Directory_and_Chronicle_1931 — Page 1108

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HONGKONG

A second road to the Peak district was completed in 1922. Starting from Mor- rison Hill Road, it runs from Happy Valley and traverses the face of the hills to Wan- chai Gap and Magazine Gap to the south of the cemetery. From Wanchai Gap, also, it has been continued, along the southern face of the hills, to the Pcak. It has an easy gradient and was constructed for motor traffic. A branch of it runs in an opposite direction to Wong-Nei-Cheong Gap and along the South side of the hills until it joins the motor road which encircles the island. Houses are springing up rapidly along the road, and adjacent to it.

Magazine Gap is also approached from the lower levels by an excellent and well-graded road, commencing on the Bowen Road, which is now a motor road as far as May 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 centre for 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, is also a residential district and many residences have been 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, when the difficulty of find- ing additional sites on the higher levels 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-Nei-cheong is located at the head of the valley of that name. A motor-road has been constructed from the Morrison Hill district vid Wanchai Gap to Wong-Nei-cheong Gap and to the Peak, and a tramway was considered for the purpose of rendering building sites in the Mt. Cameron district accessible to residents. Stanley, situated in a small bay on the south-east of the island, was once the site of a military station, but the barrack build- ings have been pulled down, and the village is now stationary. A modern school named St. Stephen's College has been erected nearby. A cemetery on the point contains numerous graves of British officers and soldiers. There is an excellent motor road round the Island by way of Pokfolum, Aberdeen, Stanley, Tytain 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. This district is being developed as a European summer resort and a Country Club has been established, Near here a wireless station has been erected.

KOWLOON AND OTHER DEPENDENCIES

Across the harbour is the dependency of Britisli Kowloon, which is developing very rapidly along lines laid down by the Town Planning Committee. 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 greatly increased in population, and has become an important town. There is a considerable Chinese junk trade to this district 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. Three regiments of Indian infantry are usually stationed at Tsim-tsa Tsui, where barracks and officers' quar- ters are located and a Mahommedan mosque has been erected. At Tsim-tsa Tsui, too, a large number of European houses and flats have been erected, and this portion of the peninsula, which faces Victoria, has gradually developed into