1959-03-06 — Page 6

SUPPLEMENT OF THE CHINA MAIL, FRIDAY, MARCH 6, 1959.

Contrasting pearls in

a matchless

HERE lle the two cities buildings ar

setting

rented as have a few hours ashore

of Hongkong and little cosmopolitan shops in which to pick up a Kowloon. In Turkey a where Indian traders sell similar harboux forry silk and cloth in places

"Hongkong-tailor-made.

The hilltops and, the

divides Europe from that smell of incense fringe are residential.

Asia, but even there the ferry does not divide two cities as different in at mosphere and construc-, tion.

and Chinese curlo dealers in English suits display their wares behind plate glass.

and

Houses, blocks of flats and veritable palaces, perch crazily on crags to which roads coll But Hongkong is older, climb like ropes. "The and very different. It whole world lives mid- Kowloon has become clings to the lower level" said a Chinese car

level of both the most costly of new apartment house building, and also the level of main squat. ter settlements....some of which one can still see on the hills overhanging North Point.

o spreading city bursting slopes of hills and toon. And this is the

from a

high spreads

a narrow skirt buildings on the penin- around their foot on flat sula to spill around the land reclaimed from the shores past Kaf Tak on sea. High buildings are one side, past Tsun Wan almost entirely occupied on the other Piller box as offices. What stores red "London" buses ply there are that can afford the streets and grind the rentals of Victoria their gears in a roar of traffic that flows from the city's central back- bone which is Nathan Road.

are

large department affairs in the central area. Wanchai is residential too. It is the place of light at night, a warren Kowloon is largely re- of bars and dance hails, sidential. Even in the and swift tallors whose centre there are more trade is largely with the flats than offices, and groups of sailors who the ground floors of most land et Fenwick plor, and

North Point Is the Little Shanghai of Hong; kong island, a place of new building, rising by the hour, to show how much Hongkong believes in her own continued prosperity. Hongkong Is. above everything, a place for "doing business,"

few

8,500 HOMES AFLOAT

IN Hongkang Whole colonies of people live on the water. Some live In houseboats' that stay. permanently in the typhoon shelters. Others live and work on lighters. In the harbour of on the islands carrying・・ trade · between Hongkong and Macao and even further afield. But the majority of this floating population depend on fishing. We had 8,500 fishing junka with 72,000 people aboard them women and children in- cluded, at the last count. Last year the Covernment assisted 185 link mastors to equip their wooden craft with diesel engines, and more than 2,300 ships in all had been assisted In this way. The help is given as a long-term low- interest loen.,

Right: Fishing funka at Aberdeen,

Above: Hongkong and Howloon Wharf and Godown Co., Ltd.

JOBS FOR 100,000

THE gigantic ships of ancient times, when one junk * could sall to Africa with ten sails and 600 men aboard, have been replaced by steel ships. But junks today still run to sizable galleons, "heavy-lighters and huge. towing 'barges. In Hong- kang waten they give homes, transport, and employment to: 100,000 people, A third of our population depend directly on the harbour. Their jobs vary from salvage," light- house work, weather re- search and ship repair, or fire fighting aboard the "Alexander Granthant" fone of the most · modem fire floats in the world, to the job of the harbour "char. (ading"" who seem to „divine aven the top secret Edmoval of every ship (of Royal Navy and con- l'act to come aboard for bok house fatigue and Arbour chores în - retum. for the galley slops which

hongkang, provides one df the fullest pictures of a moderntharbour in the "Emst. All in all its tentacles" spread ad welds, there is no one here in Hongkong whose livelihood does not depend upon 11. Hongkong": is her harbour Hart: hare bour la Hongkonga

THE INDE

THE HARBOUR

NHIPS old and new tell a large part of the story of

Hongkong past and present. As a port cho began, and as a port she finds a large part of her prosperity still. Harbour facilities like that of the Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company (left) provide berthing for the largest ships afloat. The Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company (known as the Kowloon Docka) handles. a huge business in repairs, and Talkoo Dockyard (below); joins In repairs and new buildings with an equipment as modem as any in the world.

This is a modern harbour in the fullest sense.... no mushroom growth in which, a furious minded generation cast off the past in a mad rush towards a "Western" future whoso drawbacks are not yet fully disclosed. Hongkong has a harbour where change has como gradually, in the British way and not by revolution. Changes here are bom of necessity and Invention, not furious thinking and old and new exist together as they should in any proper economic marriage.

Our Western Yards were so badly damaged In the war that their equipment puts them now among the most up to date. They deal with problems es complex as any in the world and local tradesmen are as skilled as any, anywhere,

Along with these, traditional yards turn out_each year a huge tonnage of junk and sampan craft. These were the first yards that ever put bulkheads in an ocean going vessel. They were the first designers of the fore and aft rigged sall. Ocean adventurers today turn more and more to the special advantages of traditional Chinese seamanship and rig.

Local craftsmen work without plans, shaping a hull by eye and fitting the frames and bulkheads after, Instead of before, they fit the planking.. The shape of the ship they turn out varies from yard to yard. There are beamy ocean-going vessels, shallow river craft and "moon boats" for inland waters. Special "pilot sampans are built to cope with the peculiar sailing conditions of choppy, harbour waters.

Our timber yards are bustling. Fire crackers announce a new ship almost every day running down her. slipway at high tide to wet her gleaming timbers.