Legend of Xiangjiang Tycoon

The foreigners who came to Xiangjiang in the early days were troubled by many things and lacked in entertainment life. Although Hong Kong Island in Xiangjiang has green mountains and blue seas, the place is so big that if you play a few times, you will get tired of it. Besides, whether it has been developed or not.

So the original entertainment place was a dance held by a wealthy family.

In May 1846, foreign merchants in Hong Kong organized the Hong Kong Club (referred to as the Hong Kong Club).

Hong Kong will be surrounded by mountains and seas, elegant and luxurious, with dance floors, bars, cafes, chess and card rooms, and libraries.

Its members, in addition to foreign businessmen, also have high-class foreigners such as Hong Kong government officials, royal officers stationed in Hong Kong, priests and doctors.

Hong Kong will exclude inferior foreigners, and the seafarers will scold them and cause trouble. So in 1863, the Hong Kong government established the Hong Kong Seamen's Home (also known as the Seamen's Club) in Sai Ying Pun.

The seafarers are so rude and grumpy that the officials let them drink and binge in the clubs.

In addition, there are many women's branch offices in the Chinese Commercial Street. None of the bosses have the concept of racial hierarchy.

Most of the people who come here are still Chinese, followed by Indians and Luzonians, and low-class Westerners are also frequent visitors here. But high-class foreigners rarely patronize these recreational places, for fear of ruining their reputation.

The number of foreigners in Hong Kong is increasing, the wealth is increasing exponentially, and there are few entertainment venues. It is against this background that the Horse Club came into being.

The richest man in British business, Jardine, once said: "In Britain, everyone likes horse racing, and it is very popular, just like the Chinese like flour."

When the British came to Hong Kong to develop, they brought British culture and naturally horse racing.

However, the early horse racing in Hong Kong was not in Hong Kong, but moved to Lisboa.

Macau has a longer colonial history than Hong Kong. When Hong Kong was still barren, Lisboa was already a prosperous commercial port with the first-class racecourse in the Far East.

A crisp autumn day in 1842. More than a dozen British ships arrived in Macau in a mighty manner. One of the ships was on board with the Governor Patien Chak and a group of officials.

They were followed by the executives and staff of Jardine's & Co. The other ships were escorted by the Royal Navy, horses, and foreigners, mainly British merchants.

This kind of off-site horse racing, in today's view, must be very ridiculous. But at the time, the participants not only satisfied their desire for entertainment, but also felt honored.

This horse race was held to celebrate the occupation of Hong Kong by the ghosts. Every year during the Lunar New Year, the Hong Kong government and the Chamber of Commerce jointly send troops to participate in the annual race in Lisboa.

This kind of off-site horse racing continued until the term of the second Governor Davis expired.

During this period, the Portuguese in Lisboa laughed at the British, saying that the dignified kingdom of Great Britain was arrogant to dominate the world, but in the Far East, there was no happy place of its own.

The British who participated in the Macau horse races began to be ashamed of moving horses and asked the Hong Kong government to open their own racecourses.

Hong Kong's official racetrack appeared in the year Governor Davis stepped down. Before that, there were only private horse racing events in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Island is mountainous, and on the north shore where it was first developed, the slightly flat areas were already filled with buildings. In Wong Nai Chung, Causeway Bay, there is a flat valley.

There is an ancient village in the valley, Huangniyong Village. Next to the village, there are paddy fields and vegetable fields.

Not far from Huangni Chung, there are Westerners' residential and commercial areas. Most Westerners suffer from malaria, and they attribute the source of the disease to Huangniyong. The paddy fields and ditches are breeding grounds for mosquitoes and flies. To eliminate mosquitoes and flies, the muddy water in Wong Nai Chung must be drained first.

In the future urban planning, Huang Ni Chung is listed as a potential residential and commercial area. It is only a matter of time before the development of Huangniyong.

An author published an article in the English Gazette, urging the Hong Kong government to drain the muddy water in Happy Valley as soon as possible, saying that the development of Happy Valley is imperative now that seaside land is becoming increasingly difficult.

The dredging and drainage works at Wong Nai Chung started in 1843. Upon completion, the paddy fields became dry land. Next to the valley, there is also a dirt road called Huangniyong Road.

The properties of Jardine's & Co. are all located in the Causeway Bay area. The executives and staff felt the monotony of Hong Kong's entertainment life. Under the initiative of Jardine's Taipan, the people from Jardine's Foreign Trade often came to Huangniyong to race horses.

The horse riders, all the supervisors and general staff, cheered and cheered on the cheerleading team.

In 1844, the patriarch of Huangniyong Village led a group of elders to cross the strait to the Kowloon Walled City, and handed in a petition to the officials of the Qing Dynasty, saying: "Fanbangyi people are running in our land, trampling on fertile fields, and causing the obedient people of my village to be unable to work hard." , unable to pay the land rent. Looking at the blue sky of the city wall, showing consideration for the people's sentiments, showing the announcement, ordering the barbarians not to ride horses in my village; even more, looking at the emperor Daoguang, personally issued an edict, strictly forbid the barbarians to privately invade the farmland of Gongmi in my village, and make the barbarians choose other deserted islands and fields. Absurd and dirty game. My emperor is terrifying all over the world, how dare the barbarians not obey? Long live my emperor..

The officials of the Kowloon Walled City were so frightened by the British warship that they did not dare to post announcements on Hong Kong Island.

As for the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, even the entire Hong Kong Island was completely ceded, and he would not pay attention to the hard work of the small people in the mountains.

Naturally, this was over. The villagers in Huangniyong could only watch the barbarians galloping with their horses.

Jardine's Matheson ran horses in Wong Nai Chung and became famous for a while. The foreigners, suffering from no place for recreation, came to Happy Valley to watch the horse races. On Sunday, Jardine's troop will invite Hong Kong government officials, British businessmen and celebrities to the Happy Valley for horse racing. Other foreigners stood on the **** to watch.

Jardine's domineering, aroused the dissatisfaction of other foreigners. They got together to discuss and decided to organize another horse racing event to compete with Jardine's.

In 1845, an organized horse race in Hong Kong was held in Pok Fu Lam, Western District. The so-called racecourse is just a small sloping land overgrown with rocks and weeds. On this day, all the foreigners on Hong Kong Island rushed to watch.

An accident happened shortly after the start of the race, and the horse stumbled, throwing a knight two feet away. Then, a horse named Kamikaze tripped over the rocks and broke his leg.

The foreign merchants got together again and planned to build a large and flat horse farm. Due to the inability to discuss the cost sharing, the plan of repairing the horse farm was dead.

This spontaneous horse club lasted for two years before disappearing - leaving only a tragic record of three crippled horses.

As a result, only the Happy Valley Racecourse stood out, which almost became the private racecourse of Jardine's.

At this time, the voices of foreigners in Hong Kong demanding the establishment of government-run horse farms are getting louder. Owners and riders returning from Lisboa races say they no longer want to go to Lisboa to be ridiculed by the Portuguese.

Governor Davis also deeply felt that the horse racing in Lisboa was an insult to the majesty of the British Empire.

Moreover, when going to Lisboa for horse racing, most people in Hong Kong still cannot enjoy this noble entertainment.

Davis led people to determine the location of the racecourse and traveled all over Hong Kong Island, but still felt that Happy Valley was the most ideal. Jardine Taipan was very much in favor of the Hong Kong government setting up a racecourse in Happy Valley, and sponsored a sum of money to repair the racetrack. Therefore, in the early days of the establishment of the Jockey Club, the power of Jardine's and the Hong Kong government was equal to that of the Hong Kong government.

Davis stepped down in 1848. Jardine Taipan, together with all the British businessmen, held an informal horse race for Davis at the newly built racecourse.

The Hong Kong Racecourse is also called Happy Valley Racecourse by foreigners and Happy Valley by Chinese. With a racecourse, there must be a horse racing charter, and a horse racing committee must be established.

At that time, Kowloon was still under the jurisdiction of the Qing court, and the Qing army in Kowloon confronted the British army on Hong Kong Island across the sea. In view of this reality, Governor General Panhan was worried that the British in Hong Kong would indulge in horse racing and become discouraged from playing with things.

It is true that in addition to the official anniversary races, British businessmen also hold informal horse races on a small scale and cannot be compared with the anniversary races.

The Horse Racing Committee is a temporary organization that is formed every year before a horse race.

The original members were all British, consisting of these three parts: the members of the previous jockey club, the well-known British in Hong Kong later, and the horse owners of the racing horses (the horse owners are all wealthy).

The Jockey Club has a separate board of directors, the decision-making body. The Governor of Hong Kong is the honorary chairman of the board.

The Horse Racing Committee is a temporary organization that is formed every year before a horse race. The original members were all British, consisting of these three parts: the members of the previous jockey club, the well-known British in Hong Kong later, and the horse owners of the racing horses (the horse owners are all wealthy). The Jockey Club has a separate board of directors, the decision-making body. The Governor of Hong Kong is the honorary chairman of the board.

The annual Anniversary Race remains the same. Because the Hong Kong government allows horse owners and riders to meet and train horses in Happy Valley, in fact, small-scale horse racing is still held in private.

Anniversary race, also known as special race. All jockeys are amateurs.

Most of the jockeys are from the army stationed in Hong Kong. Horse riding is a daily military training item of the army. The horses that win the championship are mostly the horses ridden by military jockeys. Other jockeys, or folk horse racing enthusiasts, or the horse owner himself.

There are no permanent stands at the racecourse. On the eve of the special horse race, a sunflower shed was temporarily set up for the club members and their wives to enjoy to protect them from the sun and rain.

Non-member foreigners occupy a favorable **** and watch it from a high position. Horse racing is also a "diorama" that Chinese people love to watch. They stand separately from foreigners, and the terrain is naturally inferior to non-member second-class foreigners.

The racecourse also has no permanent track. The track is overgrown with weeds, and it is definitely not the turf of the horse farm that is now specially planted. In the center of the circular runway is a large swamp.

If there is a heavy rain, even the track will be lost, the jockey will ride the horse in the water, and the Chinese, who are highly discriminated against, laughed and said: "Happy horse field has become a water field."

In the early days of horse racing, it was purely recreational sports. In addition to horse racing in the usual sense, there are also equestrian competitions such as overcoming obstacles, pulling flags and picking up balls.

Horse blocking was originally carried out privately in folk horse racing. Between horse owners and horse owners, and between jockeys and jockeys, there is a battle.

The loser will buy a bottle of wine at the dinner party, and at most only cover the dinner. The wind of blocking horses soon spread among the viewers. Which horse they blocked would win, and the loser would naturally lose a little fortune. If compared with today's stalling, the stalling at that time was not Dubo at all.

Hong Kong's public traffic jams began in 1890. At that time, the number of non-British members increased, not only the situation of the British dominating the Jockey Club was broken, but also the privileges of the Hong Kong government and Jardine's and other big foreign companies were also slowly disappearing.

The Jockey Club has gradually become a very independent organization. The Hong Kong government pursues a policy of active non-intervention, while Jardine's and other foreign firms have adopted a passive attitude, which makes it difficult for the highly independent Jockey Club to handle affairs.

Jockeys have repeatedly called for the construction of a permanent stable. The horse will put this matter on the agenda, members will express their opinions, stick to vested interests, and put their proposals on the shelf.

In 1877, a torrential rain caused mudslides in the Huangniyong Valley, and the racecourse was completely destroyed. The Jockey Club was unable to raise funds for the insurrection, and had to borrow huge sums of money from banks to build a permanent horse farm.

As a result, the Jockey Club has built up a lot of debt, and even if it expands the opening for approving new members, the limited membership fee will not be able to fill the financial black hole.

In this case, the horse will set up spinach. Recreational sports activities, become Doberman activities.

The minimum amount of betting on the horse is 5 yuan for both the single win and the position. If once the lottery is won, the lucky person who bets will make a windfall. Although there are opportunities to make a fortune, not many people participate in the stalling of the horse, which makes the plan of the horse club to get rid of the financial crisis in vain.

The Horse Club took back the gambling rights, and it still lost money when it continued to operate. This was repeated, until in 1931, the Jockey Club set up a special organization to operate and manage.

The establishment of housing and gambling operations gradually turned the Jockey Club into a profit, and the housing system has continued to this day.

Why do horses lose money for a long time? The reasons are as follows: After the establishment of the Singapore Horse Club, a fee-based admission system was adopted. The admission ticket for the public shed is 1 yuan, and the fee for each member shed is 5 yuan.

The members are all rich, and they will not begrudge a mere 5 yuan. For the general public, 1 yuan is equivalent to one month's living expenses for a member of an ordinary family. Not to mention Chinese, even low-income non-member foreigners will also count.

A lottery ticket is 5 yuan~www.readwn.com~ This is equivalent to a month's salary for a low-income worker. Although there is hope of making a fortune, this 5 yuan bet has also discouraged many small people.

Hong Kong residents are mostly Chinese. But the Jockey Club has long pursued a policy of discriminating against Chinese people. The horse racing schedule, horse names, and jockeys are all in English.

Horse racing has never been a traditional entertainment for the Chinese from the Pearl River Delta. As a result, it is difficult for the Chinese to accept horse racing as a noble Western entertainment. If they see it in vain, they will still rush to it; if they want to buy a ticket, most Chinese will be grateful.

For a long period of time, with the large stables, spectators were sparse and deserted.

Of course, there are times when it is full, it depends on the date of the horse race and whether it happens to be in the Chinese New Year.

At that time, the Chinese, who had worked hard to save for a year, would still talk about ostentation no matter what. Horse racing is a fashionable thing, and naturally there are many Chinese who follow the fashion in the first month.

After all, everyone has worked hard for a year, and this horse racing is a new thing in the upper class, so it is naturally sought after.

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