The history of explosive storage in Hong Kong is an interesting one. The earliest location appears to have been Magazine Island, originally named One Tree Island, which lies just to the West of Aberdeen Harbour. From 1887 to 1908 it was leased for an annual rent of $100, by the Nobel Explosives Company, who built a magazine, a road and […]
» Read more
IDJ has kindly sent the following article extracted from the Hong Kong Sunday Herald of 31st July 1949. This adds a new aspect to the history of water supply in Hong Kong on the website which has been to date mainly articles about reservoirs, see below. Thanks to SCT for proofreading the retyped article. Modern Filter Beds Under Construction Modern […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent this monograph of the dramatic changes that occurred in Tuen Mun in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It starts rather gloomily, “Castle Peak, in reality a string of scattered settlements along the shoreline of the Bay, a straggle of ramshackle squatter huts pushing up the creek of the Tuen Mun river…” click the pages to enlarge. […]
» Read more
Angela Chan recently posted a comment on our article, Kau Wa Keng Old Village, 九華徑 – recent photographs, which says that there were indeed small factories, namely making gloves and shoes, in the village as suggested in the article. Angela has kindly expanded on her initial comment with the following information and images: We had relatives and friends working at the glove […]
» Read more
HF: IDJ has sent several photos. As interesting as the ships themselves, ready to be dismantled, are the backgrounds showing Kwun Tong and Cheung Sha Wan in May 1963. Ship building and ship breaking were once two major industries in Hong Kong, of world importance and employing large numbers of people. There are a few small shipyards still left, mainly […]
» Read more
York Lo’s posted article, Tracing Roots: Joseph Yen (嚴錫榮), post-war chairman of Marsman HK China and the father in the book Falling Leaves, contains the following: Earlier on the Group’s website there were several articles about the Dutch American mining magnate from the Philippines – J.H. Marsman and his firm Marsman HK China Ltd (馬士文公司) which operated the Needle Hill […]
» Read more
HF: IDJ has sent three articles about replacing Kai Tak airport post World War Two. Various locations were discussed with the main option appearing to be the Ping Shan/Deep Bay area west of Yuen Long. Certainly construction work actually started at the Ping Shan site as the articles linked below demonstrate. However, and eventually, a plan to modify Kai Tak […]
» Read more
Eleanor Wong has written A History of the Wong Family Textile Business, a detailed account of her family’s business history in Shanghai, then in Hong Kong and finally Indonesia. She was assisted in this project by her editor, Carey Vail. Part Two: Life in Hong Kong continues the story with the arrival of TY Wong in Hong Kong from Shanghai, early in 1949. […]
» Read more
Chek Lap Kok Island is located north of Lantau Island off Ma Wan Chung and Tung Chung. Before the building of the new Hong Hong International Airport, it was a small, hilly island, about 4 kilometres long, with an area of about 3 sq km. The name of the island may be derived from the bareness of the island (‘da […]
» Read more
Amelia Allsop, Manager – Collections and Research at the Hong Kong Heritage Project, has sent A Century of Light – CLP Centenary Souvenir Book linked below covering the period 1901-2001. Amelia was kindly responding to an enquiry as to whether the Project has any information about Tai O Power Company which had been known as Tai O Union Electric Company. […]
» Read more