Sung Wong Toi

Kowloon City’s history stretches back far longer than most people realise. When eight-year-old Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279) emperor Zhao Shi and his seven-year-old brother Zhao Bing fled Mongol invaders in the 13^th century, they took refuge on a hill that overlooked Kowloon City’s rice paddies and villages. Legend has it this is where the elder brother coined the name Kowloon, or “Nine Dragons,” when he saw the eight peaks that surround the territory — the ninth dragon was himself, of course. After his death, local villagers turned a boulder on the emperor’s hill into a monument called Sung Wong Toi, which now sits in its own garden.