St. John's Cathedral, the oldest religious and cultural landmark in Hong Kong

In the most prosperous and modern Central Business District of Hong Kong, St. John's Cathedral is uniquely located on Garden Road, close to the famous Statue Square, the Court of Final Appeal, the Cheung Kong Center, the Bank of China Tower and the HSBC headquarters building. You may be worried that St. John's Cathedral will be submerged by the high-rise buildings surrounding it? But in reality, your worries are really unnecessary. Because St. John's Cathedral has not only not been submerged by skyscrapers, but has also stood here for more than a century and a half with its own powerful aura, becoming one of the oldest religious and cultural landmarks in Hong Kong. When you come here from the Central District with its tall buildings, you will be attracted by this pale yellow building at first sight. At this time, you may feel that you have just traveled from one time and space to another. St. John's Cathedral, commonly known as the Cathedral, consists of the main hall, the chapel and the office building. It is the earliest Christian church established in Hong Kong and the cathedral of the Hong Kong Island Diocese of the Anglican Church of Hong Kong. It has a status that cannot be ignored in the local area. Among them, the main hall was built in 1849, the secondary hall was completed in the 1920s, and the office building was built around 1950. Although the three buildings were built 100 years apart, St. John's Cathedral is still the oldest surviving Western-style church building in Hong Kong. St. John's Cathedral combines the rich English church style of the early 13th century with the magnificent Gothic architectural style. It is mainly built with blue bricks and stones. The light yellow European-style building has a unique exotic style and appears solemn and dignified in the bustling Central. The entire building uses a large number of colonnades and cross decorations, pointed arches, bell towers, ribbed line components and geometric pattern window grilles, all of which are very distinctive. Today, this 170-year-old Gothic church records not only religious culture, but also traces of Hong Kong's historical society and urban changes. From this perspective, St. John's Cathedral is truly the oldest church in Hong Kong.