D.L. Wu (伍德鄰) (1905-1995) devoted his entire life to the shipping industry. After attending the Shanghai Baptist College and the University of the Philippines, he started his shipping career in Shanghai in 1928 where he worked for the China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. Still in Shanghai, he joined the San Peh Steam Navigation Co. in 1937 and he was […]
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HF: This KMB timeline comes from the company’s website. The story begins… On 13 April 1933, Tang Shiu Kin, William Louey Sui Tak, Lui Leung, Tam Woon Tong and Lam Ming Fan established The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB), which was granted the right to operate franchised bus services in Kowloon and the New Territories. There were 106 […]
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HF: The SCMP of 17th September 2014 contained an article about the demise of the shrimp paste industry in Tai O on Lantau island. In particular it provides details about the Cheng Cheung Hing Shrimp Paste Factory and its owner Cheng Kai-Keung shown in the photo below. The company was founded by his great-grandfather in 1920. Production was badly affected […]
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IDJ has sent a newspaper article from 1934 about the laying of a second fresh water pipe from Kowloon under Hong Kong harbour to Central. As with the first pipe the second was being installed to bring water supplies from the Shing Mun reservoir to Hong Kong Island and was to be undertaken by the Public Works Department, Hong Kong. […]
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“Long before the age of cash boxes and the Octopus card, Hong Kong’s buses and trams had conductors who would collect fares. China Motor Bus (CMB) vehicles also had a gateman to supervise passengers boarding and leaving the bus. But by the mid-1970s, both CMB and Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) were running one-man buses, with a cash box next to […]
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Newsletter 8 included a very short article on The Shiu Wing Steel company, the only steel rolling mill currently operating in Hong Kong, located at Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun. As of 18th January 2021 this claim would appear to be still true. The mill is capable of producing 700,000 tonnes per year of high-grade reinforcing bars for local and […]
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Amelia Allsop, Collections and Research Manager at The Hong Kong Heritage Project has kindly sent this extract from the quarterly Newsletter Past & Present Issue 13. Part of the Newsletter is about The Peninsula Hotel, which started life as an up-market transport hotel serving passengers arriving both by railway and ship. The HK Industrial History connection? Jock Inglis was General Manager of […]
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HF: IDJ has very kindly upgraded two of the photographs and the map included in the following article. In 1977 (?) the Water Supplies Department published a report publicizing the construction of Plover Cove reservoir which had been officially opened in January 1969, though the height of the dams was subsequently raised, this being completed in 1973. Two stages are […]
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HF: If you visit Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market during the day you may well think it’s closed, ready to be fenced off and facing imminent demolition. However, piled boxes of fruit on the surrounding streets and inside locked wire cages within indicate there’s life in the old place yet. If you want to see the market fully functioning […]
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Elizabeth L Johnson wrote an article about “Patterned Bands” in the New Territories which was published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, Volume 16, 1976. [HF: I have been unable to copy the Chinese characters which appear in the article.] The article begins: These notes on a form of peasant textiles are based on research conducted in Kwan […]
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