The Shek Kip Mei Fire of December 1953 is widely known as the trigger for the city's mass public housing programme, but few people can point to the 1894 outbreak of bubonic plague as the instigator of the colonial government's decision to build sound public sanitation and health systems.
The plague epidemic was a turning point in the city's medical history, says Dr Faith Ho Chi-suk, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Science's education and research committee.
'The government realised it had to improve Hong Kong's public sanitation and public health to stop the epidemic and avoid another, or Hong Kong's economy would be badly hurt,' Ho said.
During the run of the epidemic - 1894 to 1923 - 20,489 people died from the plague, which broke out in the overcrowded Tai Ping Shan Street area in Sheung Wan. The building that houses the museum was built in 1906 as the Bacteriological Institute as part of efforts to fight the plague.
Ho and her colleagues at the museum have mapped out a 110-minute walking trail across Sheung Wan and Sai Ying Pun to bring this important piece of history back to life.
The Tai Ping Shan Medical Heritage Trail takes visitors to 16 sites. Some are historic buildings, such as the museum's premises and the former Chinese Lunatic Asylum, now a methadone clinic, in Eastern Street. Others are modern structures on historic sites, such as the Caine Lane Garden, which used to be a disinfecting station and ambulance depot.
