Hugh Farmer: Kai Tak was named after two businessmen, Sir Kai Ho Kai and his son-in-law Mr. Au Tak, who were involved in a company formed to reclaim land in Kowloon Bay in 1912 for a residential housing scheme. However the scheme failed and the land was left vacant. Sir Kai died over ten years before the airfield welcomed its first […]
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HF: From our archives with thanks to IDJ for the source of information. “Stonebreakers in the early twentieth century. Granite in Hong Kong is of high quality and abundant. As a common construction material for columns, door frames and floors, the demand for granite was large. Because of its weight granite was transported by stone-boat by water from the quarry […]
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“Mount Butler quarry is located between Jardine’s Lookout and Sin Ma Shan on Hong Kong Island. The quarry started operation in the 1940s and ceased operation in the 1990s. Part of the quarry is now the base of [the] Explosive Ordinance Disposal Bureau for the handling and storage of explosives; while part of the site is the Firing Range of […]
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Carol Webster has been in touch asking if we have any information about her great grandfather, Walter George Babb. Carol knows that at the time of the 1911 UK census he was working for the Asiatic Petroleum Company as a watchman and living at 42 Victoria Square, Portishead, Somerset, England. She asks if we have any records of the APC’s […]
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Roy Eric Xavier, Director, Portuguese and Macanese Studies Project at the University of California, Berkeley, USA has kindly granted permission to reproduce the following article. Roy also runs the absorbing website Far Eastern Currents which covers a wide range of research into the Macanese Diaspora especially in Macau and Hong Kong. Roy’s article and website are both linked below as are two of our […]
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IDJ has dug into his extensive HK transport files again. This time the subject is Pearl River Heliports, concentrating on those in HK and Macau extracted from an article published in the bi-monthly UK magazine, Airports of the World published by Key Publishing. The captions accompanying the images are those used in the original magazine article. Pearl River Heliports […]
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HF: Peter Taylor, the great, great nephew of Alfred Dickinson, has left a comment below our article, Alfred Dickinson, Consulting Engineer HK Tramways, linked below, about Mr Dickinson. I thought this was of sufficient interest and value to post in a separate article. Peter wrote in reply to an enquiry I made about whether he could offer any information about […]
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IDJ: Air Cushion Hovercraft in Hong Kong Many HK residents will recall the HYF’s and Discovery Bay rigid side-wall hovercraft racing through the harbour during the 1980s and 1990s. However, true air-cushion hovercraft came to Hong Kong in the late 1960s or early 1970s, introduced by amateur owners and based at the Far East Flying Training School at Kai Tak. […]
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Jennifer Wong writes: I’ve come across a space age-looking radio made, apparently in Hong Kong by a company called Sukura. I’ve tried looking onine and in archives but so far I haven’t found any material that verify such claims. Jennifer asks if anyone can supply any information about Sakura in Hong Kong? If so you cn either leave a comment […]
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Waste Disposal in Hong Kong Text extracted from ‘Engineering in Hong Kong-50 years of Achievements’ published 1997. Many thanks to IDJ for sending this. The EPD first drew up plans for the development of a network of refuse transfer stations and three strategic landfills in the late 1980s. In order to tap private sector expertise in waste management, the department […]
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