand". Fat Tong Mun is the passage lying between the Mainland and Lam Tong Island, to the east of Lei Yue Mun.
In the chapter "Kwun Fu Chu Fat" meaning Kwun Fu where the Emperor halted when on tour, the same records contain this section under the heading "Court Circuit".
"In the fourth moon of the year Ting Chau (A.D. 1277) the royal barge arrived at this place, where the Imperial Palace was erected, the plinths and pillars as well as the site of this Palace were still existing until the local residents built on the site a temple dedicated to Pak Tai."
It is now over a hundred years since this was written and during that time old landmarks have long since been altered or removed. The true site of the Imperial Palace is now unknown but the scholar Chan Pak To has reported that there is known to have been a village called Yee Wong Tin, the Palace of two Kings, on the right of the Pak Tai Temple. But this temple has itself been at some time moved and rebuilt. The site of the village of the Palace of the two Kings is also therefore uncertain although an old map suggests that it may have been to the west of Sung Shan which lay south of the original Sung Wong Toi. There was however yet another temple nearby. Once known as the Temple of the Supreme Ruler, it was built where this Rest Garden is now.
This Temple of the Supreme Ruler had within it a stone tablet recording that a Pak Tai Temple in the old Ma Tau Wei Village, which used to be known as Kwu Kan Wai was repaired during the reign of Ch'ien Lung (A.D. 1736-1796). That Pak Tai Temple is believed by some to have been the same as the one mentioned in the San On district records and built on the site of the original Palace at Kwun Fu. Whether this is so or not, it later disappeared from within the old Ma Tau Wei Village and thereafter the village elders used to perform their sacrifices at the Temple of the Supreme Ruler.
NOTES AND QUERIES
203
Territories and neighbouring areas. In this district there was a hill called Kwun Fu Shan, which is said to have been where Argyle Street is now. The San On district records published during the reign of Ka Hing: A.D. 1796-1820: state "Kwon Fu Shan lies to the east of Kap Shui Mun and in the neighbourhood of Fat Tong Mun. The royal barge anchored here, near where the foundations of the Emperor's Palace still stand". Fat Tong Mun is the passage lying between the Mainland and Lam Tong Island, to the east of Lei Yue Mun.
In the chapter "Kwun Fu Chu Fat" meaning Kwun Fu where the Emperior halted when on tour, the same records contain this section under the heading "Court Circuit".,
"In the fourth moon of the year Ting Chau (A.D. 1277) the royal barge arrived at this place, where the Imperial Palace was erected, the plinths and pillars as well as the site of this Palace were still existing until the local residents built on the site a temple dedicated to Pak Tai.'
It is now over a hundred years since this was written and during that time old landmarks have long since been altered or removed. The true site of the Imperial Palace is now unknown but the scholar Chan Pak To has reported that there is known to have been a village called Yee Wong Tin, the Palace of two Kings, on the right of the Pak Tei Temple. But this temple has itself been at some time moved and rebuilt. The site of the village of the Palace of the two Kings is also therefore uncertain although an old map suggests that it may have been to the west of Sung Shan which lay south of the original Sung Wong Toi. There was however yet another temple nearby. Once known as the Temple of the Supreme Ruler, it was built where this Rest Garden is now.
This Temple of the Supreme Ruler had within it a stone tablet recording that a Pak Tei Temple in the old Ma Tau Wei Village, which used to be known as Kwu Kan Wai was repaired during the reign of Ch'ien Lung (A.D. 1736-1796). That Pak Tei Temple is believed by some to have been the same as the one mentioned in the San On district records and built on the site of the original Palace at Kwun Fu. Whether this is so or not, it later disappeared from within the old Ma Tau Wei Village and thereafter the village elders used to perform their sacrifices at the Temple of the Supreme
Ruler.
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