Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 1035

HONGKONG

THE PEAK DISTRICT

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A well-made but rather badly-graded mountain road leads up from the centre of the city to the summit of Victoria Peak, with numerous other paths branching oft from it at Victoria Gap along the adjoining hills. A tramway, on the wire rope system, runs to the Victoria Gap, where the stationary engine is fixed, the lower terminus being close to St. John's Cathedral. It was opened to traffic on the 30th May, 1888. Passengers can alight at the Kennedy, Bowen, May, and Plantation Roads, where stations are provided for their accommodation. The Military erected a sanatorium on the heights near Magazine Gap in 1883, and in 1897 acquired the commodious Mount Austin Hotel at Victoria Gap for the same purpose. The Peak Club is domiciled in a neat building at Plunkett Gap near the point of junction with Chamberlain Road and Mount Kellett road. It was erected in 1902 and enlarged in 1912 by the addition of a second storey. The Peak Church, an unpretending structure after the similitude of a jelly mould, was opened for worship in June, 1883. Extensive accommodation for visitors is afforded at the Peak Hotel. A finely-situated private Hospital, known as the Peak Hospital, is situated at Victoria Gap, just above the Peak Hotel. The Victoria (Jubilee) Hospital for Women and Children, occupying a breezy site on Barker Road, was opened by Sir Henry Blake on November 7th, 1903, partly as the result of public subscription. Yet another hospital, named "The Matilda Hospital," is situated at the southern corner of Mount Kellett. It was built at a cost of about $350,000 and opened in 1906. The expense of erection and maintenance are borne by the estate of the late Mr. Granville Sharp, who devoted the bulk of his fortune to provide such an institution for the benefit of persons needing it who are of European or American birth.

was erected in 1901.

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. Not far from the summit of the Peak, on a most command- ing site, stands Mountain Lodge, the summer residence of H.E. the Governor, which Another road westward from Victoria Gap and known as Lugard Road was completed in 1920, and, with Harlech Road, encircles Victoria Peak. Another road in a directly opposite direction leads from Victoria Gap to Magazine Gap, where 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. There is also a road from Victoria Gap down to Pokfolum and Aberdeen, and at the side of this, about half a mile from the Gap, a small granite cross has been erected. This bears the inscription:- "W. W. H., 1869" and marks the scene of a brutal murder there by a Chinese footpad, the victim being Mr. Holworthy, an officer of the Ordnance Department, whom he felled with a bamboo and robbed, inflicting fatal injuries. The Peak roads are lighted by incandescent gas lamps.

A second road to the Peak district was completed in 1922. Starting from Morrison Hill Road, it runs behind the Cemetery at Happy Valley and traverses the face of the hills to Wanchai Gap and Magazine Gap. From Wanchai Gap, also, it is being continued, along the southern face of the hills, to the Peak. It has an easy gradient and was constructed for motor traffic. A branch of it runs in an opposite direction to Wong-nai-Chung Gap.

Magazine Gap is also approached by an excellent and well-graded road, com- mencing on the Bowen Road.

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. 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 bunga- lows were erected in pleasant and picturesque situations, commanding fine sea views and cool breezes, but for some years after the development of the Peak district Pokfulum remained comparatively neglected until recently, when the difficulty of find- ing additional sites on the higher levels has again brought it into notice. The sanitorium of the French Missions is located at Pokfulum, and is a fine building with an elegant chapel attached. The Dairy Farm is also situated there. Some distance beyond.