[ { "id": 204871, "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": 174, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n149\n\nAn expert could say what the ranges of such cannons were, but after you have landed at the pier and walked to the fort, you will appreciate that it is 1,200 yards from the coast. It is unlikely that guns in the fort could be really effective at this range, so that one questions the wisdom of its planners in placing it so far from the sea, if it was meant to be a work of coastal defence.\n\nWhat of the garrison? In the later Ching period there were at least three military installations on Lantau at Tung Chung, Tai O and Fan Lau, another on Cheung Chau, and a considerable number of troops in the Kowloon Walled City. These were all sedentary garrisons drawn from the Tai Pang (Mirs Bay) battalion of the Chinese regular forces, which was scattered in forts and guard posts all over the eastern and southern part of the Sun On district, of which the present Crown Colony of Hong Kong formed the major part. The garrison at Tung Chung was commanded by a subordinate officer and probably consisted of a score or two men who were very likely without modern weapons. Writing in 1903 Dyer Ball said of the Chinese military forces that \"matchlocks, gingals, bows and arrows, spears and lances are still the weapons of many\". Their military efficiency was probably very slight. A missionary, who wrote an interesting account of the San On district for the last number of the transactions of the old Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, has an amusing description of the guard post at the Shatin Pass. However, they probably had a deterrent value, but owing to the poor state of local communications at that time, they were much too far away to assist if anything happened elsewhere on Lantau, particularly on the south side, though their influence was felt there. When the local leaders of the Pui O community (South Lantau) rebuilt the Hung Shing temple there in 1875, they persuaded the garrison commander at Tung Chung to make a contribution. In the commemorative tablet recording the event he is styled Fu Ye, a respectful form of address for this subordinate officer.\n\nTo bring these rather rambling notes to a close, the fort was used after 1898 as a police station. The District Officer who recovered the cannons for the fort has left a vivid picture of his occasional magisterial visits there about 1920:", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 204872, "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": 175, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "150\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nThe Police Station at Tung Chung was in an old Chinese fort, walled in. I heard my cases under a huge tree there and always had to drink a large tumbler of goat's milk provided by the Indian Sergeant in charge. He would have been awfully hurt if I had refused. It might be O.K. with half a pint of rum or whisky, but I had not the heart to do it!\n\nJ. W. HAYES\n\nSOME NOTES ON TUNG CHUNG1\n\nTung Chung, Eastern Stream, appeared on the historical scene of the region earlier than most other places in the New Territories. The valley acquired its eminence because the last of the Sung emperors was proclaimed there and upheld some sort of a Court in the valley for at least three months in 1278, the last year of the Sung dynasty. Though the place of proclamation cannot be ascertained to be Tung Chung itself, Chinese historians have been tackling the problem from the name Huang Lung Hang*, Yellow Dragon Valley, which refers to the inhabited part of the valley of the Eastern Stream. Historical documents have indicated that a yellow dragon appeared in the sea when the boy emperor was proclaimed and the fact was recorded because it was thought to be a good omen for the fast vanishing dynasty.\n\nApart from legends, there is more vivid evidence of the brief stay of royalty in the area because wherever the fugitive Sungs held court, the people erected temples to remember a loyal courtier, Lord Yeung, a member of the royal household who followed the Court to the very end. Today, we can find three of such Hou Wong temples in our region: Kowloon City, Tai O and Tung Chung. The temple at Tung Chung cannot, of course, be dated as far back as 1278 but it is certain that it was renovated around 1870 and subsequently in 1910 and 1959.\n\nThere is next to nothing to tell what happened in the region between the fall of the Sung dynasty (1278) and the coastal\n\n1 The above historical note on the Tung Chung area contains material collected by Mr. C. Y. Ng of the University of Hong Kong for his Ph.D. thesis on \"Rural Development\". A more detailed historical paper on Tung Chung by Mr. Ng is expected to be published next year.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208126, "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-1977", "page_number": 165, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH \n\n149 \n\nin demand, part of the foreshore was reclaimed, and houses of reinforced concrete began to appear in the village, modelled on Hong Kong tenement houses. A great difficulty with this development was the problem of ensuring proper inspection of buildings of this type, as the Buildings Ordinance of 1903 did not apply, and there were one or two rogue architects about who would run up such houses cheap, and make their profit by deviating from plans: swindles that can, as I saw in Hong Kong later, cost lives. The best way of controlling knavery of this sort is to refuse permits to erect any more houses to the architect responsible: that, I was told, is London practice.\n\nThe Cheung Chau Kaifongs, who in my time were led by a Mr. Lo Yip, a prosperous shopkeeper, were certainly enterprising, and had not only started a ferry to Hong Kong on the funds obtained from the Pak Tai Temple at the north end of the town, but had renovated the Temple and set up an electric light installation for the village on the raised ground in the middle of the isthmus. The Ferries Ordinance was passed about 1917 and replaced the ancient launches plying to Yaumati and Kowloon City by much more suitable craft — some of them second-hand Star Ferry boats — far less likely to turn turtle than the overloaded, overcrowded craft which daily imperilled their passengers in the old days, the disasters to which brought about the new legislation. About 1925 the Ordinance was applied to the New Territory, which meant that the existing ferries had to be thrown open to public tender and their boats brought up to a higher standard. The Cheung Chau Kaifongs were encouraged to bid, and as theirs was the only one, and not unreasonable, they got the concession. The old pier by the former police station had sometime before been supplemented by a new wooden pier some 150 yards further north, and this was the Cheung Chau Terminal of the ferry. The concession expired in 1928, and under my successor, Mr. Wynne-Jones, new ferry concessions were made, which according to Mr. Lo Yip had caused great trouble to the Kaifongs. The timetable was certainly improved from the Hong Kong point of view, and day trips to the island became possible. I once discussed with the Kaifongs the question of making the ferry call at Nei Kwu Chau or Ping Chau, but they never agreed to letting the boat go there or to any other island, though a call at Nei Kwu Chau would have solved the education question there by enabling its children to attend school on Cheung Chau. I once spent a\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208282, "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-1978", "page_number": 6, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "185\n\nthey were knocking on every door in the village to force villagers to act as their porters. Mr. Chung had little choice but to obey. For the next week, he and quite a few of his fellow villagers were taken away from the village. He remembered having to march up Fei Ngo Shan, down to Ma Yau Tong, and then to Lei Yu Mun, until he successfully escaped.66\n\nIt was probably on December 11 that Mr. Chau T'in Shang in Sai Kung Market saw the Japanese cavalry pass. The Japanese did not enter the market. There was no disturbance or fighting. The police had been withdrawn before the Japanese arrived, and people just stayed indoors.67\n\nQuite a few villagers from Sai Kung and nearby villages were in the city when the War broke out. Mr. Wan Ts'eung of Tai Po Tsai was living in Kowloon City at the time. He must have learnt of the beginning of the War when he saw Kai Tak Airport bombed. But he recalled that one morning, he was in the street, and was shocked by machine-gun fire behind him. He hid behind some stone pillars, and then saw Fifth Columnists, known as the \"victory fellows\" (shing lei yau) who proclaimed that they were members of the Asia Prosperity Institution (Hing A Kei Kwan). Mr. Cheung Wing of Wo Mei was in Shaukiwan when he heard of the outbreak of war. He immediately went with several people back to the village, and feared all the way that they might be spotted and shot at by the Japanese. He arrived in the village before the Japanese came down from Keng Hing Shek. Mr. Tse Koon K'au of Tan Ka Wan spent the night of December 7 in the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon. This hotel was frequented by New Territories villagers when they went into the city. The next morning, he heard the aeroplanes and the bombs, and went out to ask what the matter was. When he saw that people in Shamshuipo were wounded, he realized that it was not a practice exercise, and started immediately to return to Sai Kung. A Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Po had a petrol station on Waterloo Road, and Mr. Chan drove Mr. Tse and five other people towards Sha Tin. They were stopped at a roadblock and were not allowed to drive into the New Territories. He left the car, with some difficulty bypassed the roadblock, spent some time with a friend in Chap Wai Kon (Sha Tin), and spent the night at Wu Kai Sha. He arrived in Sai Kung the next day, before the Japanese appeared", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208502, "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-1978", "page_number": 226, "title": "RAS-1978", "content_text": "210\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nfort in 1923. However, it is now ruined. The whole area is covered with shrub and mangrove.\n\nBefore the Ming Dynasty, there was no military post on the island. It was not until the late Ming Period that a guard-station or shuen, which was administered by the commander of the Nam Tau Walled City, was set up.2 Before then, the area had only patrol-boats, probably stationed at Tun Mun.3\n\nDuring the early Ch'ing Period, because of the increased strength of the pirates along the coast, more forts and guard-stations were set up. The Fat Tong Mun Fort on the Tung Lung Island was erected during the K'ang Hsi period (1662-1727)3, and a garrison of 25 soldiers under one pa-tsung or sergeant Tai Pang Battalion✯ was stationed there.6\n\nThe fort remained a strong outpost along the east coast of Hong Kong for nearly a hundred years. Then, in the 15th year of the Ch'ia Ching rule (1810), the fort was evacuated and finally abandoned.7 A new fort was built at the place of the present Hong Kong Marine Police Headquarters at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon.\n\nThe fort remains in ruins till now.\n\nHong Kong, 1979.\n\nSIU KWOK-KIN\n\nNOTES\n\n1 See note 4 of Mr. JAO Tsung-i's Kowloon in Historical Records of the Sung Dynasty九龍與宋季史料, 饒宗頤著\n\n2 Chapter 8 of the San On Yuen Chi, K'ang Hsi edition, records, \"In the 19th year of the Man Lik Period of the Ming Dynasty, guard-stations were established at Fat Tong Mun, Tor Ling Ngor Kung O, Kowloon, Tun Mun, Kap Shui Mun, Tung Sai Chung, Ngor Kung Tau, Chak Wan, Lo Man Shan and Long Pak.\" In the same chapter, it is also recorded, \"Six guard-stations were set up during the Ming Dynasty. They were Fat Tung Mun, Lung Shun Wan, Lok Kat, Tai O, Long To Wan, and Long Pak. These guard-stations were administered by the commander at the Nam Tau Walled City.\" Thus, we know that the Fat Tong Mun Guard Station was established in the 19th year of the Man Lik period of the Ming Dynasty; but the fort must have been built at a later time.\n\n3 Chapter 5 of the Cheong Wu Chung Tuk Kwun Mun Chi records, \"Patrol boats from Nam Tau were stationed at Tun Mun. Some sailed through Fat Tong Mun to the region as far east as Tai Pang.\" The book was completed in the 32nd year of the Chia", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1978.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208607, "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-1979", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n37\n\nSecretary, Procurator, and all his priests in the other parishes of the City were interned, he did not know where at that moment, but later on he was informed that they were at Stanley, in the prison. That evening our belated supper was eaten in more or less silence, as with guns booming in the distance and the suspense in the air, we did not have much heart for conversation. We retired early, but about eleven o'clock were awakened by the air raid siren, only to find that it was a false alarm. Incidentally, during the hostilities of Hong Kong there were no night air raids. However, after that false alarm, Father Downs in the city, at the Cathedral Rectory, could not get to sleep, and heard the clock strike every quarter of the hour until daybreak. And the next morning at about eight o'clock, the fun began! At that time planes appeared overhead, bombs were dropped at various points and wherever these bombs fell, anti-aircraft guns in the vicinity started barking. A couple of these anti-aircraft guns were set up in a small depression just below the Italian Sisters' Hospital on the hill to the east and south of the Cathedral, and when they began popping we thought they were in our backyard. During the day and those that followed, there were perhaps an average of four or five daily air raids, the targets being mainly gun emplacements, shipping and forts.\n\nHowever, on the very first day, as narrated by Fr. Downs a couple of bombs hit a portion of the Central Police Station, a block or two just west of the Cathedral. Guns were booming over on the Kowloon side and out in the New Territories along the Pearl River estuary where the Japanese landed, having come down the river from Canton. Whether these guns were land or naval batteries, of course we could not judge, but no doubt the shells came from both sources at times. On the night of the second day, after we had retired, the booming of guns seemed to be nearer, and finally we were awakened by a crash which seemed to be in the Rectory. As the booming kept up we were not desirous of making any personal investigation, and as we waited, another crash shook our building, and then another, a little farther away. The next morning we learned that the Japanese were evidently trying to get the range of the anti-aircraft guns just above us near the Sisters' Hospital, for the shells seemed to fall in a straight line; the first struck to the west of us, the second hit the edge of the roof of the house next door, the third crashed through the roof of the Cathedral, cutting a neat hole", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211002, "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-1987", "page_number": 64, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "39\n\nalso created an atmosphere of vitality and purpose in an otherwise rather sleepy and desolate place.\n\nMeanwhile, parts of the Walled City fell into decay. The south wall soon began crumbling, and by the mid-20s, the Commodore's office, once the grandest building there and used for a time in the early twentieth century as a plague hospital, was in complete ruins. By the '30s, the sixty or so domestic dwellings were mostly in poor repair. Its vegetable gardens, pig farms and traditional crafts gave the \"City\" a rural flavour.\n\n57\n\nUntil the outbreak of war in 1941, it remained a tourist attraction. Foreigners came to seek “a little bit of Old China”. Invariably, Chinese guide books to Hong Kong recommended it for nostalgic, historical sightseeing. Local residents also found it worthwhile photographic material. It must have been rather pleasant to stroll in the shade of ancient trees, take photographs before the cannon and historical buildings, and admire the many inscriptions in them. One inhabitant even made a living by selling copies of the City's inscriptions to visitors.\n\nThe rapid development outside the wall from the 1910s onwards - the Kowloon Bay reclamation, the construction of tenement houses, shops and factories, and eventually the airport - passed the City by. Reclamation left it further and further inland. For a while after 1899, the customs station was used as a police station, but in the late 1920s, it had to be abandoned in favour of a site by the new waterfront. The Lung-chin jetty fell into disuse, and only the end portion could be used to serve a ferry running between Hong Kong Island, Hunghom and Kowloon City. After the War, the Yaumati Ferry Company built its Kowloon City Pier near the site.\n\nThe Kowloon fort was in decay. The cannon suffered various fates. The British had dismantled them, presumably out of distrust of the Chinese. Some were reportedly sold to old metal dealers. Two were displayed outside the Water Police Station, and four outside the new Kowloon City Police Station. Two more, one weighing 4,000 catties, the other 5,000 catties, were abandoned near the South Gate and much photographed. Apparently these", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211293, "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-1988", "page_number": 9, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "27 \n\nMay \n\n9 \n\n30 \n\nJune \n\n10-13 \n\n27 \n\nJuly \n\n11 \n\nAugust 1 \n\nOctober 1 \n\n17 \n\nNovember 1 \n\n26 \n\nDecember 1 \n\n10 \n\nJanuary 6 \n\n21 \n\nFebruary 24 \n\n25 \n\nMarch \n\n4 \n\n10 \n\n17 \n\n\"Women in China\" (lecture: Dr. Maria Jaschok) Cocktail Party for New Members \n\n\"Britain and Vietnam, 1948-1955\" (lecture: Prof. Mary Turnbull) \n\nVisit to Foshan (organiser: Dr. Michael Lau) \n\n\"Fortune & Safe Passage: Chinese Paper Folk Art (Kam Fa)\" (lecture: Dr. Janet Lee Scott) \n\n1 \n\n\"Ancestors\" (lecture: Mr. Frank Ching) \n\n\"Pirates in the Pearl River Delta\" (lecture: Prof. Dian Murray) \n\nVisit to Fung Ping Shan Museum, Hong Kong University (organiser: Dr. Michael Lau) \n\n**Introduction to Chinese Musical Instruments\" (lecture: Prof. Tong Kin-woon) \n\nChinese Dinner for Members \n\nTour of Central Police Station and Royal Hong Kong Police Museum (organiser: Mr. Geoffrey Roper) \"Jade Carving\" and \"Chinese Costume\" (joint lecture: Mrs. Sydney Fung and Mrs. Valery Garrett) \n\nWalk around Western District (organiser: Dr. James Hayes and others) \n\n\"Influenza: the Asian Connection\" (lecture: Prof. K. F. Shortridge) \n\nIntroduction to New Territories Villages (tour: organiser Dr. Patrick Hase) \n\n**Shanghai Entrepreneurs in Hong Kong\" (lecture: Prof. Wong Siu-lun) \n\nTour of Kowloon Walled City (organiser: Dr. James Hayes) \n\nTour of Country Parks (organisers: Dr. James Hayes and Mr. K. C. Iu) \n\n\"The Tale of the Norma Bell\" (lecture: Mr. John Chetwynd-Chatwin) \n\nAnnual General Meeting and Dinner \n\nWe are grateful to all speakers and organisers, and following last year's innovation have continued the practice of inviting them to attend the Annual Dinner as guests of the Society. It is gratifying to report that eleven of them have accepted our invitation this year. In addition, we \n\nvili", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 } ]