The Plague Years in Hong Kong

Hong Kong History

The Plague Walking Tour

In 1894, the bubonic plague hit Hong Kong, bringing the city to a standstill and killing more than 20,000 here and 10 million worldwide. This walking tour through Sheung Wan, the colony’s first Chinese quarter, will take you back to the early wild days of the booming British colony where you’ll see ground zero for the plague in Hong Kong, learn about the squalid living conditions and the retched dying rooms of local Chinese residents and hear about the confrontation between Eastern and Western medicine and how global medical history was made.

The tour lasts about 1.5 hours and is an easy walk under 1km, though it does include stairs and inclines.

1.5 hours

Robin Ewing

Robin Ewing is a senior lecturer in journalism at Hong Kong Baptist University. She has lived in Hong Kong for 18 years and specializes in the intersection of journalism, history and technology.