HSBC and Bank of China - Two Banks, Two Landmarks

A stop on Hong Kong: Star Ferry to the Peak, a free self-guided tour.

Walk right under the HSBC Main Building. Norman Foster's design, completed in 1985, hangs its floors from giant steel masts, leaving the ground level as an open public plaza. Look straight up through the glass belly into the atrium above. At about HK$5.2 billion, it was reported as the most expensive building in the world when it was built.

At the harbor-side entrance sit two bronze lions, Stephen and Stitt, named after bank managers of the 1930s. Many passers-by stroke them for luck, and Stephen still carries shrapnel scars from the Battle of Hong Kong.

Now look east to the angular glass shaft of I. M. Pei's Bank of China Tower, finished in 1990. Reaching about 367 meters to the tips of its masts, it was the first building outside the United States taller than 1,000 feet. A popular legend claims the two cannon-like shapes on HSBC's roof were aimed at its neighbor. They are actually maintenance cranes, planned before the Bank of China Tower was finished.

Getting here: Cross Des Voeux Road Central from the south side of Statue Square; the HSBC building stands directly ahead.

Did you know?: During the war the lions were taken to Japan to be melted down. An American sailor found them in Osaka in 1945, and they were back in place by 1946.

Photo op: Stand in the open plaza under HSBC and point your camera straight up through the glass underside, then step out to Queen's Road Central to frame the Bank of China Tower's diagonal bracing.

More on Wikipedia: HSBC Building · Bank of China Tower · Norman Foster · I. M. Pei

HSBC and Bank of China - Two Banks, Two Landmarks

Stops on this tour