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 […]
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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 […]
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A Bygone Industry in Hong Kong – Rickshaw Makers’ Stores By Fung Chi Ming The rickshaw is long out of date, but in days past it was a widely used form of urban transport.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 […]
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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 […]
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HF: The Rhyl History Club, Wales, UK, has a report of Alfred Dickinson’s death and details about his career. He was a widely travelled man including to Hong Kong. His company Alfred Dickinson & Co was closely involved in the development of Hong Kong Tramways. For example, “In February 1902 The Hongkong Tramway Electric Company Ltd was formed in England […]
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IDJ has kindly sent this account of riding on the footplate of a 2-8-0 express passenger locomotive of the KCR from Kowloon station to Lo Wu, on the border with China, and back again. The article, written by Nicolas B Watson, was published in Meccano Magazine in 1955. We begin with a brief details of the suspension in 1949 of the […]
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IDJ: This image was accompanied by the following text: “The advocates of monorail transport proposed an “Aerometro” route along the north shore of Hong Kong Island in 1980 as an alternative to both the trams and the MTR Island line. This is how Hennessy Road would have looked. (Aerometro Ltd)” This article was first posted on 15th March 2015. Related Indhhk […]
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AC wrote a comment following the article, Cross Harbour bridge proposal – road 1901, tram 1920s. “There were suggestions (not detailed proposals) during the planning of the Shing Mun Reservoir scheme to construct a road tunnel together with the cross harbour pipeline, much like the first Lion Rock Tunnel for the Plover Cove scheme. It was however not taken forward.” […]
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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 […]
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IDJ: Possibly the earliest large scale dredging and reclamation contractor in HK was the above company. HF: ‘…the road passes Macao Siac where the Netherlands Harbour Works Co has established its workshops in connection with the Port Works of Macao …” 1929 (1) Problems for the company in Australia during WW2: There is also a contemporary Royal Netherlands Harbour Works based in […]
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