IDJ has sent this letter, and accompanying image, which was written in response to the publication of the article Under the Wires to Lo Wu: The Modernisation of the Kowloon-Canton Railway in The Railway Magazine, November 1983, linked below. SIR, I am afraid the Rev. Alan Shone (November, page 438) is mistaken as to the identity of the 2-8-0 locomotives acquired […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent this photo which was published in the The Railway Magazine of April 1982. It might be read in conjunction with the two articles linked below. The text accompanying the image reads: One of 135 coaches being built by Metro-Cammell of Birmingham for the Kowloon-Canton Railway, which is being electrified, en route for Immingham. From the manufacturer, P&O […]
» Read more
HF: Our Q+A 26 Tsing Shan Mine (Castle Peak area)? – Japanese occupation, WW2, linked below, asks about a possible mine or mines in the Castle Peak (青山) area as a British Army Aid Group (BAAG) report of 1944 mentions a “rumour” of a mine there. Tsing Shan is the name of the well-known monastery located at the eastern foot of the […]
» Read more
“Devil’s Peak [Pau Toi Shan] is located at the north coast of Lei Yue Mun, the eastern entrance to Victoria Harbour. The economic minerals mined are wolframite and beryl. The minerals were first discovered in 1914 and mining started in May, 1957. Devil’s Peak Beryl Mine, with an area of 360 acres, was operated by Far East Prospecting and Development […]
» Read more
HF: The company was founded in 1949 as the Star Brush Factory and later renamed Star Industrial Company Ltd. In the year it started it participated in the 7th Exhibition of Chinese Products with a booth mainly displaying brush products including toothbrushes, hair combs and coat brushes. (1) Within a decade [of its founding], Star had expanded its line to include […]
» Read more
The SCMP of 31st August 2016 has an article about the Mill6 Foundation, a “non-profit arts and cultural institution” run by property developer Nan Fung Group. “The foundation is working on a heritage conservation project called The Mills in Tsuen Wan, restoring the former Nan Fung cotton mill in situ. The project is expected to be completed in 2018. [The project […]
» Read more
The Yoshida Kōgyō Kabushiki gaisha (YKK Group) is a Japanese group of manufacturing companies. It’s the world’s largest largest zipper/zip manufacturerer but also produces other fastening products, architectural products and industrial machinery. What would later become YKK operated initially as San-es Shokai and was founded by Tadao Yoshida in Higashi Nihonbashi, Tokyo in January 1934. The company was renamed YKK in 1945. YKK has manufacturing facilities […]
» Read more
HF: Kelly & Walsh was a notable Shanghai-based publisher of English language books, founded in 1876, which currently exists and has two shops (Pacific Place and the Landmark) in Hong Kong specializing in art books. It is affiliated to the Hong Kong Book Centre and Swindon Book Company Ltd. Kelly & Walsh Ltd. was formed in 1876 by combining two Shanghai booksellers: […]
» Read more
HF: As part of my research into the Amoy Canning Company I came across the account given below. I don’t know what the Hong Kong POWs were fed but good quality canned food seems unlikely… Did the Japanese feed POWs with Amoy “beaned pork” ? Who was this unnamed Englishman? How did the latter procure the soybeans and tin plate[s] […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent information, taken from the book Tramlines…, about several proposed tramways on HK Island and from Kowloon to China. This extract is about proposed trams in Kowloon which never came to fruition: “The last in this series of proposals for extending the benefits of tramways to the citizens of Hong Kong came, not suprisingly, from the Hongkong Tramways Company […]
» Read more