Pok Fu Lam - Sights

Sights

While the farm no longer exists, its remains and other colonial era institutions continue to exist serving, in some cases, other purposes. The former dairy farm can still be seen in the grassy slopes of the hills, but mainly in the two milking sheds that remain. They are between the new Vocational Training Center and the much older Béthanie. Béthanie and the cow sheds are presently administered by the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, but were previously controlled by the University of Hong Kong which used Béthanie as headquarters for the HKU Press. The APA uses Béthanie and the cow sheds for various educational purposes, but also lends the chapel in Béthanie to St. John's Cathedral (Anglican) as the locale for Emmanuel Church - Pokfulam, a daughter (subordinate) church serving the west of Hong Kong island.

Béthanie was built as a sanatorium between 1873 and 1875 for the French Catholic missionaries in China, better known as Missions Etrangères de Paris or MEP. Recently restored with loving care, Béthanie is now used by the Academy for the Performing Arts for educational purposes. Béthanie includes a small chapel. In its present restored configuration, this chapel seats about 100 and is used each Sunday by Emmanuel Church - Pokfulam, a daughter church of St. John's Cathedral. The Béthanie chapel is a beautiful Neo Gothic structure. Some of the original statuary and stain glass windows have been recovered and re-installed.

Across the Pokfulam Road, is University Hall. U-Hall, as it is abbreviated, is a residential unit for undergraduates of the University of Hong Kong. Originally, U-Hall was the residence of a merchant, but eventually, it came under the control of the same French Catholic missionaries who built Béthanie. It was extended greatly and printed religious literature in its basement in many languages for nearly 100 years. In the 1950s, when missionary work in China died, the building was given to the HK government which gave it to the University of Hong Kong as a student residential unit. It is smaller now than it used to be, but still houses 100 or so undergraduates. There was a chapel in the building: it now serves as the dining hall for the students. University Hall is much in demand as a location for movies, wedding photos, advertisements, and other purposes.