節錄來源 #Hong Kong History#聲音專欄｜MADEFROM.HK
Before Hong Kong became a port,
it was already written about.
Not as a city.
Not as a destination.
But as a place at the edge of the map.
In early Chinese records,
this region appeared quietly.
Referenced by geography,
by coastline,
by distance.
It had no skyline.
No harbour name.
Only descriptions of land and water.
Texts spoke of the southern coast,
of routes leading beyond the known world.
Of salt fields, fishing grounds,
and settlements scattered along the shore.
What mattered was not what stood here,
but where it was.
This land lay between rivers and sea,
between inland provinces and open water.
It was not a centre.
It was a passage.
Officials did not write about Hong Kong as a city,
because it was not one.
They wrote about movement.
About supply.
About connection.
Ships passed by.
People moved through.
Goods flowed along the coast.
The land existed in records
because it served a function.
It connected regions.
It supported livelihoods.
It marked the boundary between control and distance.
In these early texts,
Hong Kong was defined by absence.
No walls.
No administration.
No capital presence.
And yet,
it was remembered.
Not for what it was,
but for where it stood.
Long before the port,
before trade names and shipping lanes,
Hong Kong existed in writing
as a quiet reference point
on the southern edge of the world.