[
    {
        "id": 208860,
        "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-1980",
        "page_number": 22,
        "title": "RAS-1980",
        "content_text": "Kong throughout the year to a large variety of destinations in China. Other societies of a cultural nature in Hong Kong do not seem to have experienced the kind of difficulties we have, in obtaining touring permission, and it appears now that it is of great advantage to have a local contact to work through, and on a society's behalf. This is something we might perhaps try to pursue for our own future interests.\n\nThe visits to Northern Thailand and Korea which were tentatively suggested previously, were not in fact followed up, for a variety of reasons. Members are always able to make their own arrangements to travel to neighbouring territories for brief holidays, and we feel the Society's best role is to cater for interests of members wishing to travel to places either more difficult of access, or very expensive when arranged on an individual or non-group basis. Substantial group airfare reductions, lower per head costs for jeeps and buses, and so on, all help the Society to provide very substantial savings to those joining our tours. Overseas tours have been a very attractive part of our programme to many members of the Society, and Dr. Shaw, who took over the major role in arranging long-distance tours from Ms. Helga Berger, has worked very hard on our behalf. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking him very much indeed for giving so much thought and attention to these very successful expeditions.\n\nTo be solely responsible, however, for making what are often quite complicated arrangements, is very time-consuming and we will have to give some thought in the future to sharing out the tasks that are involved: perhaps calling upon other members not only of the Council but of the Society generally to initiate plans and conduct such tours. I would ask anybody who is interested in contributing time and effort to this aspect of our activities to contact Dr. Shaw or other Council members.\n\nThe Council also arranges from time to time day, or half-day, trips, to places of local interest. In March of last year a group went to Macau and visited the Bishop's Palace, Leal Senado Council Chamber, Club de Macau, Teatro Dom Pedro V, and several churches not normally open for tours. They also were fortunate in enjoying a lavish Portuguese lunch at the Club de Macau hosted by Mr. and Mrs. Carlos and Mr. and Mrs. Rodrigues. The tour leaders were Carl Smith and Leigh Wright of your Council, and, at the Macau end, an old friend of the Society, Father Teixeira. I would like to thank all those involved, in various ways, in making this a very pleasant trip.\n\nxii",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 216049,
        "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": 348,
        "title": "RAS-2002",
        "content_text": "282\n\nin 1896 took herself off up the Yangzi and later wrote about her six-month journey, including her stopover in Zhenjiang. She travelled on the steamer Poyang and...'after passing Silver Island [Jiao Shan], a wooded rock on which there is a fine temple, we reached Chinkiang, the first of the treaty ports on the Yangtze, and well situated at the junction of the Grand Canal with the river. On my two visits I thought it an attractive place. It has a fine bund and prosperous-looking foreign houses, with a British Consulate on a hill above; trees abound. The concession roads are broad and well kept. A row of fine hulks connected by bridges with the shore offers great facilities for the landing of goods and passengers. Sikh police are much in evidence, the hum of business greets one's ears, traffic throngs the bund, the Grand Canal is choked with junks, ...and judging from appearances only, one might think Zhenjiang a busier port than Hankow, the great centre for commerce in Central China'. Mrs Bird then goes on to describe the passing trade including...'our German rivals have done a very neat thing' in starting an albumen factory, in which the albumen, dextrously separated from the yolks of ducks' eggs, is made into slabs, which are sent to Germany for use in photography, the production of leather, and the printing of cotton, etc.'. She also commented on 'the beautiful Golden Island [Jin Shan], separated as recently as 1842 by the channel south of the island where there is now an expanse of wooded and cultivated land sprinkled with villages'.\n\nThe hulks were replaced many years ago, and yet again, since 1980, their wooden piers have been rebuilt into a row of some half dozen concrete piers. Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector-General of Chinese Maritime Customs for forty-five years, referred several times to the hulks at Chinkiang, usually because the hulk owner, Bean in one instance, was involved in a law case with the local Customs Commissioner.\n\nIsabella Bird learned of a number of charities and organisations for the welfare of the poor from the British Consul, W R Carles, and from Rev. W W Lawton who had made careful investigations for the Christian Literary Association of Zhenjiang. She noted that there were an orphan asylum and a benevolent institute for girls in Zhenjiang as well as a benevolent institute with eighty boys. For adults there was a Bureau for Advancing Funds, of inestimable advantage to the struggling farmer or merchant. There were also two free dispensaries, with nine",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278",
        "rank": 0
    }
]