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March 8, 2014 |
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The tradition seems to have originated over an incident in the 1860s when Jardine Matheson|Jardines, who had their main godowns and offices at East Point, has their private militia fire a gun salute to welcome the tai pans arrival by sea. The Royal Navy thought that such a salute should be reserved only for government officials or senior officers of the armed services. In penance, Jardines has been required to fire a gun at noon ever since, to serve as a time signal. The firing of the gun is a Hong Kong landmarks and tourist attractions|tourist attraction, a small crowd usually gathers for the daily firing of the gun at noon by an employee of Jardines who are apparently under an obligation to the Hong Kong government to continue to carry out this tradition in perpetuity, even though Hong Kong is now an special administrative region|SAR of the People's Republic of China and no longer the British Crown Colony it was when the tradition started. To watch the event, people must make their way to the enclosure - the easiest way to get there is to take the tunnel under the road from the basement car park in Excelsior|The Excelsior hotel - ask at reception if you cannot find it as the signage is poor. The Excelsior itself is owned by Mandarin Oriental hotels, which itself is a part of Jardines. At the event, the Jardines man, who wears a Jardines uniform, hands out leaflets to those gathered which describe Jardines version of the background to the gun firing. The firing of the gun was famously mentioned in Noel Coward's humourous song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen". category:Hong Kong attractions category:Tourism in Hong Kong category:History of Hong Kong category:Causeway Bay category:Eastern District, Hong Kong category:Jardine Matheson Group zh:怡和午炮 This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Noon-day Gun".
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