“Kenneth Alfred Wolfe Barry (c1879-1936) Second son of John Wolfe Barry Partner in business with his father, along with A.G. Lyster, Past President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and G. E. W Crutwell, M. Inst. C.E. J. S. 1936 Obituary: Kenneth Alfred Wolfe Barry , O.B.E., was the senior partner in the firm of Sir John Wolfe Barry and Partners. […]
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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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CM Fung: Dan Waters’ recollections: Dan Waters said “he remembers that when he arrived in HK in the 1950s it was possible to be taken up Sunset Peak (Tai Tung Shan) on Lantau island in a sedan chair. $30 to the top; or $15 half way up which Dan seems to remember was quite common.” Fung Chi Ming’s feedback: I […]
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A little more information on the history of taxis in Hong Kong to add to our other articles, on the subject, linked below. Many thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped version. Taxis cars can be further classified into those that charged according to the meters and cars for hire which did not charge by mileage. 1922 From the 17th […]
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Tymon Mellor: With the rapidly increasing population in the post war Hong Kong, the availability of fresh water once more became a major problem. The poor financial situation had limited the territory’s options to overcome this, but after much discussion work commenced on Tai Lam Chung Reservoir in 1952. Before construction was complete, it was clear additional supplies would still […]
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York Lo: Samuel Gee Yen (嚴欣淇) and East Sun Textile(怡生紗廠) Left: Bio and picture of Samuel Gee Yen in 1948. Source: 實業界名人錄(1948); Right: picture of Samuel Yen before boarding CAT plane to Taiwan to visit his relatives in 1959 (WKYP, 1959-8-24) Founded in April 1949 by Samuel Gee Yen (aka Shing-Gee Yen 嚴申耆,1906-1984), East Sun Textile was one of the […]
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Before the British took over the New Territories in July, 1898 there were no roads but an extensive network of footpaths paths or Chinese Roads across the territory. These paths provided connections between the villages and to the sea shore for marine transport. The first topographical map of the New Territories, published in 1904 describes the paths as “Chinese roads about 4′-0″ […]
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Mike T: According to “The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation” by Philip Snow, South China Iron Works was owned by the Chinese Nationalist government (ie. Sun Yat-sen’s anti-communist Kuomintang) as of the 1940s. [This information provided by Mike was originally a comment he made below our article, The South China Iron Works – post WW2 producer of […]
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York Lo: The Van Family from Cambodia and the Bonsun Group of companies (萬象) Bonsun Industrial Building in Tsuen Wan, next to Wong’s Factory Building Earlier on the website, I touched on the sale of the Wong’s Factory Building at 368-370 Sha Tsui Road in Tsuen Wan, which was developed by the Wong family of Sweetmart Garment (see article). Right […]
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