Nathan Road

This guide to Nathan Road in Kowloon follows Sir Matthew Nathan, Hong Kong's thirteenth governor and its only Jewish colonial governor, who ordered a six-lane boulevard cut through empty rice paddies in the early nineteen hundreds and was mocked for it as Nathan's Folly. It traces his outsider standing in the colony, his departure in 1907, and how the deserted road was renamed in his honor two years later. From there it follows the neon-lit shops and hotels that eventually filled the boulevard after the Second World War. Listen for how the street earned its later nickname, the Golden Mile.