a practice which dates from the time when Jardines' main offices and warehouses were located at East Point. Then, the guard marches up to the Noonday Gun and fires it, after which he rings the bell again, locks the chain blocking access to the gun and goes off. It is accessed by a tunnel passing under Gloucester Road from the basement car park in The Excelsior hotel, which is operated by Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, a Jardines subsidiary. In March 2019, the Excelsior hotel is definitely closed, its building to be destroyed, and then replaced by an office building. For a donation of HK$33,000 to the Community Chest charity, anyone can arrange to pull the lanyard that fires the gun. In popular culture The firing of the gun was famously mentioned in Noël Coward's humorous song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen". In Hong Kong, they strike a gong, and fire off a noonday gun To reprimand each inmate who's in late See also Noon Gun: Signal Hill, Cape Town, South Africa One O'Clock Gun: Edinburgh Castle, Edinburgh, Scotland. References External links Tourist attractions in Hong Kong Monuments and memorials in Hong Kong History of Hong Kong Causeway Bay Eastern District, Hong Kong Jardine Matheson Group Time guns