Where a ball tells time

The Hullett ball tower, on which a ball is raised at 1 pm every day in remembrance of an old tradition. [Photos by Pauline D. Loh / China Daily]

What used to be a maritime headquarters is now a delightful hotel and fine dining enclave full of colonial color. Pauline D. Loh spends some time at Hong Kong's Hullett House.

A little squat white tower rises unobtrusively above the hustle and bustle of the busiest shopping district in Kowloon, Hong Kong. In an older age, a ball would be raised on its rooftop pole at lunchtime, telling marines at sea it was time to head to shore for their mid-day break.

The ritual is still observed to this day, at 1 pm, although the colonial marines are no more, replaced by modern-day reinforcements at the People's Liberation Army base across the harbor.

We must have passed the place a dozen times in my younger days, but we never noticed it, except to register vaguely that this was the old naval police headquarters right in the heart of Tsim Sha Tsui, next to the Star Ferry.

Last year, after stopping by the illustrious Peninsula Hotel to stargaze and have tea, we were strolling toward the shopping paradise of Ocean Terminal and Harbor City when we passed by an open courtyard that looked as if it had been transplanted from one of the grander patios of Florence.

This was 1881 Heritage, a refurbished shopping mall.

There was a grand old building sitting behind balustrades on top of twin staircases, looking much like an elaborately frosted Christmas cake. There were tinkling waterfalls, gilded horse carriages and bridal couples posing about the complex, and I made a mental note to further explore this new attraction.

Except, of course, that this was the old Hullett House, refurbished and given new life, but not at all new.

You may also approach it from the back end of Peking Road, through a maze of designer boutiques, up an escalator and through glass doors that suddenly open out into lush greenery.