For anyone over the age of 35, and if you came to Hong Kong before 1998, you are likely to remember the first time you landed at Kai Tak. It may have been the dramatic approach from the north-west, skimming over the buildings where you could see the laundry hanging on the washing lines. Or if arriving over the sea, […]
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HF: I have slightly adapted the script below from the original booklet. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the script. Pokfulam reservoir was the first reservoir in Hong Kong, and was completed in 1863 to provide a stable water supply to the City of Victoria. It was one of the first large scale infrastructure projects in the early days of colonisation. […]
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Jennifer Field Lang: Aerial Ropeway circa 1911 at the gap on Mount Parker looking down the valley towards the Taikoo Sugar Refinery and Aldrich Bay (Source: Historic Photographs of China, G. Warren Swire Collection, University of Bristol, Image # 20390). In 1891, a 2.3-kilometer long aerial ropeway was constructed from a location near the Taikoo Sugar Refinery (approximately located at […]
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Tom Bethea: My cousin Dick Holt and I spent a week aboard schooner Westward in early December 1963, moored off American Marine Ltd, in Junk Bay, Hang Hau. We then removed to Kowloon Docks for several weeks in dry dock for hull re-painting and re-rigging above deck, and finally tied up at HK Royal Yacht Club for the Christmas-New Years […]
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HF: I have slightly adapted the wording in the following script. Before British rule most locals used to rely on water from streams and wells nearby. With drastic increase in population especially in the City of Victoria a stable water supply became a pressing problem in the colony. But the colonial government was reluctant to claim responsibility for water supply. […]
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Tymon Mellor: In 1902 the Public Works Department embarked on the Tai Tam Tuk Scheme. This was divided into the First Section covering the construction of the Tai Tam Intermediate Reservoir and the Second Section for the main Tai Tam Tuk reservoir. The latter would become Hong Kong’s largest reservoir with a capacity greater than the total of all the […]
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The Light Rail, also known as the Light Rail Transit (LRT), officially the North-West Railway, is a light rail system in Hong Kong, serving the northwestern New Territories, within Tuen Mun district and Yuen Long District. The system operates over 1,435mm (4 ft 8+1/2 in) standard gauge track, using 750 V DC overhead power supply. It was once one of […]
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Tymon Mellor: On the 12 October 1938, two divisions of Japanese troops landed in Bias Bay (Daya Bay), not to attack Hong Kong, but heading for Canton (Guangzhou). The event was witnessed by a reporter from the China Mail who was being flown in a Hornet Moth belonging to the Far East Flying Training School at Kai Tak. Canton quickly […]
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With the completion of the Kai Tak reclamation in 1930, it was now time to turn the new platform into an aerodrome. This would require the establishment of a government department to manage the aerodrome, provision of facilities to support commercial operations, and the establishment of a flying school. Airmail and Commercial Service As a government funded operation, the new […]
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Tymon Mellor: Spurred by the looming civil war in China, the partially complete Kai Tak reclamation became a temporary RAF facility in 1927. Both the British and Hong Kong governments wanted to construct a dedicated aerodrome but limited financial resources tempered their enthusiasm. While discussions on funding continued, solutions to completing the reclamation and the design of the proposed aerodrome […]
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