IDJ has sent these extracts from a 1908 book which describe the company and show photographs of its operations. The company was founded in 1862, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (now known as Towngas) was Hong Kong’s first public utility and its original generating plant, the first in Asia, stood on the waterfront at West Point near Whitty Street. […]
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IDJ: The felling of the concrete chimneys at the decommissioned Tsing Yi Power Station On 15 November 1998 the five chimneys were demolished at the same time by controlled explosives weakening the structures so they fell safely to the ground in a prearranged pattern. These images were taken from a video of the event. See: The Demolition of Tsing Yi […]
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HF: Craig Mitchell has been in touch with a few more notes and thoughts about the site above Stanley which appears to be industrial in origin. I have added these to his original comments. Craig Mitchell writes: Last weekend [early Jan 2014] a few of us were out in the hills behind Stanley. We went up the The Twins (Stanley […]
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Hugh Farmer: When Hong Kong was established as a free trading port in 1841, there was no local currency available for daily circulation. Foreign currencies such as Indian rupees, Spanish and Mexican 8 Reales, Chinese cash coins and British currency were used instead. Coins specially issued for Hong Kong did not appear until 1863 when the first regal coins of Hong […]
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IDJ: For anyone looking towards the west from around 1966 onwards, the Tsing Yi Power Station site was an increasingly prominent feature of the harbor view. As the five tall concrete chimneys were built progressively from 1968 onwards, no one could fail to see them against the backdrop of the hills on the island. An illustrated brochure was handed out […]
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Dan Waters: In 1957 I led a class of building students to a building site in Central District, Hong Kong, to see an exhibition of Acrow, tubular steel and tubular aluminium scaffolding. The exhibition aroused interest in the industry and elsewhere and there were those who prophesied that the use of bamboo scaffolding was drawing to a close. But while […]
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The SCMP of 18th April 2013 contained an article of interest. It reported that a Director of Audit’s report had found that sixteen public heritage sites either were not being maintained or had not been used for periods of up to twenty years. The audit considered it unsatisfactory that ten government-graded buildings had been left unattended. One of the sites […]
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The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) headquarters building, in Central, Hong Kong, took seven years to complete from concept to construction and has become not only the icon for the region’s largest bank but the city of Hong Kong itself. It’s the fourth HSBC headquarters in Hong Kong.(1) The new building was designed by the British architect Norman Foster and […]
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Russell & Company ( 旗昌洋行) was the largest and most important American trading house in Qing dynasty China from 1842 to its closing in 1891. Samuel Russell founded Russell & Company in Canton, China, in 1824. Dealing mostly in silks, teas and opium, Russell & Company prospered, and by 1842, it had become the largest American trading house in China. Russell withdrew from the company in 1836 and returned to […]
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HF: THe Audit Commission’s Report 41, published in October 2003 includes chapter 8 titled, The acquisition and clearance of shipyard sites. This appears to have been undertaken on behalf of the Lands Department and Civil Engineering Departments. The report is dated 18th October 2003. The report begins with a summary which states: The Government may acquire land for public purposes […]
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