Directory_and_Chronicle_1923 — Page 1036

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HONGKONG

Aberdeen are two excellent bathing beaches known as Deep Water Bay (where there is a 9-hole golf-course and club-house) and Repulse Bay (where a popular hotel has been erected by the Hongkong Hotel Co., Ltd.). 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. A motor-road has been constructed from the Morrison Hill district via Wanchai Gap to the Peak, and a tramway is promised for the purpose of rendering building sites in the Mt. Cameron district accessible to people of moderate means. 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 is an excellent motor road round the Island by way of Pokfolum, Aberdeen, Stanley, Tytam and Shaukiwan. This was commened as a memorial of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria and completed at the end of 1919. Saiwan is a small village picturesquely situated in Saiwan Bay, just outside the Ly-ee-mùn Pass, and is much frequented by pienic parties. In the belief that it was a healthy locality, small barracks were crected there early in the 'forties, but the experiment proved most disastrous, for in tive 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. There is a scheme on foot for developing this district as a European suminer resort by the erection of bungalows and the provision of a Country Club. Near here a wireless station has been erected.

KOWLOON AND OTHER DEPENDENCIES

Across the harbour is the dependency of British Kowloon. Some four square miles of the peninsula were first granted in perpetual lease by the Kwangtung Government to Sir Harry (then Mr.) Parkes, but were definitely ceded to Great Britain in 1860 by Article VI. of the Peking Convention. Yau-ma-ti, the principal village, has rapidly increased in population, and bids fair to become an important town. There is a considerable Chinese junk trade at this place, and amongst other industries is a preserved ginger factory. Gas Works were erected there in 1892, and the settled portion of the peninsula is lighted with gas; electricity is also now largely used, the generating station being at Hunghom. Waterworks were established in 1895, but, with the rapid growth in the population, further provision was necessary, and the new waterworks now provide for the supply of a million and a half gallons daily. Three regiments of Indian infantry are usually stationed at Tsim-tsa Tsui, where barracks and officers' quarters are located and a Mahommedan mosque has been erected. At Tsim-tsa Tsui, too, a number of European houses have been erected and numerous gardens laid out, and this portion of the peninsula, which faces Victoria, has gradually developed into a populous European residential settlement. It is approached by Nathan Road, a fine wide thoroughfare running at right angles to the water-front. A fine bund, with a massive granite wall, has been constructed here, and an extensive range of godowns built and several fine wharves made for discharging cargo and coaling. Here, also, is situated the handsome terminal station of the Canton- Kowloon Railway. During 1905 and 1906 extensive reclamation works were carried out extending eastward from the godown company's property to Hunghom. Messrs. Butterfield & Swire have erected extensive godown accommodation on the reclamation. The same period will also be remembered by the building of two churches at Kowloon -St. Andrew's, in Robinson Road, being the gift of the Hon. Sir C. P. Chater, C.M.G. and the Roman Catholic Church in Chatham Road, the gift of Dr. S. A. Goines. There are two hotels, and plans have been prepared for a third. The Kowloon British School was erected in 1901 on Robinson Road at the expense of Mr. (now Sir) Robert Ho Tung.

The Navy maintains a small naval yard, subsidiary to the principal establishment on the Hongkong side. The Royal Observatory is situated on Mount Elgin; and a large and handsome Police Station for the Water Police occupies an eminence just above the Praya. A steam ferry plies regularly between Tsim-tsa Tsui and Victoria; ferry boats also run between Victoria and Sham Shui Po, Mongkok, Yau-ma-Ti and Hunghom, where the principal docks of the Hongkong and Whampoa Dock Co. are situated. The Cosmopolitan Dock and works, also belonging to the same Company, are situated at Sam Shui Po. At Hok-ün are also situated