RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch

RASHKB and author

Vol. 1 (1961)

ISSN 1991-7295

25

Munia is a fairly common resident, especially in the New Territories, but it is hard to say how successful it is at nesting, for it tends to build several nests before eventually raising a brood. The Chestnut Munia, a handsome black and chestnut bird, is often found in quite large flocks in Mai Po marshes in autumn and some may be seen all the year round there, but it has never yet nested as far as we know,

The above is a very brief summary of birds that are likely to be seen in Hong Kong during the year. If readers would like to know more about them, they might first of all join the Hong Kong Bird-Watching Society. By doing so, they can get into contact with its fifty or so members, and will be able to join them on frequent expeditions to various parts of the Colony. They will also receive a copy of the Society's Annual Report and will be able to borrow books from its increasingly important and comprehensive bird library. Unfortunately the local bird-books, such as they are, are out-of-print and the ones covering neighbouring countries are expensive, especially if one considers how few of Hong Kong's birds each one covers. But three books in particular may be recommended in that between them they have pictures and notes on about 275 of our birds, besides unillustrated notes on a few more.

These are:

R. T. Peterson, G. Mountfort and A. D. Hollom. Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin, 1954

K. Kobayashi. Birds of Japan. Osaka, Hoikushi, 1956

B. E. Smythies. Birds of Burma. London, Oliver and Boyd, 1940

All these and many more are available from the Society's library. A new 'Check-list of the Birds of Hong Kong' is due for publication later in 1960 and will contain notes on the status and distribution in the Colony of every species so far recorded here.

During the last three years or so, members of the Bird-Watching Society have noted several problems of bird-life in Hong Kong, which, though not particularly difficult, are puzzling because of conflicting or incomplete evidence. I should like to end this article with a few examples, so that bird-watchers who feel so inclined can go out armed with an objective.

(a) Does the Peregrine nest in Hong Kong? It may be seen occasionally all the year round. If so, where? Lion Rock, Sharp Peak or perhaps Tai Tan Yang are possibilities.

(b) What are the curious little rails or crakes which are flushed every autumn by snipe-shooters in the marshes? One is not allowed to shoot them and they are only seen briefly in flight,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r
168

NOTES AND QUERIES

DEEP BAY MARSHES

The photograph at Plate XV was taken in March 1973 by Mrs. F. O. P. Hechtel. It shows men and women collecting seaweed from an embanked pond at Deep Bay. They had come over from Chinese Territory by boat, bringing a punt with them on deck. The boat was anchored at the outer edge of the bund, left high and dry at low tide, and the punt was launched in the shallow pond and loaded with seaweed which was taken back for pig food. This is still a common practice, and has been observed by Mr. and Mrs. Hechtel on other occasions.

This brings in another feature of the marshes. Our printer, and member, Mr. Y. F. Lam of Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., tells me that when he went shooting on the marshes just after the war, his party used regularly to meet a person who came over from Chinese territory using a waak baan (★★) or mud scooter on which he travelled easily over the areas of foreshore and swamp. The man landed at Mai Po, left his mud scooter there, and walked to Yuen Long Market to buy necessaries, after which he would return to Mai Po, load his scooter and set off for home.

The mud scooter is also used by oyster farmers in Deep Bay and is an old form of local transportation. Two of them, one old and much used, and one made to order, have recently been obtained by the City Museum and Art Gallery, Hong Kong. Plate XVI is by courtesy of the Curator, and shows the used scooter.

A very similar contrivance is used in the shrimp fisheries at Stolford on the Bristol channel, Somerset, England, C. M. Yonge writes: 'At Stolford where the nets are secured on soft banks of mud a mile from the shore, the fishermen use a type of intertidal sledge or "mud horse" which they push in front of them and which serves the double purpose of preventing them from sinking deeply in the mud and of carrying back the catch'. (pp. 321-322 of The Sea Shore, Collins, The Fontana New Naturalist paper back, 1963). There is an illustration of the "mud horse" at page 322.

Hong Kong. April, 1974.

HON. EDITOR
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
2

day, five short papers were read on fish, fauna and flora of the sea-shore; insects; land vertebrates, and birds, and the talks were illustrated by an exhibition of both stuffed and live specimens. The field trips, held on the Sunday, were to Tai Tam Bay which supports fauna communities, some of them unique to Hong Kong Island, on its extensive sand and mud flats; and to the Mai Po Marshes, a wetland habitat dominated by deep ponds producing ducks, mullet and carp, and having a marginal zone of dwarf mangrove. This provides a unique eco-system of considerable scientific interest. Professor Lofts is currently engaged in editing the materials presented by his team for one of our symposia publications. The materials from our previous symposium, held the preceding year, should be ready for publication shortly.

Our first local visit of the year was to the Sikh and Hindu temples in Happy Valley. This took place in April. Of the 10,000 Indians in Hong Kong, some 2,000 are Sikhs and the majority of the remainder, Hindus. The Hong Kong Khalsa Diwan, “Sacred Assembly”, as both the Sikh temple and its congregation are called, was founded in 1935 and the Hindu temple some time later. Led by Mr. Ian Watson of the Department of Philosophy, University of Hong Kong, a group of members first attended a Sikh service (Sikhism is a revisionist movement within Hinduism, founded at the close of the seventeenth century) and then visited the Hindu temple and its library.

Our second excursion was to Cape D'Aguilar, named after Major General G. C. D'Aguilar, first general officer commanding the Hong Kong Garrison in the 1840s. A group of members visited Hok Tsui village, founded in the eighteenth century, and providing the older name for the Cape D'Aguilar area. They looked at old houses and the village's granite watch-tower, together with its temple to the god Pak T'ai, probably of the nineteenth century.

In January, members visited the Lo Pan temple—Lo Pan is the god of carpenters and building constructors. The temple is situated in Kennedy Town, in an interesting old corner of Western District, still largely in its pre-war condition, and first built about 1884. The fourth and last local visit was to Tai Miu, Joss House Bay, one of the most historical sites of Hong Kong and well-known in Chinese historical and geographical works. The Tai Miu, or "Great Temple" is dedicated to T'in Hau, “Empress of Heaven”, a very popular
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593
192

NOTES AND QUERIES

MUD SKIS OR SCOOTER, DEEP BAY, HONG KONG

(See JHKBRAS 13, 1973:168)

South China Morning Post, 18 June, 1979

“British soldiers flying helicopter patrols over the Mai Po marshes are seeing an increasing number of "mud skiiers" scooting towards Hongkong.

"They can move faster over the mud than a man can run over firm ground," said Sergeant Major Chris Wilson yesterday.

Added Corporal Jan Radford, another Army Air Corps helicopter pilot: "The other day I saw a group of 40 coming across and most of them had mud-skis."

A mud-ski is a piece of five-ply wood about 6 ft long with a curved brow which oyster farmers and crab fishermen usually use to pick up their catch.

They use the simple but sturdy piece of equipment around the shores of Deep Bay to transport themselves over the low-lying mangrove swamps.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593
NOTES AND QUERIES 

193 

But in recent months the mud-skis have been used by illegal immigrants, first to help them float across the bay and then to negotiate the mud flats and swamps of the Mai Po marshes. 

Yesterday Sgt-Major Wilson demonstrated how they were used. "They can move faster over the mud than a man can run over firm ground," said Sergeant Major Chris Wilson yesterday. 

"If it's thick mud the illegals stand on the skis and push with their feet and they can shoot across mud and water at a tremendous speed," he said. 

"If they cross thin mud or water they lay down and put out one leg and make a swimming motion and they can travel very fast.” 

The Army Air Corps has adapted one of its Scout helicopters to play a very special role in rescuing refugees from the deep mud and treacherous swamps in the marshes. 

The small helicopters are now equipped with nets and the crews hover over the swamps and drop out the nets to pluck illegal immigrants trapped in the mud to safety.” 

Reprinted, in part only, from the South China Morning Post, 18 June, 1979 

This item was brought to my notice by our printer and Honorary Life Member Mr. Y. F. Lam (Hon. Ed.) 

THE SAINTLY GUO (Sheng Gong) 

Professor G. E. Guldin doubtless will be delighted to learn that the cult of Sheng Gong is alive and well and thriving in SE Asia. In his interesting article on Little Fujian in the 1977 Journal (JHKBRAS17(1977); 112-129) he surmised that Hong Kong may have the only Sheng Gong temple left functioning in the world. He will be surprised to hear that although there is only the one temple dedicated to Sheng Gong in Hong Kong, there were at least twelve in Singapore, six in Malaysia (1970) and twenty-seven in Taiwan (1969), all dedicated to this deity. This, of course, does not include the hundreds of images of the Saintly Guo seen in secondary positions in temples throughout SE Asia and Taiwan. More than half of the temples dedicated to Sheng Gong in Taiwan (16 out of 27) are within a thirty-mile radius which includes Tainan, and Kaohsiung South-West Taiwan. Only four are in towns and the remainder
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p
BOOK REVIEWS

335

thing rarely if ever seen in books on landscape architecture, a guide to the plants used.

Since every kind of climate and ecological environment is included in this book covering all of China, it would be of great interest to know how botanical variety is adopted in different kinds of gardens.

H. Y. SHIH

Over Hong Kong Lew Roberts, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong 1982, 97 Colour Plates.

Over the last few years the South China Morning Post has published a number of volumes of photographs of the highest quality, both having regard to the photography and to the printing. This volume is almost certainly the best of these, since it is simply by far the best photographic record of Hong Kong yet published.

The 97 plates of this volume are all aerial photographs, and give a very wide ranging view of Hong Kong, with 28 plates of Hong Kong Island, 17 of Kowloon, and 49 of the New Territories, and of subjects ranging from Government House to squatter areas, duck farms, and junk heaps.

Obviously, any volume of aerial photographs is bound to be short on reflections of the human element: a particular problem in a city such as Hong Kong where the vitality, colour, and bustle of the street-level community is so important in the creation of the spirit of the city. By photographing from the air, even though from a low flying aircraft and with razor sharp reproduction, almost all of this street-level vigour is lost. It is very much to Mr. Roberts' credit that, despite this huge disadvantage, he manages to suggest a substantial amount of the human element in his pictures, and in many of them actually manages to provide a new perspective on human activity. Thus, his photographs of the Aberdeen Junk Yards (No. 36) conveys the chaotic, busy nature of those yards perhaps better than any other type of photograph could. His photographs of Ocean Park (No. 39), the Shaw Brothers Studio (Nos. 88 and 89) and a Mai Po marshes village
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572
182

THE STRUCTURE AND OPERATION

OF KEI WAI (#)

Y.H. CHEUNGa, K.Y. TAIb, S.W. TSAOc, AND L.B. THROWERc*

The kei wai () is essentially a device for exploiting the nutrient-rich waters of an estuary. As they exist in the region of Mai Po (N.W. New Territories) kei wais consist of ponds about 1 metre deep and some 10 hectares in area. Each kei wai is separated from the adjacent Deep Bay (Hau Hoi Wan) by an embankment or bund, but communicates with it through a sluice gate. Seawater is allowed to enter on the high tide, carrying with it the fry and larvae of potential produce (fish, shrimps, crabs), and the gate is then closed to prevent outflow of water. Individual kei wais are also separated from one another by bunds. There is an obvious similarity in managing the kei wais to that used to control the exchange of water in commercial shrimp ponds in Hong Kong, namely the opening and closing of the gates as the tidal level changes. However, an important characteristic of kei wais is that no artificial fertilizer or food is added to the water.

This paper consists of two parts: I which describes the actual mode of operation of the kei wai and may be of interest to the general reader, and II which reports an investigation into factors affecting productivity of the kei wai.

PART I OPERATION OF THE KEI WAI

Situation and Form

The present Mai Po marshes are the latest stage in the deposition of alluvium. Thus, a zonation exists from dry land to the waters of Deep Bay: (i) old alluvium which usually is or has been cultivated, (ii) the general area of marsh, part of which has been excavated into deep fish ponds, (iii) the seaward region of the

a Pollution Research Unit, U.M.L.S.T., United Kingdom.
b Department of Anatomy, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
c Department of Biology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
* See Plates 7-14
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522
2

served under him for the next nine months until he was replaced by the late (Sir) Ronald Holmes. It was my first posting after language study, and I was inexperienced and ignorant. Ken was formidable by reason of bulk and intellect, and I was instinctively wary of him. He was, too, one of those rather "larger than life" personalities around whom legends and stories had already accumulated. However, he turned out to be both kindly and helpful. More, he was informative; and for a new District Officer anxious to know more about his charges it was fortunate that he had written about local history, something that had attracted insufficient attention from the Civil Service, or anyone else for that matter. I probably saw more of him than the other DOS, because of our joint preoccupation with the Shek Pik Reservoir investigations and the fact that his town office was in the District Office (South) building on Gascoigne Road, Kowloon.

He used to come in once a week, on set days, and I remember once being indignant upon hearing his booming voice on another day. “Oh well” I thought resignedly, for I was still very new, “he'll come in shortly”, and dismissed him from my mind. Some time later I heard his voice again, and realized it was a tape recording on which his secretary must have been working, a draft speech or something of the kind.

After he left the N.T., our association was mostly personal. Through joint interests, including membership of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force, we met from time to time. The Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, to which he lectured occasionally, was another shared interest. After he left Hong Kong on retirement we exchanged letters periodically. I also saw him on his visits to his family here, and particularly remember the last occasion (1986) when, together with the then District Officer, Yuen Long, we arranged a visit to the border area including the Mai Po marshes. We began with a picnic lunch at Island House which had been his home when he was District Commissioner, New Territories. This was a particularly happy and relaxed family occasion, with his grandchildren, on which I look back with great pleasure.

One always got a lot out of Ken. Our mutual interest in local people and their history led me to send him copies of any draft
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j
197

A NOTE ON HONG KONG'S WILDLIFE

DAN WATERS

In the mid-1960s, an Indian bird-watching friend counted 48 different species at King's Park, in the heart of Kowloon. In early 1955, when I first lived in Conduit Road, the western end resembled a delightful country lane and there you could occasionally hear barking deer call from Victoria Peak.

Since late 1980 I have been going up and around the Peak regularly, four or five times a week. At first, I felt there was little wildlife left, but, more recently, largely because it is mainly nocturnal, my conclusions, agreeing with a second school of thought, are that there is far more than most people appreciate.

On 26 April, 1989, I saw a dead masked palm civet in Barker Road. This was followed, on 11 November, 1990, by a dead ferret badger on Plantation Road, and, on 17 November, 1991, another on Severn Road. All had blood on their snouts and had probably been struck by vehicles. The last two were seen at daybreak.

There are also 'good' years for snake sightings, and, in the autumn of 1991, I spotted a young cobra crossing Po Shan Road, near dwellings. The first snake I saw in 1992 was a cobra sunning itself, in mid March, on a hilly path off Hatton Road. Less frequently, one sees the odd fresh-water crab even as high up as Lugard Road, and blue-tailed skinks seem to appear in batches.

Although not on the Peak, on the Royal Asiatic Society outing, on 4 March, 1989, high up near a plantation on Tai Mo Shan, RAS member Rosemary Lee and the son of Dr Elizabeth Sinn spotted what was believed to have been a crab-eating mongoose run across a track, off Route TWISK, in front of our coach. Patricia Marshall, in Wild Mammals of Hong Kong (1967), says, about the mongoose, 'Probably no longer exists in the Colony.' Nevertheless, according to a game warden at Mai Po Marshes, one was spotted by bird watchers at Tsim Bei Tsui at Christmas 1987.

I have also been told of barking deer and porcupine being seen
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x
'Fire Dragon' Mid-Autumn Festival -

Tai Hang

Party for Dr. James Hayes

Geoff Roper

Michael Kirkbride

Prof. Tong Kin Woon

—

Chinese Music

Elizabeth Sinn

Visit to the New Territories

―

Kam Tin

Patrick Hase

Visit to Devil's Peak

Visit to Royal Observatory

Visit to Mai Po marshes

Visit to the Exhibition of Painting

by Nancy Wu

John Wilson

Elizabeth Sinn

& Rosemary Lee

Dan Waters

& Rosemary Lee

Michael Lau

There was, as you see, another expedition to Chek Lap Kok! This really will be the last one until the new airport is completed, after which you will undoubtedly be able to visit it as much as you can afford to.

I would like to thank all those who took the time and effort to organise these visits and expeditions.

The programme committee is also responsible for organising our lecture programme and those of us who have been able to attend them will, I think, agree that the standard has been well maintained. Without detracting from the other lectures, I would like to highlight the two lectures at the beginning of January 1993, where we were fortunate to have two prominent academics in the form of Professor Hugh Baker, Professor of Chinese at the London School of Oriental and African Studies, and Professor James Watson from Columbia University. The full list of lectures and speakers are as follows:

Lecture

Speaker

American Chinese Film Making

Shirley Sum

Central Highlanders of Vietnam

Grant Evans

Cambodia: Is Peace Possible

!

ix

Peter Leeds
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g
159

mangrove areas (See Irving & Morton, 1988).

If we choose as our example the Mai Po Marshes in Deep Bay we see that the mangroves, and the mudflats in front of them, support a unique flora and fauna (Morton & Morton 1983) and, together with the tidally operated shrimp ponds (geiwais), have been exploited by man for commercial gain for many centuries. It is the mangrove litter which supports all of these activities. The geiwais are perhaps the best example of commercial use and at Mai Po yield 1500-4000 kg of fish (mainly Tilapia) and shrimps (Gei Wai Ha) per pond per annum.

The mangrove stands also serve as the nursery ground for both shrimp and fish fry, which again accumulate there because of the abundance of food. The fish fingerlings of grey and other mullets are netted by local fishermen and then raised in nearby ponds for about one year when they reach marketable size.

Farmers also cultivate oysters in this area, the oysters filter feeding on very fine organic detritus and plankton, based again on mangrove productivity (the total Deep Bay oyster crop is some 250 tonnes per annum). Many oyster farmers also trap mudskippers in woven bamboo baskets and, again, these fish are very dependent on mangrove productivity for their survival.

To the farmers living on the shores of Deep Bay the mangroves also offer a source of firewood and other useful products. Thus, the tallest Kandelia provide timber, fishing stakes, firewood and charcoal, and from the bark can be obtained various tannins; Acanthus fruits are used medicinally as a blood purifier and boil dressing while their leaves are used to cure rheumatism and their dried roots are used in the treatment of hepatitis, cancer and asthma; Avicennia seeds yield a resin used to treat ulcers and tumours, and an infusion of the bark is a medicine against parasites and a balm for gangrenous wounds; Excoecaria sap is used as a purgative, and finally Derris roots contain rotenone, a powerful fish poison, used in fish culture to harvest the fish.

The modern availability of fuel resources and other materials and of western medicine has led to a decrease in utilization of mangroves for these purposes. Now their major value lies in their role in
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g
161

highly productive area for fish and shrimps and, as a result, will cease to be the venue for the enormous variety of wading birds that congregate there as they overwinter or merely rest on their migratory flight.

REFERENCES

Hodgkiss, IJ, Thrower, S L & Man, S M (1981). An introduction to the Ecology of Hong Kong (2 volumes) Federal Publications, Hong Kong

Hodgkiss, I. J. (1986) Aspects of Mangrove Ecology in Hong Kong Memoirs of the Hong Kong Natural History Society 17 107-116

Living, R & Morton, B. (1988) A Geography of the Mai Po Marshes. Hong Kong University Press.

Morton, B. & Morton, J (1983) The Sea Shore Ecology of Hong Kong Hong Kong University Press

WWF HK (Not dated) Mangroves. Mai Po Nature Reserve Pamphlet issued by Worldwide Fund for Nature, Hong Kong

PLATES

Plate 1 Buttress roots in Heritiera

Plate 2 Kandelia plantlet developing from 'dropper'

Plate 3 Heritiera fruit

Plate 4 Avicennia tree plus pneumatophores

[These will be published in a later Journal - Editor]
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x
08

MAP 1

The Kowloon City Area about 1905

Tai Wai

Chok Yoen

Siu Lek Yuen

Tai Po

Diamond Hill

Hau Wong

Ta Kwa Leng

(Nga Yau Tau)

Hau Wong Temple

Kowloon City

Sai Tau Tsuen

Nga Trin Long

Kai

Kwy Lung

Pa Kong

Kak Hang

Nga Trin Wai

Kowloon Market

Kan Pui Shek

Tung Tau Tsuen

Sheung Hok Lo Tsuen

Pier

Waste Land

Tai Hom Yuen

Ling Wai

Ping Yi Tsai Tau

Sha Tei Yuen

Kowloon Bay

Customs Pier

Sai Kung

Ngee Chi Wan

Pak Uk Tsuen

(Ping Shek)

Lei Yue Mun

Shau Kei Wan

Tau

Ngan Kok Hill

Sham Shui Po

Tsuen Wan

Yau Ma Tei

Ma Tau Wai

Hau Pui Long

Yi Wong Tin

Tsim Sha Tsui

Sacred Hill (Sung Wong Toi)

Kilometres

Ma Tau Kok

Coastline in 1905

Buildings 1905

Footpaths

Edge of Hill

Marshes

Kowloon Market
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