Going Down

This winter I read a Detective Dee book. Detective Dee stories are about a Chinese magistrate who uses wisdom, cunning, and logic to solve mysteries. They got their start over 500 years ago and are based on an actual Detective Dee.

In the book, one of the murders took place in an apartment that the narrator kept explaining was next to a godown. I had no idea what a godown was. Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer and looked it up on the internet.

A godown is simply a warehouse.

The cool thing about this Hong Kong word is that it is not simply a British English word that has stuck around like “lift” for elevator or “flat” for apartment. Godown came into Hong Kong English from the Malay word godong. The word godown is shared among Hong Kong, Malaysia, India and other Southeast Asia countries.

If you are taking the 682 bus back from Hong Kong Island, just after you come out of the East Harbor Tunnel and you are on the Kwon Tung Bypass, you will pass a big warehouse next to the old abandon Kai Tak Airport that has “Kowloon Godown” painted on the side in large letters.

Godown joins shroff (payment office) and nullah (river) as one of those cool Hong Kong English words that did not originate from the English language.

Let the word hunting continue.