Directory_and_Chronicle_1900 — Page 782

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HONGKONG

the immediate vicinity affords capital anchorage. The Docks are substantially built- throughout with granite. Powerful lifting shears with steam purchase at Kowloon and Cosmopolitan Docks stand on a solid granite sea wall alongside which vessels can lie and take in or out boilers, guns and other heavy weights. The shears at Kowloon are capable of lifting 70 tons and the depth of water alongside is 24 feet at low tides. There are other establishments at which shipbuilding and foundry work is carried on, and some good-sized steamers have been launched in the Colony. Her Majesty's Naval Yard likewise contains machine sheds and fitting shops on a large scale, and repairs can be effected to the machinery of the British men-of-war with great expedition. A large extension of the Naval Yard has been decided upon.

THE PEAK DISTRICT.

A well-made but rather badly graded mountain road leads up to the summit of Victoria Peak, with numerous other paths branching off from it at Victoria Gap along the adjoining hills. A tramway, on the wire rope system, has been laid to the Victoria Gap, where the stationary engine is fixed, the lower terminus being close to S. John's Cathedral, and was opened to traffic on the 30th May, 1888. Passengers can alight at the Kennedy, Bowen, and Plantation Roads, where platforms are provided for their accommo- dation. Within the past few years the number of bungalows and houses on and abou t the Peak has increased so much that they now form quite a considerable alpine village. The Military erected a sanatorium on the heights near Magazine Gap in 1883, and in 1897 acquired the handsome and commodious Mount Austin Hotel for the same purpose. The Peak Church, was opened for worship in June, 1883. Comfortable accommodation for visitors is afforded at the Peak Hotel. The road from Victoria Gap westward leads to Victoria Peak, which is 1,823 feet above the sea and rises almost abruptly behind the centre of the city of Victoria. On the summit is placed the flagstaff, from which the approach of the mails and other vessels is signalled. An excellent and well graded road, commencing on the Bowen road, leads to Magazine Gap, near which a second hill village of foreign residences has been formed on the southern side of the hills at an elevation of about 900 feet above the sea.

THE RURAL DISTRICTS.

There are several villages on the island, the largest of which is Shau-ki Wan, situate in a bay in the Ly-ee-mùn Pass, a great resort of Chinese fishing craft. Aberdeen, known to the Chinese as Shek-pai-wan, on the south of the island, possesses a well sheltered little harbour, also much frequented by fishing craft. Two large docks of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Company are situated there, and add to the importance of the place. Pokfolum, on the road to Aberdeen, about four miles from Victoria, was formerly a place of resort for European residents in the hot weather, and some elegant bungalows were erected in pleasant and picturesque situations, commanding fine sea views and cool breezes, but since the development of the Peak district Pokfolum has been comparatively neglected. The sanitarium of the French Missions is located at Pokfolum, and is a fine building with an elegant chapel attached. The Dairy Farm is also situated there. Wong-nai Chung is snugly located at the head of the valley of that name and is the most accessible of all the villages from Victoria. Stanley, situated in a small bay on the south-east of the island, was once the site of a military station, but the barrack buildings have been pulled down, and the village is now stationary. A cemetery on the point contains numerous graves of British officers and soldiers. One of the places most in favour with pedestrians who are not afraid of a good long tramp is the little village of Tytam Tuk, nestling among trees at the mouth of the stream of the same name, which here enters Tytam Bay, the most extensive inlet on the southern coast. There are good carriage roads from Victoria both to Aberdeen and Shau-ki Wan and bridle roads to Stanley and Tytam, and as a memorial of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee a new road round the island is to be made. Saiwan is a small village picturesquely situated in Saiwan Bay, just outside the Ly-ee-mùn Pass, and is also much frequented by picnic parties. In the belief that it was a healthy locality, small barracks were erected there early in the forties, but the experiment proved most disastrous, for in five weeks out of a detachment of 20 English soldiers five died and three more were removed in a dangerous condition. The buildings were therefore soon abandoned. Shek O is a small but prettily located village occupying a small valley shut in from the water on the eastern coast, not far from Cape D'Aguilar.

KOWLOON AND OTHER DEPENDENCIES.

Across the harbour is the dependency of British Kowloon. The peninsula was first granted in perpetual lease by the Kwangtung Government to Sir Harry (then Mr.) Smith Parkes, but was definitely ceded to Great Britain in 1860 by Article VI. of the Peking Convention. It has an area of four square miles, and has latterly male