This article started life as Q+A 28. New information – see IDJ Jan 2016. Vicky Chan, Lamma resident, asks where Village Vehicles, more usually known as VVs (though there are apparently VWs) are made. She suggests they are so simple in design that the answer must be somewhere in Hong Kong. Is she right? And if so where exactly? They […]
» Read more
Hugh Farmer: My earlier article about early plans for trams on HK island stated that the official opening date was 30th July 1904. This is correct. However, The Hong Kong Daily Press of Monday, 15th Aug 1904 states that the full service of the Electric Tramway had begun two days before on Saturday the 13th. It mentions that the cars […]
» Read more
Malcolm Morris added this comment to Q+A 27 Village Vehicles: There was another type of Village Vehicle in use in the New Territories a few decades ago. Lorry buses. These were privately owned and provided transport for villages in areas not served by the major bus companies. IDJ has sent this photo from the very early 1970s. Malcolm attached a […]
» Read more
IDJ: The majority of engineering projects of all types generally evolve from an idea, to a sketch and move through stages to become physical models that can be discussed, commented on and hopefully approved. These can stretch from major civil engineering projects such as the airport and its infrastructure all the way through to designs for small manufactured consumer goods. The […]
» Read more
Tymon Mellor: Following the Second World War, burial of the dead was a significant issue within the Territory as the graveyards were filling up. In the early 1940’s the Government proposed developing a new public cemetery at Wo Hop Shek, north of Tai Po served by a spur line from the Kowloon Canton Railway. The local community had reservations about […]
» Read more
HF: The following article has been extracted from the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography. The article about Ngan Shing-kwan was written by May Holdsworth and Eva Kwok and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright […]
» Read more
Compiled by IDJ Macau, the Portuguese colony forty miles across the Pearl River delta from Hong Kong had a surprisingly long aviation history despite no land based airfield or aerodrome until the 1990s. After visits by travelling American showmen-balloonists demonstrating vertical flight in 1891, it was not until 1920 that French born local entrepreneur Charles de Ricou revealed ambitious plans […]
» Read more
A Bygone Industry in Hong Kong – Rickshaw Makers’ Stores By Fung Chi Ming The rickshaw is long out of date, but in days past it was a widely used form of urban transport. For public hire and for private use, it also created new employment. The first rickshaw in Hong Kong was of Japanese construction. But, as time went […]
» Read more
IDJ has sent an extract from a book by Martin Barnett published in 1984 about the history of tramways in Hong Kong. HF: Chevalier R Pescio was an Italian with an exotic name and an alluring proposal. Namely to build a tramway between Victoria and Aberdeen. He repeatedly tried to obtain government interest in this scheme between 1906 and 1910 […]
» 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