Pok Fu Lam
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Pok Fu Lam (薄扶林) or Pokfulam is a residential area on Hong Kong Island, at the western end of the Southern District.
Pok Fu Lam is a valley between Victoria Peak and Mount Kellet, around Telegraph Bay.
Pok Fu Lam can claim several firsts in the history of Hong Kong: It was the place where Hong Kong's floral emblem, Bauhinia blakeana, was first discovered; the site for Hong Kong's first reservoir, Pokfulam Reservoir, (1883, now part of a country park); and the site for Hong Kong's first dairy farm by five investors, including Sir Patrick Manson in 1885. The farm supplied not only milk, but cattle to Hong Kong. The farm was later became Dairy Farm. The farm no longer exists in Pok Fu Lam.
While the farm no long exists, its remains and other colonial era institutions continue to exist serving, in some cases, other purposes. The former diary farm can still be seen in the grassy slopes of the hills, but mainly in the two milking sheds that remain. They are between the new Vocational Training Center and the much older Bethenie. Bethanie and the cow sheds are presently administered by the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, but were previously controlled by the University of Hong Kong which used Bethanie as headquarters for the HKU Press. The APA uses Bethanie and the cow sheds for various educational purposes, but also lends the chapel in Bethanie to St. John's Cathedral (Anglican) as the locale for Emanuel Church, a daughter (subordinate) unit of St. John's.
Bethanie was a rest and recreation center (not the best term) for French Catholic missionaries in China. Recently restored with very loving care, Bethanie is now used by the Academy for the Performing Arts for educational purposes and also by St. John's Cathedral. Bethanie included a small chapel. In its present restored configuration, it seats about 100. The chapel is a beautiful Gothic structure. Some of the original statuary and stain glass windows have been recovered and re-installed.
Soon across the road (Pokfulam Road), is University Hall. U-Hall, as it is abbreviated, is a residential unit for undergraduates of the University of Hong Kong. Originally, U-Hall was the residence of a merchant, but eventually, it came under the control of the same French Catholic missionaries who built Bethanie. It was extended greatly and printed in its basement religious literature in many languages for nearly 100 years. In the 1950s, when missionary work in China died, the building was given the the HK government which gave it to the University of Hong Kong as a student residential unit. It is smaller now than it used to be, but still houses 100 or so undergraduates. There was a chapel in the building: it now serves as the dining hall for the students. University Hall is much in demand as a location for movies, wedding photos, advertisements, and other purposes.
At the centre of Pok Fu Lam is an indigenous village, the Pok Fu Lam Village (薄扶林村), which is often mistaken as a shanty town by the residents of the surrounding apartments, who are nevertheless attracted by Pok Fu Lam's quiet, green environment. Not surprisingly, there are a significant number of expatriates living in Pok Fu Lam, many of whom work at the nearby University of Hong Kong. Pok Fu Lam is also the location for the Queen Mary Hospital (colloquially known as QM, established in 1937), one of Hong Kong's major hospitals.
There was once a dairy which produced milk and milk products during the 1950s in Pokfulam.
Pok Fu Lam is connected to the Mid-levels, Sai Ying Pun and Aberdeen by the Pok Fu Lam Road. Pok Fu Lam also outlooks Lamma Island.
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