ENG-1969 — Page 253

COMMUNICATIONS

169

baggage handling processing and transportation of passengers on the Terminal Apron. Aircraft maintenance in Hong Kong is provided by the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co Ltd, which offers over- haul and repair facilities for a wide range of aircraft of all types. The Company is now in the process of completing a new hangar capable of accommodating aircraft of Boeing 747 size.

Two private flying clubs operate at Kai Tak airport, the Hong Kong Flying Club and the Aero Club of Hong Kong, and there is an increasing interest in private flying for pleasure. The Far East Flying Training School offers full time courses of training in Aeronautical Engineering and Radio and Electronics Maintenance Engineering and also Wireless Operator_training. The school, established in 1934, is well known throughout the Far East and has already trained over 3,000 students.

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, the Hong Kong based airline operates frequent scheduled services to Calcutta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Phnom Penh, Saigon, Djakarta, Kota Kinabalu, Manila, Taipei, Fukuoka, Osaka, Tokyo and Seoul, using their fleet of Convair 880 aircraft.

KOWLOON-CANTON RAILWAY

The British Section of the Kowloon-Canton Railway runs from the southern end of the Kowloon Peninsula to the Chinese frontier at Sham Chun where it joins the Chinese railway system, the northern bank of the Sham Chun River forming the international boundary at this point. Since 1949 passengers have had to change trains at the border between the Colony and China and walk the 300 yards between the two termini. Mail and goods traffic in wagon loads, however, travel through without transhipment.

There are 17 daily passenger trains each way operating on the British Section and an average of five goods trains per day. Passenger traffic is normally heavy at week-ends and public holidays, especially in winter time. Special trains are often run between the Kowloon terminus and Sha Tin Station which is a popular picnic resort. The running time, including stops, between the terminal station in Kowloon at Tsim Sha Tsui and the border station at Lo Wu is

about one hour.