[ { "id": 207794, "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-1976", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "LAND AND RIVER ROUTES TO WEST CHINA\n\n167\n\ngorges are the Wushan, Witches' Mountain, and Windbox Gorges, which provide some of the most spectacular and awe-inspiring river scenery in the world. There are places where the river is only 150 yards wide, where the passenger on a steamer has the feeling that the almost sheer precipices actually overhang the river. The cliffs in Windbox Gorge are 700 feet high, and it was here that the record rise in the river level of 275 feet once took place.\n\nAbove Wanhsien the valley of the river opens out, and navigation to Chungking and beyond is comparatively simple. Until the Szechwan Steam Navigation Company's second steamer, Shuhun, went into service in 1914, steamers on the Yangtze, like junks, required trackers to pull them up the most powerful rapids, and a unique feature of the Upper Yangtze was the trackers' paths cut in the hillside thirty or forty feet above the river level. At these places junks were often lightened of their cargo and passengers before negotiating the rapid.\n\nIn the year after the Swinhoe expedition the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce supported another expedition up the Yangtze and into Szechwan by the famous German explorer Baron von Richthofen. His report on Szechwan is the most important until then, being the first to include an accurate description of the famous Red Basin of Chengtu, and its legendary irrigation system. This basin, with an area of some 3,500 square miles, is the only large area of level ground in the whole province, and has a population of about six million. Its remarkable fertility is due to the irrigation system introduced by Li Ping in the third century B.C. Li led the Min River through a hill and distributed its waters over the wide plain through a network of canals.\n\nOther notable journeys in Szechwan and West China between the late 1870s and early 1900s, included those of E.C. Baber and Sir Alexander Hosie of the China Consular Service, Archibald Little of Upper Yangtze fame, and A.E. Pratt, the zoologist. Pratt's travels lasted three years from 1887 to 1890. He built his own boat at Ichang to take him through the Gorges and past Chungking to Kiating, from where he journeyed overland to the sacred Mount Omei, over 11,000 feet high. Pratt's travels deserve to be better known, as they were the first in West China to be undertaken for purely scientific purposes. He blazed the trail for the later journeys of the botanists George Forrest, Kingdon Ward, and E.H. Wilson.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212386, "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": 328, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "305\n\nWilson decided that the only option open to them for survival lay in a group taking one of the Norna's boats and attempting to reach civilization. A rescue party could then be arranged to retrieve the others.\n\nWilson himself led the party, taking with him his family, four Europeans, and two lascars. On the 17th April they set out in one of the Norna's open boats for Guam and arrived there seven days later. A small rescue party was organised but was driven back after encountering a severe storm and running short of supplies.\n\nWilson and his party then left Guam for Manila in a Spanish Trader and from there sailed to Hong Kong. When they arrived in Hong Kong in July, Captain Wilson reported the loss of his ship to Dent & Co. who in turn relayed the situation to the naval authorities.\n\nOn the 18th August 1861, Admiral Hope despatched the auxiliary paddle steamer HMS Pioneer from the colony to bring back the remainder of the Norna's crew. The Pioneer arrived at St Augustine on the 22nd September only to find the island deserted, save for a message left behind in a glass bottle attached to a tree. Nailed to the tree above the bottle was the Norna's wooden nameboard.\n\nThe letter stated that the crew had left the island on 19th August in one of the Norna's patched-up long boats because their provisions were long exhausted, there was little water and there were now no coconuts, turtle or wild fowl left on the island. They went on to say that they intended to make for Palau in their frail craft, 1,200 miles to the west.\n\nHMS Pioneer arrived back in Hong Kong on the 19th October and reported her findings to Admiral Hope. He promptly ordered another paddle steamer, HMS Sphinx, to be prepared and sail back into the Western Pacific, with explicit instructions to make a thorough search of the Caroline Islands,\n\nHope's written orders to Sphinx's captain, Cmdr Brown, included the route he was to follow, the contacts from whom he might get assistance in the Philippines and the charts he should take with him. On the 4th December 1861, HMS Sphinx sailed through Lei Yue Mun and headed for Manila. From there the Sphinx passed through", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215870, "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": 169, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "102\n\ncleared vegetation and debris from the dugout. The project, “The repaving of the walking trail leading to Pau Toi San,” commenced on January 28, 2002, and was completed on May 17 of the same year. The total cost was HK$560,000.* Most unfortunately, such a recent repaving endeavour completely destroyed the old military path that linked the Gough Battery and the 196m site by widening and resurfacing the old path with cement. The repaving work also removed the original stone retaining walls that were used to stabilise part of the slopes along the path. To reach Gough Battery today on foot, one may follow what is now designated Section 3 of the Lord Wilson Trail from an access road to the Tseung Kwan O Chinese Permanent Cemetery. Before upgrading in connection with the development of the cemetery, this access road was part of the old Anderson Road, the only metalled road in East Kowloon until the urbanisation of the area. The Pottinger Battery is located below a platform formed during the period 1973 to 1978 below the access road to the cemetery.\n\nThis note shall confine itself to the first and third sites, as the other two sites merit further archive and on-site research. The major survey findings of these two sites are presented here in the form of two measured drawings (Figures 3 and 4, reproduced with dimensions omitted).\n\nIt should be noted that better information on the physical forms of the sites and the military structures exists beyond that found in the existing literature or public documents locally deposited in the Public Records Office and the survey plans and aerial photographs produced or possessed by Lands Department.\n\nGeneral history of the military sites on Devil's Peak\n\nA chronology of events relating to the Devil's Peak is provided in Appendix 1. As early as 1899, the idea of developing three batteries on Devil's Peak at three levels was expressed in military drawings. The highest site, 'Battery for 6-inch', eventually became Devil's Peak Redoubt, whereas the middle, 'Battery for 9.2-inch,' and the lowest site became Gough Battery and Pottinger Battery, respectively.\n\nAccording to Rollo (1992), the Gough Battery, like the Pottinger Battery, had been proposed by the British Committee on Armament on", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215879, "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": 178, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "111\n\n(a) a satellite pentagonal pillbox (shown in a government 1:600 survey plan of 1963 but not in any 1:1000 plan); and\n\n(b) the inscription “REN 30th Coy 1914\", first reported by Dr. Solomon Bard.\n\nFrom old aerial photos and survey plan, an earth mound that looks like a double circular earth gun revetment for a heavy 75mm or 105mm AA gun (United States War Department 1944: pp. 110-116) could be found along the watershed to the northwest of the redoubt. It was to the southeast of the ruins of a bunker, which has been incorporated into the Chinese Permanent Cemetery. This revetment-like earth structure was destroyed when the Cemetery was built. The revetment was huge and was almost as large as the 9.2 gun emplacement in Gough Battery. The slopes below the redoubt have several tunnels, probably also of Japanese occupation origin. One is found above the steps of the Lord Wilson Trail leading to the Chinese Cemetery and another near the ruins of a bunker below the northern rock face of Devil's Peak. We leave the nature of the circular earth mound and the tunnels to experts on military engineering.\n\nThe 196m site\n\nFurther down the ridge, at 196m above the mean Principal Datum (mPD), lies the '196m site.' The site is connected with the redoubt by a firing trench built of stones, which is full of dense undergrowth.\n\nThis levelled site is small in size with the ruins of a concrete structure (approximately 40 square metres on plan) that is believed to be an observation post or machine gun emplacement that covers both the redoubt and Gough Battery. Only lower parts of some of the wall structures have remained on site. But apparently, there is no immediate danger to visitors. An area bigger than the 196m site itself uphill has been formed and developed into a plant nursery, probably by morning hikers. Such unauthorised site formation and planting work has not only created visual blight, but has also accelerated the soil erosion process by removing the top soil and the natural vegetation (Figure 6).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215881, "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": 180, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "113\n\nto be shown in government survey plans, were surveyed and shown in Figure 4:\n\n(a) a circular pill box (a British \"tett turret\" or a 1.3mm light Japanese AA gun position (United States War Department 1944: pp. 110-116) in the proper of the battery site [and there is another similar structure to the east of Lord Wilson Trail, to the north of (d) below];\n\n(b) two iron rings fixed to the ground of the battery site;\n\n(c) a pennant holder behind a rock of the battery site;\n\n(d) a pillbox built of stones on a rock to the east of Lord Wilson Trail, which is annotated as a rock outcrop in a 1964 1:600 government survey plan (Figure 7). The ruins of a two-storey communication centre can still be found to the southeast of Gough Battery; and\n\n(e) a number of foxholes dug into the slopes below the pillbox (and above the ruins of the communication centre referred to in (d) above) were exposed after a hill fire in autumn 2002. Like the tunnels found elsewhere in the area, it is possible that these foxholes were also constructed during the Japanese occupation. (Figure 8).\n\nRemarks\n\nThe key structures on Devil's Peak have a history of one century or nearly so, and are, by urban Hong Kong standards, extremely old. Wild vegetation has colonised large tracts of the sites since their abandonment by the military. The humid climate of Hong Kong has added to the weathering and erosion process that compromises the integrity of the ruins. Systematic removal of the roofs of disused military structures for internal security and squatter control purposes as well as scavenging have also contributed to the demise of the sites.\n\nHowever, it is careless and deliberate human action facilitated by the good system of footpaths left behind intact and upgraded from time to time that has ruined the sites the most. Littering, the careless filming gang fighting movies, and mosquitoes that breed in water containers used by unauthorised gardeners may be regarded as mere nuisances.\n\nof\n\nPage 180\n\nPage 181", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215903, "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": 202, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "March 1989\n\nJuly 1990 August 1990\n\n15 January 1995\n\nNovember 1995\n\nMarch 1998\n\n12 August 1999\n\n16 August 1999\n\nNovember 1999\n\nNovember 1999\n\nDecember 1999\n\nPublication of the Metroplan Landscape Strategy for the Urban Fringe and Coastal Areas by the Strategic Planning Unit, Lands and Works Branch. Appendix 8 shows a Lei Yue Mun Rural Park proposal.\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-4D.\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-9B.\n\nThe earth breaking for the construction of the Wilson Trail. Devil's Peak (Gough Battery) became included as part of Section 3 (Lam Tin (formerly Ham Tin) to Cheng Lan Shue) of the Trail.\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-4D.\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-9B.\n\nCirculation of Kwun Tong District Board 1999 Environmental and Health Improvement Committee Paper No. 29/99.\n\nTechnical Report 3 dated 16 August 1999 by Environmental Resources Management Study on Village Improvement and Upgrading of Lei Yue Mun Area, Agreement No. CE108/98 states the \"much of the fortifications still survive and provides opportunities for tourist development.\"\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-9B.\n\nPublication of a revised 1:1000 Survey Plan 11-SE-4D.\n\nA pedestrian link was proposed in Reprovisioning Working Paper December 1999 in Study On Minimization of the Impacts of Western Coast Road on Lei Yue Mun Village (commissioned by the Territory Development Department) to connect the Pottinger Battery and Lei Yue Mun Point.\n\nA tunnel option was proposed as an alternative to the Western Coast Road to Tseung Kwan O New Town in Feasibility Study on the Alternative Alignment for the Western Coast Road, Tseung Kwan O Final Report-Executive Summary November 1999 Agreement No. CE46/96 by Maunsell Consultants Asia Ltd (in association with Environment Resources Management Hong Kong Ltd; Hassel Ltd and MVA Asia Ltd.).\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-4D Survey Plan 11-SE-9B\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-9B\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-4D Kwun Tong District Board (1999)\n\nERM, 1999, p.94\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-4D\n\nSurvey Plan 11-SE-9B Ove Arup & Partners Hong Kong Limited 1999\n\nMaunsell Consultants Asia Ltd 1999\n\n135", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215904, "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": 203, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "December 2000\n\nMarch 2001\n\nJanuary to May 2002\n\nJune to July 2002\n\n8 November 2002\n\n14 January 2003\n\n24 January 2003\n\n25 January 2003\n\nPreliminary Feasibility Study on Tunnel Alignment Option of Tseung Kwan O: Western Coast Road Final Report Volume 1-Main Report December 2000 Agreement No. NTE1/2000.\n\nPreliminary Feasibility Study on Tunnel Alignment Option of Tseung Kwan O: Western Coast Road Final Report Volume 2-Drawings December 2000 Agreement No. NTE1/2000.\n\nPreliminary Feasibility Study on Tunnel Alignment Option of Tseung Kwan O: Western Coast Road Final Report Volume 3-Executive Summary March 2001 Agreement No. NTE1/2000.\n\nConstruction of concrete footpaths linking Lord Wilson Trail Gough Battery, 196m site and Devil's Peak Redoubt by Kwun Tong District Board completed: old military road from Gough Battery to 196m site replaced in the process. The project was called the \"repaving of walking trail leading to Pau Toi San,\" said to have commenced on 28 January, 2002 and completed on May 17 of the same year. The total cost was HK$560,000.\n\nLand survey and helicopter inspection of Devil's Peak by the authors, sponsored by a Lord Wilson Heritage Trust.\n\nVisit to both sites by authors with Mr. Tim Ko and a SCMP reporter.\n\nVisit to both sites by authors\n\nFilm show to HKBRAS at City Hall\n\nVisit to both sites by members of HKBRAS\n\nMeinhardt (C&C) Ltd (in association with Montgomery Watson (HK) Ltd; Jacobs Associations, USA and Environmental Management Ltd.) 2000a and 2000b\n\nMeinhardt (C&C) Ltd (in association with Montgomery Watson (HK) Ltd; \"Jacobs Associations, USA and Environmental Management Ltd.) 2001\n\nLetter ref. KTDO C4/28/7 dated June 13, 2002. See Kwun Tong District Office 1999; 2002\n\nI\n\nwww\n\n136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]