Hong Kong climate history

When Hong Kong’s British colonisers first arrived, there was no way to freeze water in the humid climate

For Hong Kong’s British colonisers, there was only one solution to the territory’s stifling summers: ice.

The humid embrace of Hong Kong’s summer is heavy and hard to shrug off. The best antidote to such sultriness is found in a thick-stemmed soda glass half-filled with iced red bean, a deliciously syrupy mixture of sweetened, softened adzuki beans topped with evaporated milk and poured over crushed ice. It’s a Cantonese classic thought to be inspired by a popular Chinese dessert and given a Western twist in its diner-style presentation – and is best enjoyed beneath the whirling ceiling fans of one of the city’s bing sutt cafes, where Hongkongers have gone to cool down for decades.

But it was not always so simple to escape the heat in Hong Kong. When the region was ceded to the British in 1841, the wealthiest colonists built large, shaded mansions on Victoria Peak, which offered relative respite from the muggy conditions, and they adorned their elegant dinner tables with tinned foods imported from their homeland.