RL = Rick Law’s comments have been added. Elizabeth Ride: My father Sir Lindsay Ride shot several cine films of Hong Kong in the 1950s. The Hong Kong Heritage Project have posted some extracts. Please note the originals are clearer than seen in these links. Hugh Farmer: I would like to thank Elizabeth for making these films available for public […]
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David Williams has been in touch: I am a writer interested in building stone. I have been researching the Parrott Building in San Francisco. Built in 1852, it was one of the first stone buildings in the city. I know that the builders of the building were Chinese and have read that the stone came from Hong Kong. One source says that the […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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) […]
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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 […]
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