ENG-1970 — Page 222

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COMMUNICATIONS

Two private flying clubs operate at the airport, the Aero Club of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Flying Club, offering pilot training up to commercial standard, and the Far East Flying Training School offers full-time courses in aeronautical engineering and electronics. A helicopter service was started by a newly formed company, Hong Kong Air International, and provides a scheduled service between Hong Kong island and the airport in addition to undertaking charter and sight-seeing flights, making use of two Alouette III helicopters.

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, the Hong Kong based airline, expanded its operations and provides frequent services to Taiwan, Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sabah, Indonesia and Australia using its fleet of eight 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 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.

The greatest number of passengers carried in a single day during the year, was 118,985 on Sunday, April 5, 1970-the Ching Ming Festival day when many visitors paid their respects to their ancestors in the cemeteries at Wo Hop Shek and Sandy Ridge in the New Territories.