[ { "id": 204256, "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-1961", "page_number": 24, "title": "RAS-1961", "content_text": "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch\n\nRASHKB and author\n\nVol. 1 (1961)\n\nISSN 1991-7295\n\n21\n\nA most odd and interesting bird to be seen around Victoria from Garden Road to the University is the Rose-ringed Paroquet, presumably introduced but now firmly established as a resident. Sometimes parties of up to sixteen birds have been seen.\n\nA noisy but seldom seen family are the Cuckoos, who are well represented here, nearly all of them summer visitors. The Indian Cuckoo, or ‘One-more-bottle Bird', the Large Hawk-cuckoo or 'Brain-fever Bird', and the Plaintive Cuckoo or 'Rain-bird', are three summer visitors to certain favoured localities, mainly in the northern New Territories. The Koel is more common and widespread. All these four are parasites of smaller birds, too lazy to make a nest of their own. The Crow-Pheasant and Lesser Crow-Pheasant (which are neither crows nor pheasants!) are also quite common and widespread: both of them are to some extent hill birds, and the former likes more wooded country than the latter.\n\nTwo species of owl are resident in the Colony, the Barred Owlet, whose bubbling call is heard in the northern New Territories, and the Collared Scops Owl both there and on Hong Kong Island, especially on The Peak.\n\nThe Savannah Nightjar must breed in the Colony, for its whip-lash call is heard frequently over many open spaces in the New Territories during the spring and summer, but no nest has yet been found.\n\nHouse-swifts nest, several pairs at a time, under the verandahs of shops and houses in at least half-a-dozen towns. Many thousands of these and the Large White-rumped Swift pass through the Colony on migration.\n\nThe kingfishers are one of the sights of Hong Kong's bird-life. The Common Kingfisher, the one seen in Europe, is here all the year round and almost certainly nests. The White-breasted Kingfisher and Black-capped Kingfisher are both large, very gaily-coloured birds, although the first is much more common than the second. The Pied Kingfisher is confined to the Deep Bay area, where probably only one pair nests, although formerly this species used to be quite common also.\n\nThe Great Barbet, which as might be expected of a close relative of the woodpeckers is a lover of big trees, may be heard calling its monotonous 'coo-lee-you' from the Norfolk Island Pine in the Botanical Gardens and from several woods in the north-eastern New Territories where it breeds. A small relation, the Wryneck, may be seen in winter, quite frequently in scrubby foothill country.\n\nSwallows are a well-loved and common summer visitor to the Colony, and occasionally a few birds may be seen even on the coldest days of winter. Large numbers also come through on passage.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1961.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205623, "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": 165, "title": "RAS-1968", "content_text": "160\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nnot built a palace, pays the rent of one for his own accommodation out of the public purse.\" The Government accounts for the period reveal that the rent was paid to Johnston for its hire by Government. But it is quite clear from Davis's letter to Stanley that, in August 1844, he could only have been living in Johnston's House if it were then known as the 'Record Office.' That is not beyond possibility for, if the early buildings on the site in the present Botanical Gardens were known as the 'Record Office' when Johnston lived there, his later residence may have attracted the same name to distinguish it from 'Government House.' But that conclusion cannot disturb the main argument.\n\nAs a postscript, it is worth commenting on the suggestion that Sir Samuel Bonham, third Governor, lived at Spring Gardens (Spring Garden Lane in the present Wanchai). Sayer quotes a reference from Robert Fortune's Tea Districts of China (1852) and comments that it is the first and only evidence that a Governor of Hong Kong lived at Spring Gardens. Sayer should have read his Friend of China where he would have discovered advertised, after Bonham's departure from Hong Kong, the sale of a house, doubtless one of those depicted on Murdoch Bruce's sketch of Spring Gardens, which was stated to have been lately in the occupation of Bonham. Fortune was right; or, as Sayer would have put it, he was a veracious witness,12\n\nHong Kong, 1968,\n\nDAFYDD EMRYS Evans\n\nNOTES\n\n1G. R. Sayer, Hong Kong: Birth, Adolescence and Coming of Age, 1937, Oxford University Press.\n\n2ibid, p. 211.\n\n3Johnston to Pottinger, 12 November 1841; CO129/10, f. 51 (Colonial Office Records).\n\n4c.g. Pottinger to General Burrell, 7 March 1842; CO129/10, f. 114.\n\n5Pottinger to Johnston, 26 May 1842; CO129/10, f. 204.\n\n6Davis to Lord Stanley, 16 August 1844; CO129/7, f. 20.\n\n7Friend of China, Overland Summary, 23 December 1843.\n\n8Woosnam to Gordon, 18 April 1843; CO129/10, f. 360.\n\n9Gordon to Pottinger, 10 February 1844; CO129/5, f. 141.\n\n10Pottinger to Johnston, 21 October 1843; CO129/10, f. 522.\n\n11Friend of China, 18 April 1846.\n\n12See also Friend of China, 26 December 1849. The house was erected by Messrs. Blenkin, Rawson & Co. on Marine Lot 42 and rented to Government for £500 p.a.\n\nPage 165\n\nPage 166", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1968.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205888, "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-1969", "page_number": 194, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "188\n\nFOORD, Dr. R. D.\n\nFREEDMAN, Dr. M.\n\nFUNG, K. S.\n\nFUNG, Hon. Ping-fan*\n\nGALVIN, J. A. T.*\n\nGARCIA, A.\n\nGARD, Dr. R. A.\n\nGARTNER, J.\n\n+\n\nGEOFFROY-DECHAUME, F.\n\nGEORGE, T. J. B.\n\nGIBB, H.\n\n+\n\nGIEDROYC, M. J. H.*\n\nGILKES, D. A.\n\nGIMSON, C. H.\n\nGOLD, E. L.\n\nGOLD, Mrs. S. T.\n\nGOLDNEY, Miss C. M.\n\nGOODRICH, Prof. L. C.\n\nGORDON, K. H. A.\n\nGORDON, Hon. S. S.*\n\nGRANT, L. F. H.\n\n+\n\nGRANT, Mrs. I. F. H.\n\nGREGORY, Prof. W. G.\n\nGROVE, Mrs. R.\n\n48 The Rutts, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England.\n\n187 Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, N.W.1., England.\n\nTạo Hang Tai & Fungs Co., Ltd., Room 205 Fu House, H.K.\n\nBank of East Asia, Ltd., 10 Des Voeux Rd., C., H.K.\n\nLoughlinstown House Co., Dublin, Ireland, c/o South Kowloon Magistracy, Kowloon.\n\n8128 Hamilton Spring Road, Carderock Springs, Bethesda, Maryland 20034, U.S.A.\n\n15 Guildford Lane, Melbourne, Australia.\n\nc/o French Consulate General, Realty Building, H.K.\n\nc/o Diplomatic Service Administration Office, King Charles St., London S.W.1, England.\n\nc/o P.O. Box 64, H.K.\n\n31, Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, England.\n\n5 Goldsmith Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K.\n\nc/o P.W.D. Hq., 4th Floor, Main Wing, Central Government Offices Building, H.K.\n\n12 Pokfield Road, 1st floor, H.K.\n\nAs above.\n\nc/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K.\n\n504 Kent Hall, Columbia University, New York 27, New York, USA.\n\nRoom 601 Marina House, H.K.\n\nMessrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews, 22nd Floor, Prince's Building, H.K.\n\nc/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd. P.O. Box 70, H.K.\n\nAs above.\n\nDept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, H.K.\n\n10A Barbecue Gardens, 174 Milestone, Castle Peak Road, N.T.\n\nGUILLAUME, Baron P. de Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K.\n\nE\n\nLife Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206148, "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-1970", "page_number": 228, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "221\n\nFESSLER, L.\n\nFISHER-SHORT, W.\n\nFITZGIBBON, D. J.\n\nFLETCHER, A. J.\n\nFOORD, Dr. R. D.\n\n-\n\nFREEDMAN, Prof. M.\n\nFROST, Dr. C. C. -\n\n·\n\nFUNG, K. S.\n\nFUNG, Mrs. Lawrence\n\nFUNG, Hon. Ping-fan*\n\nGALVIN, J. A. T.*\n\nGARCIA, A.\n\nGARD, Dr. R. A.\n\n-\n\nGEOFFROY-DECHAUME,\n\nF.\n\nGEORGE, T. J. B. -\n\nGIBB, H.\n\nGIEDROYC, M. J. H.*\n\n-\n\nGILKES, D. A. -\n\nGIMSON, C. H.\n\nGOLDNEY, Miss C. M.\n\nGOODRICH, Prof. L. C.\n\nGORDON, K. H. A.\n\nGORDON, Hon. S. S.*.\n\nGRANT, I. F. H.\n\nGRANT, Mrs. I. F. H. -\n\nGREGORY, Prof. W. G.\n\n+\n\nc/o American Universities Field Staff,\n\n15 Tung Shan Terrace, 2nd Floor, H.K.\n\nc/o Education Dept., Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K.\n\nc/o British Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon,\n\n8. Abermor Court, May Road, H.K.\n\n48 The Rutts, Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, England.\n\n187, Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, NW.1., England.\n\nC-71, Carolina Gardens, 28 Coombe Road, H.K.\n\nUnknown.\n\n65 Mt. Kellett Road, Ground Floor, H.K. c/o Bank of East Asia, Ltd., Des Voeux Road, C., H.K.\n\nLoughlinstown House Co., Dublin, Ireland, c/o South Kowloon Magistracy, Kowloon,\n\n8128 Hamilton Spring Road, Carderock Springs, Bethesda, Maryland 20034, U.S.A.\n\nc/o French Consulate General, Realty Building, H.K,\n\nc/o Diplomatic Service Administration Office, King Charles St., London S.W.1, England,\n\nc/o P.O. Box 64, H.K.\n\n31, Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, England,\n\n5 Goldsmith Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K.\n\nc/o Public Works Department, H.K.\n\nc/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. 504 Kent Hall, Columbia University, New York 27, New York, U.S.A.\n\nRoom 601 Marina House, H.K.\n\nMessrs. Lowe, Bingham & Matthews, 22nd Floor, Prince's Building, H.K.\n\nc/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd. P.O. Box 70, H.K.\n\nAs above.\n\nDept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, H.K.\n\n* Life Member\n\nPlease notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206384, "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-1971", "page_number": 201, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "THE COLONY OF HONG KONG\n\n175\n\non from them a little way was the Cemetery, still a small enclosed space, which, it had been thought, would be sufficient for the needs of the Colony. Hardly any one but myself, I suppose, ever thinks now of paying it a visit. Beyond that, hardly any buildings were met with, till we came to Spring Gardens, where two or three English firms had begun to occupy the ground on the left. Then came Hospital Hill, with diminutive buildings on it, devoted to the same purposes as the larger erections that now crown it; and Morrison Hill, where the school of the Morrison Education Society was in vigorous action, with the Hospital of the Medical Society, the foundations of which can hardly be traced now, but where I found hospitable quarters for several months. Arrived at the Happy Valley, there were to be seen only fields of rice and sweet potatoes. At the south end of it was the village of Wong-nei-ch'ung, just as at the present day, and on the heights above it were rising two or three foreign houses, with an imposing one on the east side of the valley, built by a Mr. Mercer of Jardine, Matheson and Co.'s House. All these proved homes of fever or death, and were soon abandoned.\n\nBeyond the Valley somewhere was a range of buildings, which had already become tabooed as unhealthy, and then came the offices of the great Firm, with the workmen still busy about them, and far from being what they are at the present day.\n\nIf I have omitted to mention in this retrospective view of Victoria as I first saw it any of the foreign houses then existing, they can only be a very few. When I contrast the single street, imperfectly lined with hastily raised houses, and a few sporadic buildings on the barren hill-side, with the city into which they have grown, with its praya, its imposing terraces, and many magnificent residences, I think one must travel far to find another spot where human energy and skill have triumphed to such an extent over difficulties of natural position. I sometimes fancy Britannia standing on the Peak, and looking down with an emotion of pride on the great Babylon which her sons have built.\n\nAlthough I was charmed with the general appearance of the place, and the energy that was manifest in laying out the ground and pushing on building, I found many of the residents oppressed with gloom because of its unhealthiness. 1843 was, no doubt, a very sickly year, more so, perhaps, than any one has been since. The left wing of the 55th Regiment lost a hundred men between", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206862, "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-1973", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\nNOTES ON CHINESE TEMPLES IN HONG KONG\n\nE. J. Eitel states in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, published in 1895, that at the time of the British occupation of Hong Kong there were four Chinese temples on the island: one at Ap Lei Chau dating from 1770, one at Stanley, one in Spring Gardens (Tai Wong Kung) and one at Causeway Bay (Tung Lo Wan). He states (p. 190) that after the occupation the Chinese \"commenced building their City Temple (Sheng-wong-miu) on the site of the present Queen's College\".\n\nThe land on which the Shing Wong Temple was built was included within Inland Lot 91. The lot was sold by Government at a public land auction in 1852. It was bought by Floriano Antonio Rangel, a Portuguese bookkeeper in the employ of Jardine Matheson and Company. Rangel owned the entire block bounded by Hollywood Road to the north, Staunton Street to the south, Aberdeen Street to the east, and what became known as Wong Shing Street to the west. In the interior of the block he erected some fifty inexpensive Chinese houses. The complex was variously called Rangel's Row, Rangel's Alley, or Kow Kong Lane. Surrounded by these humble Chinese dwellings stood the Shing Wong Temple. It was somewhat more pretentious than the Tai Wong Kung Temple on Queen's Road East. In the 1865 Rates Schedule, the latter is valued at $120. The Shing Wong Temple's assessed value was $240. But it was considerably less impressive in size and value than the nearby Man Mo Temple on Hollywood Road which was assessed at $1,320. By 1876, however, the relative assessed value of the three temples had changed. The Queen's Road East temple property was rated at $144, a $24 increase over the 1865 value. The Man Mo Temple was rated at $20 less than its 1865 assessment. The Shing Wong Temple was rated at double its value in 1865. This suggests that sometime between 1865 and 1876 a major renovation of the Temple had been made.\n\nF. A. Rangel retained ownership of the land upon which the Shing Wong Temple was built until his death in 1873. Three years later the Government bought the property as a site for the erection...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206865, "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-1973", "page_number": 142, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "136\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nA few months after the festive opening of the temple, \"The Joss House Committee\" received from Government the grant of a lot adjoining the temple for the erection of a school.\n\nSometime between 1860 and 1865 a small building was built on the rocky hillside just below the Man Mo Temple. It was near Circular Pathway and Ladder Street. In the Hong Kong Rate lists its name is given at one time as \"Sam Young” Miu and at another time as \"Sam Sing\" Miu. The 1878 Rate has the notation \"removed\". This is clearly another temple.\n\nEitel states that the Tai Wong Temple in Spring Gardens was in existence at the time of the British occupation of Hong Kong. If so, title to the Queen's Road East property on which it is built was not obtained until 1847. Lee Fun-wei, a compradore, then obtained a Crown Lease for Inland Lot 257. In 1852, Lee Muy, \"carer of Joss House\", was witness to the transfer of a nearby house. He may be the same as Lee Amoy, \"formerly a butcher, but now of no occupation”, who obtained a court order in 1864 prohibiting Lee Fun-wei from selling or further mortgaging the temple property. In the following year the two parties exchanged properties. Lee Amoy conveyed to Lee Fun Wei a lot with five houses and in return received Inland Lot 257 with \"Joss House, dwelling house and building erected thereon\". Lee Amoy immediately mortgaged the temple property to Delfino Noronha, a Portuguese printer, for $1,500. The mortgage remained unpaid, and in 1869 Noronha sold the temple to a committee composed of Tam Achoy, Ho Asik, and Lee Yuk Hang. It thus passed out of the private ownership of the Lee family to the representatives of the Chinese community.\n\nIf Eitel's statement is correct, that the temple on Queen's Road East at Spring Gardens was in existence before the British occupation of the Island, its proprietors the Lee family may have been settled in the Spring Gardens area, now better known as Wanchai, before the occupation. When Crown Leases were issued for land in this area in 1847, several members of the Lee family secured lots.\n\nA notice of the Hung Shing Temple at Ap Lei Chau written by Mr. James Hayes appears in Vol. 7 of this Journal. The date of the bell in the temple is given as 1773. As we have noticed Eitel states the temple was built about 1770. Information on when and by whom it was built is given in a court case reported in The China", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207141, "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-1974", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "206\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nlarge dwellings and godowns. It was a pleasant area. Two of the properties were especially noted for their gardens. A Parsee merchant, Framjee Jamsetjee, in advertising his property for sale in 1845, stated that it was \"beautifully situated by the water side with a fine view of the Bay, surrounded by a garden, stocked with the choicest plants which have been imported at great expense, and now is in a flourishing condition.\" The other gardened property was called Spring Gardens, and for a number of the years the name was applied to the area. The name is preserved today by Spring Gardens Lane which marks the eastern boundary of the original property. The dwelling was also known as \"Old Government House\" for at one time it had been the residence of Governor Bonham [1848-1854]. Advertisements mention its \"ornamental grounds\" and \"fine well of spring water with powerful iron pump\".\n\nWhen the military gradually bought up and occupied the area between Central District and Wanchai in the 1840s and 1850s, the two sections were separated and Spring Gardens area lost most of its commercial activity. Decline set in, reinforced by a business depression, and a number of godowns and dwellings stood empty. Several of the properties reverted to Government through non-payment of Crown rents. Others were foreclosed by mortgagees. The military took advantage of the empty premises to use them as barracks and officers' quarters.\n\nPoor Chinese settled as squatters both on the west and east fringes of Victoria. To accommodate these on the east the Government put up for sale in 1847 a range of lots at the foot of Hospital Hill along the present Wanchai Road. These were used for small shops, trades, and family residences. The population, however, tended to remain poor and unruly. With the influx of displaced people during the Tai Ping Rebellion in the 1850s several of the European properties were redeveloped with Chinese housing.\n\nThe area near Queen's Road East and Ship Street was probably the site of a small settlement before the British occupation of the Island. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong states that the Hung Shing Temple on Queen's Road East existed before the cession. The pattern of the lots also suggests that there may have been previous occupants. When the military rented some vacant properties nearby for barracks, several brothels were established on Ship Street north of Queen's Road East. To the south, up the hill on Ship Street, there were several small dairies operated by Chinese.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207150, "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-1974", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n215 \n\nThe area between Queen's Road and the present Des Voeux Road, originally the Praya, extending from Wilmer Street west to Eastern Street was bought in 1858 by a Chinese consortium consisting of Chun Afie, Pang Awah, Tso Atak and Leong Hang*. The tract purchased consisted of Marine Lots 90, 91 and 92. They were apportioned among the several purchasers. At first the property was devoted principally to Chinese ship building yards, but as population and business spread westward, the yards became crowded out. The two lanes Tsz Mi and Sai Woo were developed in the 1860's. On the old Praya there was a concentration of rice dealers and a scattering of salt fish stores, though Ham Yu** Lane was located on the lots immediately to the west, between Eastern and Centre Streets.\n\n \nLike all the land in urban Hong Kong, the area we visit has passed through successive changes in land use and ownership. The land use changes are marked by three main periods: first (1842 to around 1855) European godowns and residences; second (1851 to about 1880) ship yards, engineering works and coal godowns; and lastly (1870 to the present) Chinese shops, godowns and residences.\n\n \nThe owners of the land were originally mostly non-Chinese. But by 1876, all except a range of godowns and sheds owned by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was in Chinese hands, being divided between two of the largest land owners in the Colony: the Li family of the Wo Hang and Lai Hing firms***, and Kwok Acheong who was Compradore of the P. & O. Co., owner of his own steamships, and founder of the Fat Hing firm.\n\n \nAt its first settlement the area was almost rural, for it was situated at the western end of original Victoria. Because it provided a convenient spot for pier and landing facilities, two European firms selected West Point for their Hong Kong establishments, just as Jardine, Matheson and Company settled at East Point, even though both locations were somewhat distant from the main centres of foreign business in Spring Gardens**** and Central District. In\n\n \n*The Pang and Chan are the same that bought the land at the east end of Wanchai, in the vicinity of the Yuk Hui Temple—see \"Notes on the Nineteenth Century Development of Wanchai”, earlier in this Section.\n\n \n** Cantonese for salt fish.\n\n \n*** See Smith: \"Emergence of a Chinese Elite”, JHKBRAS 11, pp. 90-92. See \"Notes on the Nineteenth Century Development of Wanchai”,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209775, "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-1983", "page_number": 34, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "REVD. CARL T. SMITH'S NOTES ON THE SO KON PO VALLEY AND VILLAGE\n\nSo Kon Po can be translated as \"the straw broom plain\", or possibly, \"the straw broom landing place\". The valley is a pocket with hills closing in at its seaward end. The hill to the north is the site of Tai Hang Village and Tiger Balm Garden. To the south-west is Jardine's Lookout, and to the south-east is Caroline Hill. There are two principal roads, both circular, the Eastern Hospital Road and the Caroline Hill Road. The original So Kon Po district extended to the north-west of the valley itself, that is, to the north-east side of the old East Point Hill, now the area of Hysan Avenue and Lee Gardens. In the present area of Jardine's Bazaar, Irving Street and Keswick Street there was probably a Chinese settlement at the time the British occupied Hong Kong. In 1842 the population of this village of So Kon Po was given as eighty. The valley drained into the sea near the present junctions of Yee Woh Street, Causeway Road and Tung Lo Wan Road. Tung Lo Wan was the name of the bay at the seaward end of the valley; the bay has now been reclaimed to form the Patterson Street and Victoria Park area.\n\nThe original cultivators of the valley seem to have been the Wong (#) family. A few people in the village were engaged in ship-building and fishing.\n\nCapt. Belcher, commander of H.M. survey ship \"Sulphur\", landed on Hong Kong island in January 1841. As the most suitable site for a settlement, he suggested a spot \"at nearly the east end of Hong Kong bay, in two small indents; one opening into the valley of Wongneichong and another to the north-east [the So Kon Po valley]. A small promontory [East Point] of about 220 yards in length and 120 in breadth, with a frontage on both sides, has a landing place for boats at the point at all times of the tide. Both of these small bays are dry at low water spring tides, and would be easily gained from the sea\". (Canton Register, 7 Dec. 1841)\n\nCaptain Belcher's suggestion was not followed, but Jardine, Matheson and Company considered the East Point promontory,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210362, "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": 333, "title": "RAS-1984", "content_text": "312\n\nHONG KONG HILLTOP RETREAT FOR CROSS AND LOTUS\n\nHUGH WITT*\n\nThe town of Shatin in Hong Kong's rural New Territories is a mushrooming area of rapid growth. High rise apartment blocks, factories, shops and offices are rapidly transforming this valley community into a major urban district. Shatin is one of six new town developments designed to reduce the heavy concentration of Hong Kong's population in densely congested Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It is a typical example of Hong Kong's ability to keep pace with the need for progress and expansion in a highly competitive world trading economy.\n\nBut there is more to Shatin than a reflection of Hong Kong's material needs. It is also a monument to more lasting values. For Shatin holds a unique place in east-west religious thought; it is the place where Christianity and Buddhism blossomed side by side in the teachings of a far-sighted Norwegian missionary. High on a hill, overlooking the changing landscape below, is the Christian mission of Tao Fong Shan the Mountain of the Wind of the Way. Hidden by trees from view below, the site of the mission is marked by a 40 feet (12 metre) cross which can be clearly seen from afar.\n\nToday Tao Fong Shan is a study centre dedicated to ecumenical work and the role of the Christian church among the Chinese. But it continues to carry the influence of its founder, Dr. Karl Ludvig Reichelt, who perhaps more than any other missionary to China, sought and found common ground between the ideals of Christianity and Buddhism.\n\nThe church, its dormitories and the other buildings erected by Reichelt, are set in peaceful tree-lined gardens. And although the\n\n* This article, originally published in a number of Scandinavian theological publications, and in some newspapers in Norway, is printed here as background to the visit to Tao Fong Shan by the Society in the Spring of 1984.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1984.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211615, "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-1989", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "Cinema, at North Point (constructed in the early 1950s), is suspended; or the English style, Kentish-Rag, stone retaining wall on the south side of Battery Path in Central. One wonders if the latter was commissioned by some homesick Englishman.\n\nAnd, while parts of the Territory have been disparagingly called \"concrete jungle”, there are modern structures of merit. Depending on your taste, the St. John's Building (Lower Peak-Tram Station), Admiralty Centre; and the Macau Ferry Terminal spring to mind. The foyer at the Landmark, and the high-rise, high-tech Exchange Square, with its \"electronic plumbing\" so tenants can plug in for centralised computer services, are also of merit. Other recently completed buildings show an impressive degree of distinction and aesthetic sensitivity.\n\nIn an article written by Doctor Alan Birch in 1978, previously Reader in History at Hong Kong University, he stated that 95 per cent of the Territory's buildings had been erected from 1946 onwards (even if the deterioration of some belies their age). Although that was probably a very approximate estimate, since then many more old buildings have been torn down. Hong Kong is a city-state where, with the exception of the plot on which Saint John's Cathedral stands (which is freehold), all land is leasehold held from the Crown: this demands that landholders maximise their income from the land in as short a time as possible.\n\nTo give some idea how dramatically the skyline has changed: until World War II the seven-storey Peninsula Hotel, on the Kowloon waterfront, which served as the Japanese army headquarters during the occupation, was considered tall. Since then, the skyline has changed dramatically every decade.\n\nCatherine II (Catherine the Great) (1729-96), Empress of Russia, who together with her many architects erected royal palaces and public buildings, said that building was a disease, like alcoholism. Not too dissimilarly, in Hong Kong, Aw Boon Haw, the son of a Chinese herbalist, who together with his brother, Boon Par, produced the famous \"cure-all\", Tiger Balm, was told by a sooth-sayer that he would lose his fortune and die if he stopped building. When he eventually departed he had erected 26 castles around Asia, as well as the well-known Tiger Balm Gardens in both Singapore and Hong Kong. These, which contain figures depicting stories in Chinese history or mythology, were built to promote Aw's well-known pharmaceutical products.\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212230, "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": 172, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "a very circuitous route. Every few hundred yards, a mountain stream pours out from the rock to refresh the weary traveller in his ascent.\n\nThe climate is generally warm. Yet nothing compared with what one might expect from the accounts given. As yet the thermometer has averaged about 82° during the fortnight I have been here. In a week or two the weather will be about like an English spring, and keep about the same till April. The scenery around contains a fair proportion of foliage, which remains all the year. The college is supposed to stand on the healthiest spot in the island. The library is considered one of the coolest rooms to be met with, and here it is I am now writing. This month is a rainy month generally. It never rains but it pours. The rain descends in sheets, but it is soon over and in ten minutes the weather is generally as fine as ever, and everything dry. Sickness is remarkably little this year. The cemeteries in “Happy Valley” however testify as to the former mortality that prevailed. Yet above two-thirds of this is owing to drink. One perspires so much that an unnatural thirst is excited, especially with new arrivals. I was in a shocking state the first week. The quantity of water I drank was enormous, although I checked myself as much as possible. Now however I have got over it, and drink no more than I should at home. I can consequently quite understand how so many are carried off. It requires a power of mind of no ordinary degree, in a person who drinks moderately in England, to restrain himself here. Thanks however to the Tea-totaller's system, and to Anna, I am beyond the reach of that danger.\n\nThe temperature of the island seems entirely to depend upon the wind. When there is no breeze the air gets close, and one feels a lassitude, and weariness; but when there is only a little breath of air in motion it is all right and comfortable. The soil, although generally of no great depth, is remarkably fertile. In Happy Valley are several fine market gardens, taken care of by the Chinese. They are admirable gardeners. Everything is done by them with the greatest regularity; and they are warm advocates of father's system of manuring the ground. This plan is extensively, and in fact almost entirely, used throughout China. I hope to get the college ground in order, and do a little gardening on my own account.\n\nThere is at present a good supply of fine horses, which can be got cheap, on account of the war up the country. They are almost entirely used for riding. The Chinese answer every purpose of beasts of burden.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212911, "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-1992", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "205\n\nout as soon as I was able to make out my surroundings. I have never seen such a dense swarm of mosquitoes. Thank goodness we never had to use this shelter.\n\nOur departure for Hong Kong that spring was dramatic. From the hospital we took the ancient hospital motor boat down the creeks to Canton. We found the river steamer for Hong Kong moored in the fast flowing stream. It was surrounded by an impenetrable mob of sampans carrying people fleeing from the Japanese attack on Canton which was expected any day. Our motor boat could not get to the gangway so we transferred to a sampan. We approached the ladder from downstream as most of the boats were tied to the steamer upstream. We soon found out why because as each sampan cast off from the ladder another, aided by the stream, pushed its way in from upstream. We could make no headway. The only possible approach was from the bows. As we worked our way slowly down we saw that the captain was getting worried by the crowds swarming on board. He had to sail or be swamped. Our luggage was manhandled across the intervening sampans but my father would not allow us to be passed along in the same way, which I thought was a pity. The captain saw us and waited only until our sampan at last made the steps. He then gave the order for his crew to chop through the mooring ropes of all the sampans still tied on. Once freed of these, he weighed anchor and set off for Hong Kong - an overnight journey.\n\nP & O to England – Canadian Pacific to China\n\nIn 1933 my father was due for leave so the whole family, now comprising four children and parents, set off on the P. & O Rawalpindi, a ship which was converted to be an armed merchantman during the war and sunk by a U boat. Travel by sea was the most commonly used way to reach Europe. From about 1933 one could go a little faster by taking the Trans-Siberian railway. Fast mail was marked 'Via Siberia' on the envelopes. The sea journey involved four days at sea to Singapore and trips to the Botanical Gardens there. Then on to Penang, Colombo, Aden, through the Suez Canal perhaps with a stop at Marseilles, where some in a hurry got on the train through France to England, a stop at Gibraltar and thence to Plymouth where we got off for a train to Herefordshire. Most passengers went on to Tilbury in London. There was a leisurely routine about the trip. Beef tea was served on the deck mid-morning and tea in the afternoon. An enterprising steward rounded up a number of children to help him gather up the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213172, "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-1993", "page_number": 240, "title": "RAS-1993", "content_text": "222\n\nquestion and wrote the second book, because the first volume, good though it is, told a very incomplete tale. Low City, High City concentrates on the Low City, Shitamachi or the old part of the city that was originally built on swampy lowlands and into which were crowded the commoners when Japan was ruled by the samurai. \"Commoner culture\" may have been a contradiction in terms to the samurai and their culture, yet it grew and grew and attracted avid attention even from the samurai in the feudal period. The lure of commoner culture remained in the Low City and continues today to beckon to many observers. Kabuki plays, haiku poetry, \"pictures of the floating world\" or ukiyoe, and the entertainers of the nightlife districts are just some of the legacies of the Low City which provoked Seidensticker's eulogy. He also takes up the high culture of the samurai, Zen Buddhism, tea ceremony and gardens, but his first love is clearly the culture of the Low City.\n\nHe takes his tale up to 1923 when the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed most of Tokyo and Yokohama, especially the part of the city which he lovingly portrays. The 'quake struck on September 1, at noon when cooking fires were burning throughout the city. Fire soon raged over the crowded Low City, killing an estimated 100,000 people in Tokyo and Yokohama. Although the Low City sprang back to life (Tokyo folklore had it that a business which could not reopen on the third day after a fire was one which would have failed soon anyway due to its owner's mis-management even if the fire had not occurred), for Seidensticker, and for many literary figures like Nagai Kafu and Tanizaki Jun'ichiro whom he quotes heavily, the old city and its culture failed to spring back, already having been changed by the new currents and culture flowing in from the West. Now, its physical base was destroyed as well.\n\nFortunately Seidensticker did not leave his subject on such a negative note. He took up his own challenge to deal with the 'many exciting things [that] have occurred in the six decades since the earthquake.' The second volume is increasingly different from the first volume not, however, in terms of its excellence or the tender care it gives to its subject but, rather, it deals with the High City, the portion of the city which stretches far to the west and north of the Low City and in which the samurai class once lived, but which now houses the middle-class society that pervades Japan. Although the influences of the Low City are not absent in the new High City, the atmosphere changes dramatically as one goes up the low hills. The austerity and severe-mindedness of the samurai class spreads through\n\nPage 240\n\nPage 241", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1993.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214551, "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": 409, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "378\n\nthe Xuan-wu Gate. The church was built by Adam Schall and completed in 1652. Emperor Shun Zhi visited it 24 times, and often had heart-to-heart talks with Schall. On our visit the church was packed. The 7 o'clock mass was just finishing and the 8 o'clock mass then started, but many of those attending the first mass stopped for the second, for that was the Bishop's mass. After the distribution of communion he moved amongst the congregation, shaking hands, including those of several of our party. Emotional moments captured superbly on video by Allan Painter. [Also Illustration Three].\n\nThis was followed by a quieter visit to the massive National Museum of Chinese History, fortunate to have a superb view over Tien An Men Square. The many different objects set out on display in traditional museum style fascinated different members of our group. It was lovely to see a large number of children, some with parents, busy drawing different articles in the collection with notable artistic talent. At the main entrance we saw long queues of children in uniform going into an exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of Chou En Lai's birth.\n\nAfter lunch amongst the spring blossoms of Bei Hai (North Sea) Park we drove north to Prince Kung's Garden (Gongwangfu). Prince Kung (Gong), a Late Qing Dynasty statesman and reformer, was the Garden's second owner. Exquisitely designed, the mansion exhibits a high level of classical Chinese architecture. The buildings are joined together by winding corridors whilst there is also an opera hall decorated with delicate wisteria patterns, however, the actual gardens were rather dry, dusty and crowded.\n\nThen we visited the nearby Changqiao Community Service Centre in Liu Yin Street where the Society was presented with the scroll painted by elderly members of the Centre. We heard about the various activities organised by the Centre. This was followed by a short walk and then the group divided up to go to individual homes in the hutongs for a meal. This was a delightful experience, enjoyed equally by both hosts and guests alike.\n\nThe long day came to a delightful end with a visit to the Huguang Hall at 3 Hu Fang Qiao Road, Xuan Wu District. First built in 1807 it was also known as the Guangdong and Hunan Guildhall and was a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215630, "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-2001", "page_number": 407, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "358\n\ncollecting that the flow greatly increased. These discoveries coincided with a period of great wealth in Britain, so that many owners of gardens could and did aspire to these exotics. Remove rhododendrons, azaleas, camellias, peonies and magnolias alone from our great gardens and we would hardly recognise them, but almost all of these are relatively recent, and oriental, introductions.\n\nCornwall was chosen as a suitable home for many of these early exotics largely because of its mild and damp climate. Many of the plants were thought to be more tender than they have proved to be (camellias were initially grown almost exclusively in greenhouses, but the Japonicas are actually hardy), and as a result some have grown spectacularly better than they do in the wild, even out of hothouses. One has only to visit Heligan to see this: individual rhododendrons left in happy and unpruned seclusion for 70 years have grown to the size of small houses, with a diameter of up to 70 feet, and at Trewithen, Pieris formosa have reached 25 feet in height. At Caerhays, Rhododendron keysii (from Bhutan, 1851) produces its tiny red and yellow bell-like flowers for eight months of the year. When seed arrived from the collectors, its recipients often had no idea of the size of the eventual shrub or tree, so that planned planting was difficult and the original gardeners would be amazed to see the results now. It is hard to avoid statistics in these Cornish gardens: Tregrehan alone for instance has 15 trees which are regarded as the biggest and best specimens in the country (including the Handkerchief Tree from China, Davidia involucrata).\n\nMuch of Cornwall's spring tourism is the direct result of these largely Chinese, Himalayan and Japanese plant introductions, and many of the great gardens actually close in the summer, as their glory lies in their spring flowering magnolias, azaleas and rhododendrons.\n\nWe were guided first around Trewithen's gardens by Maggie herself. This garden, created largely in its present form between 1904 and 1960 by its owner George Johnstone, around an 18th century house, was set on its new path with the delivery of 100 rhododendron hybrids in 1905. It now houses a marvellous collection of magnolias, rhododendrons and camellias, amongst many others. Some of the planting around the Great Glade is from seed brought back by Kingdom Ward himself. We searched out the Magnolia wilsonii (introduced to Britain in 1920 after discovery by Ernest Wilson in 1906) with its", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 } ]