HF: Hong Kong Electric was founded in 1889. China Light and Power in 1901. Together they have been almost the only power companies to provide electricity to Hong Kong. If you are surprised by the insertion of “almost” have a look at Related Inddhk articles below. Now the Consumer Council has produced a report which suggests the Hong Kong government […]
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IDJ has supplied the following article from a volume of “Wonders of World Engineering” edited by Clarence Winchester published in a 1938 or 39 edition. This goes into considerable detail about water supply problems in Hong Kong at that time especially on Hong Kong island, the resultant surveys undertaken to find a suitable location for a large reservoir. The selection of the […]
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New image HF: The extract below comes from a book about site preparation for Chek Lap Kok airport. Tymon Mellor confirms the Transshipment Centre was at the ex-Lok On Pai desalting plant site. He says it was used by the Provisional Airport Authority (PAA) to store materials off site before shipping to Chek Lap Kok as the island and airport […]
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CM Fung, IDJ and HF have compiled a list of books which contain information about the history of trams in Hong Kong. HF: I have added a useful, brief synopsis and review of some of the books provided by the http://www.orientalmodelbuses.co.uk/ website linked below. These also tell you whether the book is in English, Chinese or is bilingual. Hongkong Tramways, Joseph […]
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Tymon Mellor: It has never been clear why if there was a lead mine at Lead Mine pass, no one has developed the site when exploration has been undertaken all over the territory. There are references to the mine location on the contemporary maps and within Government reports following the take over of the New Territories in 1898. But no further […]
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Thomas Ngan and HF: Quarrying and Stone Breaking have a very long history in Hong Kong. Firstly providing dressed building stone and later aggregate for concrete. Before 1966 there were many small ‘permit’ quarries scattered across Hong Kong. These mainly produced dressed building stone. The last of these quarries closed in 1974 after which only larger, licenced quarries were in […]
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HF: Today’s SCMP has an article about the latest effort to protect the endangered incense tree in Hong Kong. Namely, a ‘tree guard’ system that monitors realtime data about trees to stop them from being illegally felled or stolen. The system has been developed at Chinese University. Prof Chiu Siu Wai, of the University’s School of Life Sciences, says it […]
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HF: I keep finding references to mines that I hadn’t come across before. The most recent is Stuco mine on Lantau, which popped up without further details in an article in a Geological Society Newsletter. Where was it? What did it produce? When was it operating? I thought it would useful to compile a list of HK mines that can […]
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Thomas Ngan and HF: Neither of us are certain of the factual accuracy of all the following. HF in particular as almost everything about the school and to a lesser extent about the four hills/quarries is in Chinese with poor translations. Thomas is working on more accurate translations. We are probably taking on too much in one article as we […]
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Captain Charles ‘Chic’ Eather, born 1920, has had a long life. A great part of his working life was spent in aviation and much of this was connected to Cathay Pacific, Kai Tak airport and aircraft maintenance companies at the airport post WW2 and up to his retirement in 1975. His biography Syd’s Last Pirate was published as a CD-Rom. […]
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