Dear Readers, Hopefully when you read this short message, my wife and I will be in Hong Kong, where we lived for around thirty years before retiring to Syros Island Greece. We’ll be here for about a month, as we have a number of tasks to undertake. This website will be continue to post new and archive articles during this […]
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York Lo: From Chaoan to HK: Kai It Battery Factory (蓋一電池廠) Left: Kai It plant at 15 Mok Cheong Street before its re-modeling into Kai It Industrial Building. Right: Blue Dove batteries manufactured by Kai It Aside from Hing Wah, a major player in the battery industry from the 1940s to the 1980s was Kai It Battery Factory, which also operated […]
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Tymon Mellor: With the completion of Tai Tam (Upper) reservoir in 1888, the city of Victoria now had a secure water supply. The “big reservoir at Taitam” would have sufficient capacity to support the population of 146,000; but now it was time to improve the supply networks[i]. However, with a growing population, unreliable rainfall and the introduction of residential water […]
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James Chan: A little about the end of quarrying in Hong Kong and the three big ones plus Sok Kwu Wan (ie Lamma) Quarry “Today, under a plan formulated in 1989, the three remaining operational quarries in Hong Kong are being rehabilitated to form green areas for future development. Shek O (completion in 2009), Anderson Road (2013) and Lam Tei […]
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Graham Wood has kindly sent the following newspaper article. HF: I have retyped the article… The Wing, which comprised 90 per cent of “Shield” Force, was at sea bound for Okinawa and ultimately the Japanese mainland, with airfield construction as its primary objective on the invasion route to Tokyo, when news was suddenly received of the Japanese surrender. At the […]
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Elizabeth Ride has sent a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report from 1st March 1945, An Outline of Conditions in Occupied Hong Kong which was compiled in early 1945 for use by the Civil Affairs Committee which was to take on the rehabilitation of HK after the planned allied invasion. HF: The report is lengthy so I am going to divide it […]
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IDJ has sent the following newspaper article. I have retyped the original article to aid legibility and searches on the website. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. A railway journal at any time is most interesting. To the young people it is an object lesson not learned in the classroom. To the more mature persons, it affords much […]
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York Lo: Flip Flops Across the Globe: How HK Exporters John Cowie and Nylex Left their Global Footprints with Plastic Sandals In the 1950s, plastic sandals (known as flips flops in America, jandals in New Zealand, thongs in Australia, slops in South Africa etc) became popular around the globe. Modeled after Japanese sandals known as zoris, some of the first […]
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Tymon Mellor: In the previous article on tin mining in Hong Kong, the existence of a pre-war tin mine was identified near Yuen Long but the actual location of the mine was a mystery. Following further research, new details on the mine and its location have been identified. Following the introduction of the Prospecting and Mining Ordinance of 1906, parties […]
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James Chan: I found this report as happens while looking for something else. I thought it was interesting enough to put into an article. Chapter 5 deals with The Labour Force. The report concentrates on the years 1961 and 1971, based on the census reports of these years. This was when the “Made in Hong Kong” period was becoming of […]
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