HF: This map is from an Urban Council book published in 1991. It shows what a large number of mines and quarries there have been in Hong Kong. Many of these may well have been small operations but it forces me to revise my previous estimation of around 25 commercial mines. Please excuse the highlighting which was done many years […]
» Read more
HF: If you have ever walked the Wilson Trail going up from Tai Po to Cloudy Hill you will have gone past a hundred metre long rectangular factory located at 155, Tai Po Tau village, Tai Po. I went there on 24th February 2015. As I entered the building Thomas Lam approached me and politely asked me to leave. However, he […]
» Read more
HF: This British Army Aid Group report of 1944, mentions a “rumour” of a mine on or near Castle Peak. Tsing Shan is the name of the well-known monastery located at the eastern foot of the mountain. I have not come across a mine in this area. However the map below shows four abandoned mines (green squares) and four Former […]
» Read more
HF: New information in red I am assuming, until corrected, that there was only one To Kwa Wan quarry. The quarry dates back to pre-colonial times. Patrick Hase, in his Indhhk article, Quarrying and transportation of stone in Hong Kong, 1841, says, “The most prestigious stone in Canton and the Pearl River Delta area for such quality buildings was Hong Kong granite, which […]
» Read more
Elizabeth Ride has sent a WW2 British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report about the collection of copper by the Japanese during the occupation of Hong Kong. Part 1 states that those offering copper goods can do so “without anything in return or they can exchange…for rice, sugar, oil and firewood.” Part 2 states that 7,000 catties of copper had “been […]
» Read more
HF: Barbier, Benard and Turenne (BBT) was a French company founded in 1862. It specialized in the manufacture of lights, optical devices and lighting systems. And complete lighthouses including the one on Hong Kong’s Waglan Island. The lighthouse incorporated Fresnel lenses. The Swedish Company AGA was later involved as was its UK subsidiary Pharos Marine. I didn’t know the name […]
» Read more
HF: Craig Mitchell has kindly allowed me access to his collection of WW2 photographs of Hong Kong. Among these are two USAAF aerial images of a bombing raid on an oil depot in Lai Chi Kok which took place on 2nd September 1943. Standard Oil had a depot there at the start of the war according to this account. (1) […]
» Read more
York Lo has sent biographical details of Tung Chi-fu, John Tung Chi-ying, Tung Hong-ying and other members of the family who founded and were associated with The I-Feng Enamelling Company and Freezinhot Bottle Co., Ltd. He also mentions others who were not family members but involved in other companies specially in Shanghai. York Lo: The founder of I-Feng, Tung Chi-fu (董吉甫, or […]
» Read more
HF: The Company in Hong Kong: “The Sperry Flour Company has been interested in the flour trade of the Colony for upwards of forty years—a period considerably longer than any other similar company—and during the whole of this time it has lost no opportunity of studying the requirements of Eastern buyers, with the object of pushing business throughout the […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: The Index has been updated. We now have over 500 articles on a very wide range of subjects. If you would like to write on a new subject, add information/images about an existing one, or simply add a comment at the end of an article it would be great to hear from you. Feel free to contact me:- indhhk”at”gmail.com […]
» Read more