Nathan Road |
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Jordan section of Nathan Road, at its intersection with Austin Road
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Traditional Chinese | |||||||||||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 弥敦道 | ||||||||||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Hakka | |
Romanization | ni2 dun1 tau4 |
Yue: Cantonese | |
Yale Romanization | mei4 deun1 dou6 |
IPA | [nȅi tɵ́n tòu] |
Jyutping | nei4 deon1 dou6 |
Nathan Road is the main thoroughfare in Kowloon, Hong Kong that goes in a south-north direction from Tsim Sha Tsui to Sham Shui Po. It is lined with shops and restaurants and throngs with tourists, and was known in the post-World War II years as the Golden Mile, a name that is now rarely used. It starts on the southern part of Kowloon at its junction with Salisbury Road, a few metres north of Victoria Harbour, and ends at its intersection with Boundary Street in the north. Portions of the Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan Lines (Prince Edward, Mong Kok, Yau Ma Tei, Jordan and Tsim Sha Tsui) run underneath Nathan Road.The total length of the Nathan Road is about 3.6 kilometres (2.2 mi).
The first section of the road was completed in 1861. It was the very first road built in Kowloon, after the land was ceded by the Qing Dynasty government to the United Kingdom and made part of the crown colony in 1860. The road was originally named Robinson Road, after Sir Hercules Robinson, the 5th Governor of Hong Kong. To avoid confusion with the Robinson Road on Hong Kong Island, the name was changed to Nathan Road in 1909, after Sir Matthew Nathan, the 13th Governor who served between 1904 and 1907.