HK History

By Historying
  • Period: to

    First Opium War

    Great Britain attacks China

  • Gov provision of public oil lamps

  • Period: to

    Second Opium War

    Great Britain and France attack China

  • Towngas introduces gas light to HKI

    Hong Kong and China Gas Company (Towngas)

  • First electric light in Shanghai

    Also the same year Edison invents the incandescent electric bulb
  • Period: to

    Light and Pass ordinance

    Required Chinese to carry lamps at night under the assumption that all were potential criminals (issue of light and safety)

  • Great Rainstorm

    Informed HK Electric engineer who designed HK's first electric power plant that HK needed a stronger electrical distribution system to withstand the weather

  • HK Island gets 50 electric lights

    Hong Kong Electric

  • Kowloon gets gas light

  • Period: to

    Opium crisis

  • Period: to

    The Plague

  • Period: to

    First Sino Japanese War

  • Kowloon streets get electric light

    China Light and Power (CLP)

  • Neon introduced to HK

    Powered by electricity

  • Advertisement Regulation Ordinance

  • Electric Street plant no longer needed

    HK Electric built new plants in North Point when demand for energy increased

  • First neon sign in China

    advertising Royal typewriters on Shanghai’s Nanjing East Road

  • LED 'created'

  • Period: to

    Chinese Civil War (first phase)

  • Neon reaches China

    "14 years later" (able to be seen in fog, attractive, cheap)

  • Great Depression

    Affected China's trade with the rest of the world
  • Period: to

    Neon's heyday in the US

    A culture battling the Great Depression

  • Lecture on electricity at Rotary Club

  • Proposal for neon on ships as fog lighting

  • Neon Light Factory for HK

    No evidence that this actually happened

  • Neon developments around the world

  • Period: to

    Second Sino Japanese War

  • Neon sign fire in Central

    Put out in short time

  • Gov ban on electric current supplying neon

    To be cut off during Typhoon 5 and above (Gov gazette)
  • Period: to

    World War 2

  • Neon sign fire at star ferry wharf

    Put out in short order
  • Period: to

    Japanese occupation of HK

  • Period: to

    Chinese Civil War (second phase)

  • Neon sign catches fire

    Central, also put out quickly

  • Kremlin celebrates revolution anniversary using neon

  • Period: to

    Polio outbreak

  • Period: to

    UN and US Trade Embargo on China

  • Period: to

    Vietnam War

    US soldiers frequent HK for 'suzie wong' experience

  • 'World of Suzie Wong' published

  • Period: to

    Vietnam R&R Boom Years

    Regular visits from US soldiers brought huge income to HK
  • Period: to

    HK hosts US soldiers on holiday

  • Star Ferry Riots

  • Period: to

    Cultural Revolution

  • Hong Kong Riots

  • Time of liberation

    smoking, obesity, drug abuse, sedentary lifestyles/jobs, alcohol, sexual practices (decade of liberation, sex trade now romanticised through characters like Suzie Wong and sold under neon lights)

  • Blue LED developed

    White LED achieved with primary colours / fuller spectrum of usable colour