Noon Day Gun Causeway Bay Hong Kong
The firing of the Noon Day Gun in Causeway Bay in Hong Kong is a throwback to the territory's time as a British colony.
The Noon Day Gun, immortalized in Noel Coward's Mad Dogs and Englishmen, is fired each day at noon with some ceremony.
The gun sits on the site of the first plot of land sold at public auction in Hong Kong, which was bought by the Jardine Matheson company in 1841.
Legend has it that the firing of the Jardine gun salute to the company's Taipan startled a senior British Naval Officer, who ordered that Jardines fired the gun every day at noon as a time signal.
The tradition has continued to this day, though the gun disappeared during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in the 1940's and was replaced in the 1960's by a smaller version, after complaints about the noise from local residents.
The firing of the gun is accompanied by the ringing of eight bells and since 1946 the gun also fires to welcome in the New Year.
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The Noon Day gun is a short walk from Victoria Park.
© Beijing-Visitor.com
