China News Service, Hong Kong, December 9th, title: Hong Kong has been silent for more than 70 years
China News Agency reporter Han Xingtong
"Dang——" At 6 o'clock in the afternoon on December 9, the clock tower that has stood on the waterfront of Tsim Sha Tsui for more than a century has been silent for more than 70 years, and six vigorous bells once again sounded with reverberations.
This clock tower is built with red bricks and granite and has a classical architectural style. It is 44 meters high and is equipped with a 7-meter high lightning rod on the roof.
The upper part of the bell tower is octagonal with a domed bell tower. The white classical decorations, such as rolling buttresses, pillars and eaves, form a strong contrast with the red bricks.
The clock tower is surrounded by dense palm trees and is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Hong Kong.
People often simply call it "Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower", and gradually forget its original name-the former Kowloon-Canton Railway Clock Tower.
As the name implies, the clock tower was part of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Kowloon Terminus building complex and was completed in 1915.
The bell officially sounded in the clock tower in 1921.
Wu Guoliang, the first-level assistant curator (ancient architecture) of the Hong Kong Antiquities and Monuments Office, introduced to reporters that in 1950, due to differences in the timing of the clocks on the four sides of the clock tower, the clock was inconsistent with the time on the clock face, and the operation of the clock ceased.
After more than 20 years, the Kowloon-Canton Railway Terminus was moved to Hung Hom, and the Tsim Sha Tsui Terminus building was demolished. The clock tower preserved on the original site became an important symbol of the early history of the Hong Kong Railway and was listed as a monument in 1990.
In order to revitalize the clock tower, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has been studying the feasibility of allowing the clock to report the time again from the technical level as early as last year.
The Senior Manager of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (Hong Kong Cultural Centre) Plaza and Waterfront Management He Shaoming said that after many studies and investigations, in order not to affect the structure of the monuments, the Leisure and Cultural Services Department decided to imitate the digital technology adopted by some British churches and pass the original bells of the bronze bells. The digital bell system is synchronized with the network time of the Hong Kong Observatory, extracting the most standard time to tell the time.
The Director of the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Xu Yingwei said in a speech on "A Hundred Years of Bell Ringing-The Bronze Bell of the Former Kowloon-Canton Railway Bell Tower" The gateway to logistics and logistics is also a mark of blood connection between the two places.
This year coincides with the centenary of the tolling of the clock tower. He hopes that the re-ringing of the bell will deepen Hong Kong people's understanding of Hong Kong's development history and inject new impetus into Hong Kong society.
Thousands of citizens gathered next to the clock tower, and they raised their cameras to try to record the moment the bell rang.
People stood silently in that bell, pricked their ears, and listened to the echoes of history.
From now on, every morning from 8 am to midnight, the bell tower will ring every hour to tell the citizens the time and restart the century-old story.
Libert, who was in the year of his birthday, came to Tsim Sha Tsui from Yau Ma Tei to ring the bell.
When interviewed by reporters, he recalled that he was more than ten years old, with full of curiosity, taking a train to Hong Kong for the first time.
He still remembers that it was a cool autumn. He came out of the train station and walked to the Tsim Sha Tsui pier next to him to take a boat to the opposite Hong Kong Island. He heard the "clang" bell ringing behind him, and looked back at the clock tower, which was 2 in the afternoon. Time.
Nowadays, the train station has moved away, leaving the clock tower alone, but today the bell rings again, shaking in Li Bo's heart, the past green years are suddenly in front of him, the feeling is deeper than any language.
Citizen Mr. Zeng was unable to rush to the scene due to work. He listened to the bell ringing through a live webcast. He described the clock tower as "an old man", "who witnessed the modern history of Hong Kong, has gone through the baptism of war, has gone through the return, and now continues with the people of Hong Kong. Going into the future and reporting the time accurately for us, thank you.” (End)