HF: Dr Patrick H Hase has sent a copy of his unpublished paper, Study on Old Trails in Hong Kong: Historical Background, 2011-12, which he has kindly said I can extract parts of and incorporate into articles of interest to the Group. I thought I would start with the section subtitled, Footpaths on Hong Kong Island, which describes the importance of […]
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Tymon Mellor: The year of 1921 was a good year for the growing population of Hong Kong Island; it would be the last year[i] until 1982 when there were no more water shortages[ii]. With the completion of the Tai Tam Tuk reservoir in 1917, doubling the total water capacity, the Colonial Government was confident there would be a sufficient water […]
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York Lo: S.S. Yu (虞兆興): King of Menthol and Camphor The three founders of Yung Zeng: S.S. Yu (left), Kao Pei-liang (center) and Fang Yexian (right). Source: 現代實業家(1935), p 153, p243 and p105 As profiled in many articles on the Group’s website, Shanghainese industrialists played important roles in the post-War industrial development in Hong Kong, most notably in textiles but […]
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Chris added the following information in a comment on 3rd May 2024. ”I asked the same question and received a reply from the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department today (3rd May 2024). There is only one location that the FEHD is providing conservancy services (night soil collection): Temporary toilet at Po Chong Wan Temporary Area, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. It appears […]
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IDJ has sent this 1997 article published on behalf of the HK Academy of Engineering Sciences and HK Institution of Engineers. “In 1989 Hong Kong Electric pioneered the introduction of mechanised tunnelling to Hong Kong, accepting the only bid that proposed the use of a tunnel boring machine for the construction of a 5.7 kilometre, 5 metre diameter cable tunnel […]
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York Lo: Chow Mud-wai (周沕桅) – Maker of Steel Windows, Owner of Theaters and Philanthropist Left: Chow Mud-wai (Confucian Academy website); Right: Ad announcing the opening of Zenith Theatre in 1951 (Cinema Treasures) Aside from S.Y. Tang of Canton Metal Windows (profiled earlier) and Paul Lee Yao-I of China Steel Works (to be profiled later), another key figure in the post-War […]
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“In the course of a recent research through some old records, the name of another of Hongkong’s pioneer firms was noticed, that of Gibb, Livingston and Company, who came here in the first year of the Colony’s foundation. The firm can indeed claim to be one of the oldest in this part of the world, at they commenced business in […]
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Hugh Farmer writes: This article was originally published in Newsletter 6 on May 4, 2013. I have added photographs of JH Ruttonjee and SH Dodwell, who are mentioned below and who were prominent figures in the Hong Kong business community. On 30th August 1933 Hong Kong Brewers and Distillers Ltd officially opened its brewery in the presence of several hundred prominent […]
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York Lo: Alhambra Watch (平安表行) Left: Chiu Chun-fai (left) and Luk Ying-tai at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the Shanghai Street store of Alhambra Watch in 1958 (WKYP, 1958-8-17); Right: Omtis’ congratulatory ad to Alhambra Watch on the opening of its Tai Po Road store in 1963 (WKYP, 1963-4-28) Operated by its founder Frank Chiu Chun-fai (招振揮) and his family, […]
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Hong Kong Water Supply – The East River Scheme Tymon Mellor: Following the failure of the 1963 summer rains, it was clear that Hong Kong needed additional sources of drinking water. With no natural major rivers, the obvious choice was to extract water from the East River, some 60km north of Hong Kong (now known as the Dongjiang River) and […]
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