The cenotaph or ‘empty tomb’ was unveiled on 25 May, 1923, five years after the end of WWI, to commemorate the lives of those who served in Hong Kong in the Royal Airforce, Navy and Army during WWI. It was to be a permanent and lasting memorial. At the time, no-one could imagine another world war but within 20 years, the world was at war again and thousands were dying on battlefields and in muddy trenches. After WWII, a new inscription was added, with the words, ‘The Glorious Dead’ and the dates 1939–1945. It took another few decades before a Chinese inscription was also added to honour those who’d died defending Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion. The Chinese characters are translated as ‘May their martyred souls be immortal, and their noble spirits endure’. It is an appropriately sombre and formal structure. Based on the London cenotaph, it is a simple classical design, harking back to ancient Roman and Greek principles of symmetry, with no unnecessary decoration or ornamentation, except for carved wreaths at the top. It is built of dressed ashlar stone blocks and the granite platform has a few steps leading to the cenotaph and are important for the laying of remembrance wreaths. Remembrance Day and the ANZAC Day dawn service are celebrated in front of the cenotaph each year. For tourists, one of the interesting things to know is that when it was built in the 1920s, it stood on the waterfront. Aggressive land reclamation has pushed the waterline so far back that it’s difficult to imagine today that the harbour once came up this far.

This place honors heroes. But it looks and feels alien among the surroundings. But that is the charm.