RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
171

T'aai Shing finally collapsed during World War II, after it had been looted by bandits. Saam Shing owned considerable property on the waterfront, which had, in part, been reclaimed by this shop. But the shop collapsed before the War, allegedly because of mismanagement. Many people came to both shops.32

Table 1 Shops in Sai Kung Market Before World War II

Name
Business
Owner

Saam Shing*
General store
Lei, from Shuen Wan

T'aai Shing*
General store
Lei Ling, from San Wooi

Tak Shing*
General store
Lei Faat, from Fong T'ung Shing*

Kwong Tak Lung*
General store
T'ung Hing*
Shipyard

Tung Shing*
Shipyard

Po Tsai Tong*
Herbalist
Loi Lei*
Beancurd maker

Kung Cheung*
General store

T'aam Shing*
Carpenter
Tsang*
Taoist priest

San Shun Cheung*
General store
Wong Chuk Yeung Fong, from Yung Shue Au
?, from Sham Chun
Chau, from Wai Chau
?, from Sai Kung
Lee Yim Kwai, from Sham Chung

Saam T'aai*
General store
Laai, from Tam Shui
Ng, from Mui Tsz Lam
Tam (?), from Ngong Wo
Tsang, from Sha Tseng
Ling Shin Chung, from Po Kut

On Cheung*
General store
Lei, from Lan Nei Wan

Yan T'aai*
General store
? from Ngong Wo

San Cheung*
Teahouse

Chau Fuk Lei*
Draper's
Chau, from Wai Chau

Kam Lei Uen
Butcher

Taai Fung Nin
Butcher
Cheung, from San Wooi

* Recorded on 1916 tablet in Tin Hau Temple. Source: interview reports, see footnote 31.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v
96

In the North District the islands are much barer and less cultivated than in the South District. Only two business centres of any importance exist; Tap Mun and Kat O. Both have shipbuilding sheds; the former has or had a launch service with Taipo, and the latter a distillery which gave a good deal of trouble to the Revenue Department. The business centres of these islands are in fact on the mainland; the Crooked Harbour islands look to Shataukok, the Port Shelter isles to Saikung.

A very important element in the economy of the islands is the returned emigrant or seaman: Lamma has a good many of them; Lantau also. Emigrants generally go to America or Borneo, and a few to Singapore. Some returned emigrants are from Australia, they usually buy land, build a house and settle down.

Tour of the Islands

To get a view of each island as a whole, I suggest that a tour be taken as if in an imaginary launch, starting from Kowloon and going west as if to reach Canton through Kapshuimun ("Rushing Water Channel") but turning south of Lantau, passing the East Lamma Channel, and round Cape d'Aguilar into Port Shelter, and so up the East coast to Taipo and Crooked Harbour.

Stonecutters: or Ngong Shuen Chau ("High Junk Island”). Most Chinese placenames are descriptive and have meanings. This one needs no elaboration, I think.

Tsingyi: (literally "Green Clothes": but the real meaning is uncertain). Has a fair harbour, a few shops and several villages in the northern half. The hills on this island are unusually high. There are two or three limekilns. A ferry calls about four times a day. Once a reclamation was started at the head of the harbour but it came to nothing and only two or three walls now mark where it was meant to be. The inhabitants are Hakka.

In 1856 this island was the scene of a small naval action against a number of pirate junks flying the rebel flag of the Taipings. The captain of H. M. S. Sampson states in his dispatch:

In proceeding through the mandarin channel (going west) some junks were observed at anchor inside the island, close
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