Hugh Farmer: Kowloon Dairy Company was established by George Ahwee [dates?] and Rudy Choy (Nov 1910-29 Apr 1992) in 1940. The Kowloon Dairy website suggests ” It was a fantastic partnership when Ahwee and Choy co-founded the company as the former was a “devotee of animal husbandry, especially of dairy cattle, and Choy was an amateur jockey”. I wasn’t quite sure […]
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HF: Salt has apparently been produced in the San Hui/Wong Ka Wan area since the Qing Dynasty. This map shows the original coastline of the Tuen Mun area. Reclaimed land is indicated by grey. San Hui is at the north-east most point of the original bay. The article below was published in The Hong Naturalist , January 1940 The third […]
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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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HF: The Hong Kong Mint was established by ordinance on 26th February 1864 and opened on 7th May 1866 under the direction of Thomas William Kinder with the purpose of producing Hong Kong silver dollars and half dollar coins. After two years having incurred a huge loss to the government it closed on 25th April 1868. The image of Kinder has […]
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Hugh Farmer: Stone is the only commodity in which Hong Kong is still self-sufficient, and quarrying was a major early industry. The granite extracted from the quarries in East Kowloon, Stonecutter’s Island, Quarry Bay and from the Kowloon hills were used throughout the territory and shipped to Canton for building purposes. The Roman Catholic Cathedral in Guangzhou was constructed in the […]
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Hugh Farmer: Kwik Djoen Eng was apparently also known as Chun Yang, the shortened form of Guo Chun Yang, and somewhat confusingly, for non-Chinese readers, Kwok Chun Yeung. Many thanks to Thomas Ngan for confirming that Kwik Djoen Eng and Kwok Chun Yeung are the same person. Thomas suggests this array of names is likely due to the romanisation of the same Chinese […]
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Our Group started in November 2012 with the website following in October 2013. We currently have over 1,500 articles posted all of which are shown in the Index. Contributions have come from an estimated 450 people ranging from a single line comment to a full length article. Plus those who help the group in other ways as shown in the […]
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To follow the history of the Kwan family is to trace a complete history of Hong Kong graphic design. In 1845 the ‘China Trade’ artist Kwan Chuk Lam, known to the West as ‘Lamqua’ settled in Hong Kong. He was the only known pupil of the English painter G. Chinnery, and had exhibited paintings at the Royal Academy in the […]
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Two versions of the wrecking of the SS Hong Moh which sailed from Hong Kong in March 1921 First version SS Hong Moh was a passenger ship that was wrecked on the White Rocks off Lamock Island, Swatow, on 3 March 1921 with the loss of about 900 lives. City of Calcutta The ship was built by Charles Connell & Company of Scotstoun, and was launched on […]
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Hugh Farmer with thanks to IDJ for notifying me about the initial account: The idea of connecting Hong Kong and China with a railway was first proposed to prominent Hong Kong businessmen in March 1864 by a British railway engineer, Sir Rowland MacDonald Stephenson (1808-1895), who had considerable experience of developing railways in India. The minutes of the committee of […]
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