Sun Yat-sen arrived in Hong Kong in 1883 to attend school, and later studied medicine at what is now the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong. He described his time in Hong Kong as formative — the city gave him exposure to Western political thought and a comparative lens through which to view the Qing dynasty's governance of China. He later said that if Hong Kong could be developed and governed so well, he saw no reason why China could not achieve the same. The neighborhood of Sai Ying Pun and the broader Western District were where much of his early intellectual and political development took place. Several trails and heritage sites across Hong Kong now trace his presence in the city, including the Dr. Sun Yat-sen Historical Trail and the nearby Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum in Sheung Wan.

The park did not appear all at once. The waterfront land in this part of Sai Ying Pun was reclaimed from the harbour, and for years much of it sat idle, fenced off and managed by the Lands Department following the construction of the Western Harbour Crossing in the 1990s. An original two-hectare park — called Western Park — opened on part of the site in 1991. A sports centre followed in 1995. The full redevelopment took years: the expansion was among 25 priority projects identified in the 2005 policy address, and Phase One of the reconstructed park finally opened to the public on 26 June 2010. The swimming pool — offering a 50-metre competition pool and a teaching pool — opened on 30 November 2011. The sports centre was formally renamed the Sun Yat Sen Memorial Park Sports Centre on 1 June 2011, giving the entire precinct a coherent identity after two decades of piecemeal construction.

There is a tendency for memorial parks to become reverential and a little sterile — spaces for looking rather than living in. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Park resists that tendency. The facilities here are for active use: two basketball courts, a seven-a-side football pitch, fitness stations, a jogging track, a 50-metre swimming pool, and a children's playground. The waterfront promenade draws people who want to walk along the harbour without the commercial noise of more prominent waterfront destinations. A reflecting pool and a memorial lawn provide quieter spaces for those who want them. In the evenings and on weekends, the park fills with residents from the surrounding neighborhoods — families with children, older adults using the fitness stations, swimmers in the pool, teenagers on the courts. The name honors a statesman; the park serves the living.

Sai Ying Pun is one of Hong Kong Island's older residential neighborhoods, slightly west of the more frequently visited Sheung Wan and Central. Its streets retain a mix of old tenement buildings and newer development, and it has become increasingly popular as a residential area in recent years. The waterfront here — looking north across the harbour toward the Stonecutters Bridge and the container terminals of Kwai Tsing — is less celebrated than the Tsim Sha Tsui or Central waterfronts, which suits many of the park's regular visitors. The proximity to the Western Harbour Crossing and the ferry piers at Sheung Wan means the area has always had a practical, workaday character. The park fits that character: it is not trying to be a destination so much as a place where a neighborhood can breathe.