Guānfù

Guanfu was the old coastal district around present-day Kowloon City and Kowloon Bay. Its name came from a government saltworks established under the Southern Song; archaeology near Sacred Hill has recovered the wells, pottery and other remains of settlement during the Song and Yuan periods. Under the Ming and Qing, the Guanfu patrol office helped police this coast. Its junior official could question suspects, but formal judgments belonged to the county authorities. The office did not always remain in the same place: after 1671 there was a period when no patrol official was stationed within present-day Hong Kong. Coastal defence gained renewed attention during the Jiaqing reign. In 1811 a battery was completed beside Kowloon Bay to watch shipping and counter piracy. Commerce also left a visible record. An inscription commemorating repairs to the Hau Wong Temple in 1822 listed more than a hundred contributing businesses, alongside ferry operators, showing the substantial market community that had grown around the bay.