Kwong Fook I Tsz, the temple of souls

Tai Ping Shan means «hill of peace», but few streets in Hong Kong have such a dark history. In front of you, perched on a red wall, is Kwong Fook I Tsz, which locals call Pak Sing Miu, «temple of the hundred families».

1A home for souls

Around 1856, Chinese residents and merchants built it to keep the spirit tablets of people who died in Hong Kong without being buried in their home villages. For many migrants, dying far from home was a double misfortune: with no family to tend their memory, their souls were left abandoned.

Over the years the temple also began to take in destitute sick people. In 1869 an official inspection found the dying and the dead together in the same room. The scandal, reported in the press, pushed the Chinese elite to found the Tung Wah Hospital, opened in 1872 a few steps from here, which took over running the temple.

2The plague

In May 1894 bubonic plague broke out in this overcrowded district and within a few months killed more than 6,000 people. That summer, the doctor Alexandre Yersin identified the plague bacillus in Hong Kong. The government knocked down the houses on the slope to create Blake Garden.

For decades, residents avoided walking here at night: it was said that the restless souls were still in the street.

3What to look for

• The three yellow discs with the temple's popular name.
• The banners of Dei Jong Wong (Ksitigarbha), protector of the dead, and of the monk Tsai Kung.
• The scent of incense drifting down the stairs.