[ { "id": 204837, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 140, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "A RECONNAISSANCE OF MA WAN\n\n115\n\nAs it happened, the north end of Lantao remained almost untouched for 150 years. It was leased to Britain in 1898 for 99 years, but little development was undertaken until 1960, when large schemes of reclamation and resettlement were prepared. The slumbering rural character of the island is now beginning to change rapidly.\n\nWhy was Ma Wan chosen for survey? Nearness to Macao? Access to the Pearl River and Canton? Ships occasionally came down the China coast from the east, and took a short cut to Canton through the Kap Sui Mun Channels, but Parish's report seems to suggest that this was regarded as a hazardous piece of sailing. These ships, however, would all have to pass Ma Wan, and so the island was at that time the best-known in Hong Kong waters. Also, the approach in a square-rigged sailing vessel to the then uncharted coast gave a confusing variety of small islands, promontories, and near-islands. The approach from the west was probably better known, and was easier to find. But it is to be regretted that Parish was forced by his orders and the bad weather to waste so much energy on such an unsuitable site.\n\nCONCLUSIONS\n\nWhen the East India Company's trading monopoly to China came to an end in April 1834 the position of English merchants at Canton changed. Lord Napier was sent out as Superintendent of Trade, though the Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, tended to regard him as a representative of the King. Napier soon came into conflict with the officials at Canton over what may be called matters of national prestige, and relations between England and China began to deteriorate. More especially relations were embittered over the increasingly large amount of opium being brought to China from India in British-owned ships. It was illegal to import opium into China by Chinese law, and as a result a swarm of Chinese middlemen co-operated with the foreign merchants in smuggling opium along the coast, especially in the province of Kwangtung. However, in 1821 the Kwangtung authorities were much stricter in enforcing the anti-opium smuggling regulations and as a result the foreign merchants could no longer bring it up to Canton, but instead took it to the \"outer anchorages\" where permanent receiving ships were stationed during the trading season (approximately October until April). The main base for opium smuggling was the island of Lintin", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204863, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1964", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n141\n\nASIAN PERSPECTIVES. The Bulletin of the Far Eastern Prehistory Association, Edited by Wilhelm G. Solheim II. Volume VI, Nos. 1 & 2, 1962. Hong Kong University Press, 1962. Illustrated. HK$25 per number.\n\nThis issue of Asian Perspectives contains much of value for all students of Far-Eastern Prehistory—for the interested layman no less than for the expert.\n\nThe journal is divided under three main headings: Regional Reports, Topical Report and Notes, and Original Articles.\n\nThe regional reports cover the following areas: Eastern Asia and Oceania, Northeast Asia, Mainland China, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Madagascar, the Philippines, Polynesia, New Zealand and Australia. All the reports have detailed bibliographies, invaluable for further reading and for the comparison and co-relation of work in the various fields of research. Especially interesting are the full note on A. P. Okladnikov's report on important archaeological discoveries in Mongolia in the Northeast Asia report, the notes in the Southeast Asia section which include P. I. Borikovsky's report on recent work in Vietnam and the inclusion, for the first time, of a regional report from Madagascar. The author of the report from Mainland China feels that the volume of work being done there and the problem of obtaining published results, make complete coverage difficult at the moment; but to have such a report at all, with a comprehensive list of references is useful. The Indonesian report is detailed and well-illustrated and covers field work and research in Java, Bali and Flores, Sumba and Timor. Those who have seen some of the Neolithic material discovered in Hong Kong will find the illustrations in this section particularly interesting.\n\nThe topical report is on the linguistic sessions of the 10th Pacific Science Congress held in Honolulu in 1961; again the bibliography is extensive.\n\nThe range of subject of the articles in the third section, Notes and Original Articles, is wide, but in this issue of the journal, predominantly archaeological. They include articles on the problems of archaeology in Madagascar, on the work of French prehistorians in Vietnam, on archaeology in North Borneo, Easter Island and in India. A. P. Khatri writes on A century of Prehistoric Research in India, paying tribute to the \"father\" of...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205554, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1968", "page_number": 96, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "FAN LAU AND ITS FORT\n\n91\n\n11 A lorcha is a specialized fighting craft from Macau that combined a Western-style hull (for speed and maneuverability) with Chinese batten sails and rigging (for easier sail-handling and disguise).\n\n12 Charles F. Neumann, History of the Pirates (š), who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray, 1831) P. 58.\n\n13 J. R. Morrison, A Chinese Commercial Guide (Canton, Office of the Chinese Repository, 1848) pp. 70-71.\n\n14 The Last Year in China to the Peace of Nanking as sketched in Letters to his Friends by a Field Officer actively employed in that Country (2nd edition, revised, London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans 1843) pp. 51-52.\n\n15 There is, in addition, the possibility that the fort had a temporary garrison in 1834 see the imperial directive given respecting defence and patrolling at Lantau and Macao quoted by J. L. Cranmer-Byng in his brief note \"An old fort at Tung Chung on Lantao Island” in J.H.K.B.R.A.S. Vol 3 (1963) pp. 144-145.\n\n16 Hong Kong Government. New Territories Administration. Block Crown Lease Demarcation Districts 322 and 327, Shek Sun village, Lantau Island.\n\nBIBLIOGRAPHY CITED\n\nJ. J. L. Duyvendak, \"Sailing directions of Chinese voyages\", T'oung Pao vol. 34 (1938), pp. 230-237,\n\n\"The true dates of the Chinese maritime expeditions in the early fifteenth century\", T'oung Pao vol. 34 (1938), pp. 341-412.\n\nLuis B. Gomes, Monografia de Macau, Macau, 1951.\n\nHongkong Government. A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hongkong, Kowloon, and the New Territories, Hongkong, 1960.\n\nLo Hsing-lin, Hongkong and its External Communications before 1842. Hongkong, 1963.\n\nJ. R. Morrison, A Chinese Commercial Guide, Canton, 1848.\n\nCharles F. Neumann, The History of the Pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, translated from the Chinese original, London, 1831.\n\nCh'ing dynasty work:\n\nChinese Sources\n\nMo Pei Chi (AA) A.D. 1621\n\nThe provincial Gazetteer of Kwangtung:\n\nKwong Tung Tung Chi (♬✯ ih sk) 1864 edition\n\nThe District Gazetteers for the following:\n\nSan On Yuen Chi (%) 1819 edition\n\nTung Kwun Yuen Chi ✯✯✯) 1797 edition\n\nHeung Shan Yuen Chi (3) 1827 edition\n\nO Mun Kei Leuk (39 1932) 1800 edition", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207387, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "PACIFIC OYSTER INDUSTRY IN HONG KONG\n\n147\n\nBromhall (1958) reported upon an experiment using raft culture (*) in Deep Bay and showed that the oysters reached marketable size in two and a half years instead of four. Furukawa (1968) in a review of Japanese oyster culture reports that the raft method of culture has now virtually replaced all other methods of shellfish culture in that country, and that by this method the annual production of oysters has increased enormously, for example in Hiroshima. According to Quayle (1969) in his study of Pacific oyster culture in British Columbia, this method of culture is the most efficient with regard to the intensity of spatfalls and the subsequent growth and survival of the oyster. By this method, the culture of oyster is no longer limited to the shore and can be extended to deeper waters, thereby increasing the area available for culture. Recently conducted experiments undertaken by the Agricultural and Fisheries Department of the Hong Kong Government designed to test the feasibility of extending the oyster industry to the north side of Lantao Island (*) (Fig. 1) have been successful (Mok, 1974). The oysters are able to breed naturally in these waters and the reported growth rate is even faster; the oysters requiring only two years to reach marketable size. Oysters suspended in the water can utilise the whole column of water thereby reducing intraspecific competition. Moreover bottom living predators cannot attack the suspended oysters. In addition the large number of spat collected by this method can be separated from the cultch after one year and cultivated on trays, thereby solving the problem of overcrowding.\n\nRaft culture involves a similar amount of labour as that used in bottom-laying but the more arduous and unpleasant aspects of the work (i.e. the laying of the cultch on the muddy sea bed) are avoided. The strings of cultch to be suspended from the rafts can be prepared on land beforehand. During harvesting the strings of oysters can be hauled up from the raft into a boat, which is much easier than diving or tonging as is practised in Deep Bay. The advantage to such a system are many and obvious and result in larger spatfalls, a faster rate of growth, better quality of the flesh, reduced mortality and easier management. Since the surface waters of Deep Bay are less polluted (Leung et al., 1975), the oysters too would be safer to eat.\n\nThe increased intensity of fouling upon the strings is a problem but has been solved, for Pearl oysters at least (Mawatari and Miyau-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210319, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 290, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "269\n\nMy notebook says “We had tea at all these villages all locally grown\". The list includes Tai Hang Hau, Sheung Sze Wan and Ha Yeung, but I visited others in the group without making special mention of tea. At Ha Yeung I was told that they had 100 trees of what they called shan cha (山茶) (“hill tea”), not wild but planted by themselves. Tai Po Tsai, one of the larger villages of the area, claimed to have 50 trees, but the largest village settlement, Mang Kung Uk, reported \"only a few tea bushes not many.\" However, the little island settlement of Fu Tau Chau in Junk Bay gave me hill tea to drink, from its own trees.\n\nFurther towards Sai Kung Market, I was given hill tea to drink at Nam Wai, and also at Pak Kong Au, though the village reported \"only 8 to 10 trees\". East of Sai Kung, people in the hamlet of Shan Liu said that “tea was formerly grown (i.e. cultivated) but only wild bushes are now harvested”. But it was at Nam A, east of Sha Kok Mei, that I learned most. \"A really nice, almost English village\", I wrote enthusiastically. \"We drank hill tea (excellent) from trees planted twenty years ago in the hills behind the village, but not many. It is best brewed in porcelain, they said. Their supply lasts six months in all, but is harvested four times a year - once in the winter months, once at Easter and twice in the summer. The best is the Easter crop.” Nothing was said, or asked, about preparation but each crop was kept in a drawer for two months. My note ends \"The cows like to eat it!”.\n\nOn Lantau, the villagers of Pa Mei, otherwise known as Shan Ha, said they collected hill tea from Tai Tung Shan Keuk (大東山腳), that is the north western slopes of Sunset Peak. On South Lantau the people of the Pui villages also went up to Tai Tung Shan to collect leaves from wild bushes there in the second to fourth moons. Previously there had been many trees, but hill fires had reduced their number. It was used as leung cha (涼茶) for cooling the system. At Tong Fuk my notes state, \"they gather tea leaves from bushes on the hill and use it a lot. The tea comes from the Fung Wong Shan peak behind the village, and the leaves used are plucked in the second and third moons.” Rather surprisingly, the villagers of Upper and Lower Keung Shan, though located on the mountain slopes of a sheltered valley with good tree cover, had never cultivated tea bushes, or at least not within living memory.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210349, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1984", "page_number": 320, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "299\n\n(at the corner of Hoi Tan Street and Pei Ho Street) and finally to Tsing Yi Island.\n\nIn those days security was a matter of self-defence. The factory in consequence kept swords, rattan shields, and six handguns as weapons for defence against bandits.\n\nThe San Shing Lei kiln moved to Tsing Yi in 1915, buying the land to build the factory, and preparing the site by levelling it and reclaiming the sea frontage. It was the first factory to invest and set up there. The factory occupied about 150,000 square feet and had eight kilns for lime burning, and a good number of shelters and other buildings. Every month it could produce 10,000 piculs of lime.\n\nAt that time Tsing Yi was very remote, with only a few residents. Following the establishment of the kiln, this immediately encouraged the development and prosperity of the area. Since the kiln required to buy huge quantities of dried grass from the villagers, and employed more than one hundred workers to operate the kilns, crush the shells and to act as general coolies (most of these workers were Hoi Luk Fung people), and since many of the workers, for their convenience in getting to work, started to live near the factory, so shops could set up nearby and hope for business. Moreover, the pier built by the factory as its private pier was available for general use. Because of this the area around the factory became steadily more prosperous, and outsiders started to invest there, building houses and factories, until the area became a regular market.\n\nIn 1959 the Government built a pier near this market, with ferries to and from Tsuen Wan, Tsing Yi and Hong Kong, thus making it much easier for factories and shops on the island to transport goods, and for residents to travel backwards and forwards.\n\nWhy the Industry declined\n\nIn the 1950s the property industry in Hong Kong began to be very prosperous. Lime was supplied not only to the local industry", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212390, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1990", "page_number": 332, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "309\n\nSOJOURNERS IN XIAMEN: NOTES ON THE RAS VISIT\n\nIt was up-up-and-away' on Friday March 6, 1992, as 18 stalwart RAS Members took a one-hour flight to Xiamen Island, in Fujian Province. Also known as Amoy, the town is similar, in some ways, to Hong Kong. Both are situated in the typhoon belt. Also, like Macau, there are isolated 'dip-nets' for coastal fishing, mournful water buffalo haul ploughs as in Guangdong and 'knife-bean' and flame trees adorn skylines as at Repulse Bay. As in most of China for the past decade, 'free markets' exist in Xiamen with intriguing street stall smells.\n\nBut this city, where Chinese still stare at Europeans, is also different from Hong Kong. Limited English is spoken, and, when it is, people often have Japanese accents. Nor is there the same high-rise concrete jungle, sampans and junks have more pronounced curves, straining bare-footed labourers pull carts and street sweepers use brooms made from branches of trees.\n\nAlthough one of the People's Republic's Special Economic Zones, Xiamen cannot be compared to hectic Shenzhen. But if direct relations can be established across the shallow, 150 kilometre wide, Taiwan Straits, instead of routing transactions through Hong Kong, the volume of trade could increase rapidly. To make it easier for the Taiwanese, to attract business many of the street signs in Xiamen are in conventional Chinese characters, as in Hong Kong, rather than the simplified ideograms normally used in China.\n\nThe Group's first stop on arrival in Xiamen, arranged by Member David Norris, was to 'Meixia Arts and Handicrafts' established and run by American Bill Job and wife Kitty. They manufacture and export stained art glass murals, windows and lampshades.\n\nThe following day, the couple invited the Party to their spartan but adequate house, built in 1928, for which the present rent is US$120 a month. An open well and grapevines grace the forecourt. Their two young daughters attend the Chinese school and are fluent in both Putonghua and the local dialect. The latter sounds more nasal than Cantonese. When the Group arrived the two girls were playing ball with Chinese friends in the narrow street at the front of their home.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214152, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 10, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "Keith Stevens - Another Dilemma for Today's Youth in China ... \n\n369\n\nKeith Stevens - An Irish Fantasy.. \n\n372\n\nPenny Robbins, Meredith Tong-Draper and Geoffrey Roper - Backstreets of Beijing: Notes on the RAS HK Easter, 1998 Visit to Beijing \n\n375\n\nKeith Stevens and Jennifer Welch - Monument to the Westmoreland Regiment The 55th Regiment of Foot in Dinghai City on Zhoushan Island...................... \n\n383\n\nDan Waters - Tracing Graves in Hong Kong: Research Methodology \n\n395\n\nKeith Stevens - An Unusual and Extraordinary Ancestral Image \n\n399\n\nPhotographs of the Function to Mark the Award of the Bronze Bauhinia Star to Dan Waters contributed by Phillip Bruce............. \n\n403\n\nPaul Bolding - Visit to the Aurel Stein Collection of the British Museum by the Friends of the RAS \n\nBOOK REVIEWS \n\n404\n\nGerald Choa - The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai, a Prominent Figure in Nineteenth Century Hong Kong....... \n\n407\n\nGillian Bickley - The Golden Needle: The Biography of Frederick Stewart \n\n411\n\nix", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214407, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 265, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "231\n\nmainly inhabited by Chinese, which circumstance already speaks sufficiently for itself, but eastwards the city is spreading rapidly, with magnificent houses being built; in the two years following my first visit marked progress has been made.\n\nFurther towards the east a magnificent road leads to a beautiful valley, through which flows a small stream. They say this was the only place that was inhabited prior to the occupation of the island by the English. The Chinese (man) who had a farm here and who had cultivated the valley, called it Happy Valley, a name by which it is still known today. Nowadays alongside the excellently cultivated fields other fields are gradually being sown for great harvests in the future. We too planted a few seeds brought here from afar. The name of the valley accords with its choice as the site for the cemetery.\n\nWhat first particularly strikes one in Hong Kong and other trading towns of China is the almost total absence of horses; they are replaced by Chinese. It is too hot to walk on foot and hence improper for a decent gentleman, let alone a lady: on my walks I never met a lady on foot. Each household usually has one covered litter, like a carriage body without wheels, and several open ones, consisting of light bamboo armchairs with two poles attached: in the true sense - a portechaise. Two Chinese are harnessed to both the former and the latter, which obviously works out cheaper than horses, but from the moral point of view they are debased to the level of animals and are no better than any slave. On more than one occasion a poor coolie (porter) received a beating from a passing dandy for not moving out of the way in time or simply because the latter wanted to make use of his cane. It seems that crying out against slavery, or preaching equality, is much easier. During my stay here a small scene took place on 'Queen's Road.' The main role was played by a young officer of the frigate HM Nanking. It seems that the young man, being in high spirits, decided to eat some fruit from the basket of a hawker and the Chinese, not appreciating the joke, demanded payment and not receiving it grabbed the gentleman by the coat. Apparently, this insult to his attire was too much to take, even if the citizen of the Celestial Empire was right, and that is why HM Mr. Officer dealt the 'peasant' a mighty blow, which cut his face. Several peace-loving citizens, who didn't share the hero's warlike spirit, happened to be present and insisted that he be taken to the police, which was indeed done in spite of the loud protestations of his friends. The", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214409, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1998", "page_number": 267, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "233\n\nappear now next to the thumb, tip to painting, now return to their place back in the reverse position. Generally speaking the Chinese are very good copiers. I saw a copy of Raphael's Madonna in a reduced size, brought from Berlin and another made from it here by a Chinese: it's difficult to distinguish one from the other. They themselves only paint flowers and insects well, copying each little leaf of a flower, each little butterfly's wing with such thoroughness, that they seem to be glued on to the paper. Much beauty is brought to these drawings by the paper itself which is like fine velvet and which the English call rice-paper but which is actually made from the pith of a plant belonging to the family araliacea and known in Chinese as den-tsao i.e. the lamp plant because lamps are made from its thin stems. It is said to grow exclusively on the island of Formosa, at least it is only there that they cultivate it and make paper from it. Paper used primarily for making artificial flowers.\n\nThat same ability of the Chinese - to be satisfied with little together with their imitativeness results in that all artisans and workers here, as well as all household servants - are of their number. A Chinese tailor will guilelessly offer you to chose from a fashion picture of three to four years earlier; a Chinese stone-mason builds magnificent houses according to European plans. But for whatever kind of work it might be it is easier to find a Chinese man than a Chinese woman; and that is why positions which are elsewhere occupied by female servants are here mainly occupied by men. And if it is strange to see a footman in a long tunic and with a long plait by the table, then it is stranger still, as is often the case, to see a similar Chinese in the role of a children's nanny.\n\nIn Hong Kong I had the opportunity of seeing for the first time the drying of tea; and although it was not the preparation of tea from fresh leaves, but the drying of tea that had become slightly damp, the process is nevertheless in essence the same. Cauldrons, in the form of hemispheres, are fixed into the hearth at an incline: their back part is raised sufficiently to allow the plane of the opening to make an angle of up to 50° with the horizontal. A worker, standing before each such cauldron continuously stirs the tea placed there with his hand always in one direction, thus imparting to it a circular motion until, with the fire burning under the cauldron the tea dries as required.\n\nTalking of tea, it would be opportune to mention an incident which occurred while I was in Hong Kong. A vessel carrying tea sank; the cargo was salvaged and sold at public auction. The dealer-speculator, who bought it, took", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216114, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 413, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "347\n\nmy pilot to tow me over the town and tell him that I will release the plane at an altitude of 300 metres and that I will climb under my own steam to 2,000 metres. Sceptical glances from my Chinese friends, who find it difficult to accept that a European might do something better than a Son of Heaven.\n\nAt 11:45, I take off. At first we follow the river. The town is to our left, set on terrace up the mountainside. There is not a breath of air; all is calm. It was as I expected. Reaching the tip of the peninsula, we turn 90 degree to the left, and this time, still climbing at one metre per second, we begin to fly across the town. As we arrive over the roofs, I sense a number of small thermal currents; my gauges frequently indicate two metres per second. But I am still only at 200 metres, and too far from the airfield, in case I should fail to find serious thermals.\n\nWhen we come over San Shin Sze, the plane begins a slight turn to the left, and I sense that he is going to fly over the river again; my altimeter reads just 300 metres, and I release the glider in a light thermal, when I place myself in tight spirals. The tow had lasted seven minutes. The sky was completely blue, without a cloud, however with a slight violet haze over the ground. No wind. I was obliged to fly solely with the aid of thermal currents. Almost immediately, I find myself in a weak current. After one or two minutes, I am even descending at a speed of about 1.5 metres per second. I am flying at 75 km per hour, at an angle of about 35 degrees. I decide to resume the direction of the river and to approach the airfield but I find that I have travelled further away than I thought. There was no chance of getting back to the island from which I had taken off. I spot a great sandbank and decide to attempt a last chance to fly towards the point of the town, where I had observed and felt some good currents at the start of my tow.\n\n-\n+\n\nAt 60 metres above the roofs at last! - a few strong buffets and my two gauges are suddenly showing two metres of climb. Steep spirals, at an angle of 45 degrees, speed 80 km per hour, and I am climbing this time evenly and without being buffeted. 200 metres, 500 metres, 1,000 metres, I am always turning, always widening my turns. The fight becomes easier and easier and this time I am climbing at three metres a second. I see the magnificent panorama of the town, as if gripped in a vice between two great rivers; I see, quite small, the English, French and American gunboats (the \"Tutuila\", where I used to go\n\n3", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]