Directory_and_Chronicle_1925 — Page 1090

HONGKONG

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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.

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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 has been 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. Houses are springing up rapidly along the road, and adjacent to it, on a site granted by the Government, a model Nursing Home is to be erected in the near future from funds partly subscribed by the public for a War Memorial, partly contributed by the Government, and partly obtained from the surplus accumulated on the investment of the late Granville Sharp's bequest, referred to above. Magazine Gap is also approached from the lower levels by an excellent and well-graded road, commencing 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 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-Shanghai Hotels 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 Wong-nai-chung Gap and 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 commended 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 picnic parties. In the belief that it was a healthy locality, small barracks were erected there early in the forties, but the experi- ment 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 occupy- ing a small valley shut in from the water on the eastern coast, not far from Cape D'Aguilar. There is a scheme in progress for developing this district as a European summer 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, which is developing very rapidly along lines laid down recently by a Town Planning Committee. Some fou