The Peak Tower is a shopping complex located at Victoria Gap, near the summit of

Victoria Peak Victoria Peak ( zh, t=太平山, j=taai3 ping4 saan1) is a hill on the western half of Hong Kong Island. It is also known as Mount Austin, and locally as The Peak only generally. With an elevation of , it is the tallest hill on Hong Kong Isla ...

Hong Kong Island Hong Kong Island () is an island in the southern part of Hong Kong. The island, known originally and on road signs simply as "Hong Kong", had a population of 1,289,500 and a population density of , . It is the second largest island in Hong Kon ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. It also houses the upper terminal of the

Peak Tram The Peak Tram is a funicular railway in Hong Kong, which carries both tourists and residents to the upper levels of Hong Kong Island. Running from Garden Road Admiralty to Victoria Peak via the Mid-Levels, it provides the most direct route and o ...

, a

funicular A funicular ( ) is a type of cable railway system that connects points along a railway track laid on a steep grade (slope), slope. The system is characterized by two counterbalanced carriages (also called cars or trains) permanently attached to ...

railway. Both the Peak Tower and the Peak Tram are owned by the

Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Limited (HSH) is the holding company of a hotel group. It is engaged in the ownership, development and management of The Peninsula Hotels; commercial and residential properties in Asia, the United States and Europe ...

group, the owner of Hong Kong's Peninsula Hotel and other properties. The tower and tram are jointly promoted by the collective branding known as The Peak. The Peak Tower is located at an elevation of 396 m (1,299 ft), 156 m (512 ft) below the summit of Victoria Peak. Because the architects sought a design which would be prominent on the skyline but would not interrupt the natural line of the hills, they chose a site in a dip along the line of the hills, and restricted the tower's height to 428 m above sea level.

History

The

opened in 1888. A wooden structure was built as its first upper terminus station. The current Peak Tower is the second on the site.

First design

The first peak Tower was designed by Hong Kong architect Chung Wah Nan. Construction started in 1971, and it was opened to the public on 29 August 1972. The Tower Restaurant, a western restaurant, opened in the same year. It was situated on the top deck while the Peak Coffee Shop was located on the floor below. Both the upper floors were supported by two columns allowing a clear space between the upper and lower parts of the tower. This design feature has been retained in the redeveloped tower, but with quite a different shape to the upper section. On the ground floor of the building, there was a Chinese restaurant. It was open until 1981. The first tower was demolished in 1993 and a groundbreaking ceremony on the new tower was held later the same year.

Second design

The current Peak Tower was the work of the British architect Terry Farrell, and was completed in 1997. It has seven floors with a total area of 10,400 m² (112,000 ft²) with a '' wok'' shape at the top. A viewing platform located on the third floor overlooks

Victoria Harbour Victoria Harbour is a natural landform harbor, harbour in Hong Kong separating Hong Kong Island in the south from the Kowloon Peninsula to the north. It acts as both a major trading hub and tourist attraction of Hong Kong in general. Lying in ...

. The building was altered from 2005–2006 at a cost of $100 million. The lower portion was glassed in to increase retail space, and the escalators were relocated. The Peak Tower now has eight floors with the viewing terrace relocated to the top of the building (at the top of the 'wok' shape) that overlooks both Victoria Harbour and

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

(SW of the Hong Kong Island); however, severe air pollution often hinders the outlook from this venue.

Attractions

Apart from the

terminal, viewing terrace, and gift shops, the tower also included several attractions: '' Ripley's Believe It or Not! Odditorium'', ''Hong Kong's Historical Adventure'' (a journey through scenes of the Hong Kong's early history, and the first computer-operated entertainment ride in Hong Kong) and the ''Peak Explorer Motion Simulator''. In 2000, after the closure of ''Hong Kong's Historical Adventure'', '' Madame Tussauds Hong Kong'' moved in to occupy the former vacated premises to become the first

Madame Tussauds Madame Tussauds (, ) is a wax museum founded in London in 1835 by the French wax sculptor Marie Tussaud. One of the early main attractions was the Chamber of Horrors, which appeared in advertising in 1843. In 1883, the restricted space of ...

permanent outlet in the Asia-Pacific region. The Peak Tower is located close to a second leisure and shopping centre,

the Peak Galleria Peak Galleria () is a leisure and shopping complex and a tourist attraction located at Victoria Gap, near the summit of Victoria Peak on Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. It is owned and run by Hang Lung Properties. It includes a bus terminus f ...

, built atop the bus station used by the public buses and green minibuses that serve the Peak.

References

External links

*
Peak Tower I (1972-1994) entry
at gwulo.com {{Coord, 22, 16, 17.49, N, 114, 8, 59.45, E, type:landmark_region:CN, display=title Landmarks in Hong Kong Shopping centres on Hong Kong Island Terry Farrell buildings Tourist attractions in Hong Kong Victoria Peak