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North Point

North Point is a neighborhood in the northeast part of Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong. Parts of North Point were inhabited since before the British arrived in the mid-19th century, after which the Metropole Hotel was built in 1899, Hong Kong's second power station was built at North Point in 1919, and the area became home to a popular swimming gala during the 1930s. In 1938, a refugee camp was built at North Point to house refugees from mainland China during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and, during World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army transformed the camp into a prisoner-of-war camp for captured Canadian soldiers. During the Chinese Civil War, a large number of wealthy and middle-class Shanghainese refugees settled in North Point, and North Point was nicknamed "Little Shanghai" in 1950. By 1960, North Point was the most densely populated place on Earth. Shanghai's association with leftist movements led to the creation of leftist-supported businesses in North Point such as the Sunbeam Theatre. A second wave of immigration came from Hakka Fujianese immigrants, and later Indonesian grocers. North Point has historically been a Pro-Beijing camp stronghold; during the 1950s and 1960s, "Little Fuzhou" served as the pro-Beijing camp's main base of operations, and Fujianese gangs provided an "iron vote" for their left-wing ally, the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions.

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