Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences

Description:

• This museum charts the historical development of medical science in Hong Kong. It's located in the century-old, Edwardian-style former Pathological Institute, which was founded to combat the colony's most horrific outbreak of bubonic plague, in 1894. Back then, British patients were treated upstairs, while the Chinese were relegated to the basement rooms. Several rooms remain almost exactly as they were, including an autopsy room and a laboratory filled with old equipment, while others serve as exhibition rooms devoted to such areas as the development of dentistry and radiology (note the X-ray of the bound foot) and the appalling living conditions in Tai Ping Shan, where the 1894 outbreak occurred (the cause of the plague was identified in Hong Kong shortly thereafter). But what makes the museum particularly fascinating is its unique comparison of traditional Chinese and Western medicine, and its funding of research into Chinese medicine. Included is a display on traditional Chinese herbs. You can easily spend 30 minutes here.

• © Frommer's 2013

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Recommended 2009
•  Recommended 2010