vs 796 H7 U6 UC-NRLF B 4 SOL, b?D o Q >- DEC 2 S1921 =■ HONGKONG % CHINA % Published by BUREAU OF NAVIGATION under authority of the Secretary of the Navy Contents Page Introduction ---------------9 England in China ------------- 13 Junks and Sampans .-.----------15 A City of Stairs -------------- 18 The Native Quarter ---22 Poppies and Pipes ------------- 26 The Century Plant ------28 Seats of Learning ------------- 29 Chinese Movie Fans .------------32 On Victoria Peak ------------- 33 A Trip to Kowloon --------------35 Money and Postage ------------- 36 The Typhoon Area --------------37 458664 Five Foreword INCE warships flying the American flag have made the world of waters their cruising grounds and since they carry with them scores of thousands of seagoing Americans, the personal interest of the Nation in ports, far and near, has necessarily increased in recent years. In order to furnish valuable information to officers and enlisted men of the Navy who visit these foreign countries — as well as to other travelers on official business — the Bureau of Navigation is preparing individual guidebooks on the principal ports in all quarters of the globe. Although every effort has been made to include accurate information on most important subjects connected with this port, it is realized that some important facts may have been omitted and that certain details may be inaccurate. Any information concerning omissions or inaccuracies, addressed to Guidebook Editor, Bureau of Navigation, will be appreciated. The information will be incorporated into revised editions. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the National Geographic Society for its suggestions, both as to editorial policy and the interesting details concerning Hongkong and its environs. Acknowledgment is made to Underwood & Underwood for the following photographs, which are copyrighted. Seven Introduction OR long the home of Chinese pirates — whose junks prowled the yellow reaches of the Canton River and the South China Sea in constant search for prey — the Island of Hongkong during the last half century has developed into an important stronghold of commerce in the Far East. Hongkong occupies a strategic position on the high- way of world trade, being near the important Chinese markets and about 600 miles from Manila, 1 ,000 miles from Nagasaki, and 6,000 miles from San Francisco. In addition to being a trade center, Hongkong is a naval station and the site of large shipyards and dry docks of the most modern type. The port itself is located on an island less than half the size of Staten Island, N. Y., and separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The beauty of Hongkong has become almost a tradition among the Chinese, who, with true celestial extravagance of speech, have given the port the name of Heung-Kong, or Fragrant Streams and Good Harbor. Hongkong is a derivative of the Chinese name and is generally used, although the official name of the city is Victoria — called so in honor of the English queen. Nine , , : ' ■ Despite the fact that Hongkong has been modernized by the British and is hardly typical of China, there are still in existence on the island many reminders of the old Chinese regime, and these shadows of oriental life, dif- fused with the subtle fascination the East of to-day almost invariably holds for the stranger, make the island a favorite haunt of travelers from the other side of the world. Hongkong represents the cosmopolitan East almost as truly as New York represents the cosmopolitan West, and the tourist finds a bewildering variety of races on which to feast his eyes and a surprising assortment of languages with which to deafen his ears when he lands in the port and wanders through the city of the Fragrant Streams and Good Harbor. There are blond Anglo-Saxons and other whites, dusky Hindoos from India, and black-haired Malays; stolid Chinese merchant princes, and mus- cular slant-eyed coolies in conical straw hats; smiling Japanese, and wander- ers from the islands of the southern Pacific Ocean; who, with a human froth composed of beach combers — the off-scourings of the seven seas, make up the population of Hongkong. The traveler visiting Hongkong during the dry season is fortunate, for then he may explore the city of Victoria and the remainder of the island with comparative comfort; but if he arrives in this "Eastern Gibraltar" during Ten the wet season, he may as well prepare for gray clouds in the skies and frequent cloudbursts, for that is what he will probably encounter. Northerners who have spent a portion of their time in the tropics have a good idea of what the wet season means and have passed days and weeks in continual rain- storms, whose persistence creates the impression that the seas have usurped the position of the skies and are busily pouring their waters back on the earth. In Hongkong the wet season is more rainy by far than in many other portions of the tropics and subtropics, and when the downpour starts it usually continues through the entire 24 hours of the day. The natives are accustomed to rain, however, and the visitor soon finds that he is able to adapt himself to prevailing conditions and walks around in showers that would keep him indoors were he in his own country. And besides, when the rains have ceased, the island is more enchanting than the Westerner can imagine and the plants and palm trees clothe them- selves in bright-green garb and the subtropical flowers are prodigal of their delicate beauty and sweet odors. Then Hongkong is at its best and the traveler will be repaid for his patience on the journey to the island by the sights he will see and the jaunts he will take on his visit to the city of the Fragrant Streams and Good Harbor. h'/m a HONGKONG ENGLAND IN CHINA ROFESSOR Middleton Smith of Hongkong Uni- versity gives the following brief review of how the island became a part of the vast possessions of the ===^A V British Empire: "Eighty years ago there was just a little island — just a barren rock — at the mouth of the Canton River, which was the home of pirates, a center of moral and physical disease. There were only about 5,000 inhabitants, many of them living in the harbor on their pirate junks in order to escape the fevers so mysteriously contracted ashore. After much hesitation, the British Govern- ment in 1 84 1 decided to accept the sugges- tion of gallant Captain Elliott, R. N., and the Union Jack was unfurled on the island. To-day there are nearly a million law-abiding citizens where in the days before Captain Elliott and his followers there was only a nest of pirates. The barren rock is now clothed with beautiful foliage; the Anglo-Saxon has reclaimed land from the seas and built statelv habitations of reinforced concrete Approaching Hongkong where there were only a few huts. He has created on a little island, 10 miles long and one-half mile wide, a center of modern civ- ilization which is a pattern for the huge nation of 400,000,000 people, who have this object lesson at their gate." Thirteen HONGKONG Chinese Junk Hongkong, however, was not won with- out a struggle centering about the Opium War of 1840. After defeating the Chinese, Great Britain acquired the island of Hong- kong and, in addition, obtained the right to trade in five other Chinese ports — a step in the formulation of the "open-door" pol- icy in the Far East. France and England Fourteen obtained further trade privileges and toler- ance for the Christian religion from the Chinese and a few years later, in i860, the peninsula of Kowloon, opposite Hongkong island, was ceded to Great Britain. Territorial aggressions by foreign pow- ers came upon China from many quarters during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Japan waged a successful war against the Chinese and gained Formosa and control of the Liaotung Peninsula; but Russia, Germany, and France interfered and prevented Japan from holding her gain. The German ex-kaiser's notorious "mailed fist" order to his military forces in China started a general movement among the na- tions for concessions, and the Boxers organ- ized their revolt. The uprising was put down and an allied armv made up of Ameri- can, British, French, Russian, and Japan- ese troops was successful in its historic march to relieve the legations at Peking. The action of the United States in dis- posing of her share of the indemnity exacted by the foreign governments for the damage wrought by the Boxers tended to strengthen the growing bonds of friendship between the United States and China. After all private HONGKONG claims had been paid, the United States set aside the balance of the American por- tion of the indemnity to pay for the educa- tion of young Chinese students in American universities. The fund has sufficed to keep j $ or ioo students, including a few women, in American educational institutions. When one group of students completes its education, another travels from China to the United States. The knowledge of west- ern civilization acquired by the students is said to have contributed greatly to the suc- cess of the revolution in China whereby the Manchu dynasty was overthrown and a republic established. JUNKS AND SAMPANS ONGKONG has one of the finest harbors in the world, embracing an area of 10 square miles, with anchor- age for scores of warships, passenger liners, merchant- men, and hundreds of their smaller cousins — the Chinese junks and sampans. The waters of the harbor literally swarm at times with the native craft, and *?wu Homes of the "Floating Population" the singsong voices of their crews, the creak of rudders, and the rustle of their grass sails mingle with the scream of sirens, the deep- throated bellow of whistles, and the lapping of the water against the beach and wharves to form a sort of symphony of the sea. Fifteen HONGKONG The junk is peculiarly a Chinese type of ship and the first sight of one of the un- wieldy tubs is a source of amazement to the American who has been accustomed to see- ing the trim, shapelv craft of his own and other Western countries. si it,, n The hull of the junk seems to be fash- ioned awkwardly and has a clumsy air sug- gesting a school boy in a suit several sizes too small for him. The stern is high and the bow low, the lines being rather generous above water. The underwater body, though, is often finely designed, and while the effect of the junk as a whole is ungrace- ful, it meets heavy seas with ease and rides more comfortably than many a prettier craft. Nearly all the junks have lug sails made of grass matting and in some instances coarse cloth stretched on bamboo frames. Many of the junks have great eyes painted on the bows. The Chinese solemnly ex- plain that the eyes are there so the junks can see where they are going and the trav- eler is inclined to laugh at the whimsical custom until he remembers that not so many years ago the ships on his own side of the world mounted figureheads to guide them on their voyages. Thousands of the natives of Hongkong live on crude little boats called sampans, or "slipper boats," so called because they resemble the Chinese foot-gear. Many fam- ilies are born and live and die on their HONGKONG sampans without ever setting foot on shore, and so Hongkong, as well as other Chinese ports and river cities, can be said to have a "floating population" — in the most literal sense of the word. The sampans range from 15 to 60 feet in length, and pigs, chickens, and vegetables are raised on them, as well as families. Other curiosities in the harbor of Hong- kong are the "flower boats," anchored, usually, in rows near the shore. These boats are the popular places of recreation for the natives — who go "a-sea" instead of "ashore" on their pleasure trips. The " flower boats" are gaudily furnished within, being decorated with carved and gilded woodwork, lined with mirrors, and strewn with flowers, and brilliantly lighted at night with lamps and Chinese lanterns. Hongkong harbor appears to be en- tirely landlocked with hills rising on all sides above the waters of the bay, and the traveler whose ship navigates the winding channel and drops anchor can imagine him- self, without much difficulty, in an inland sea or lake and finds time to wonder how he passed the hills between the port and the China Sea. If the stranger arrives at Hongkong in the rainy season, he will very probably be required to view the terraced city through a misty curtain of rain and fog; but if he reaches the port in the pleasant season, he will find Hongkong in gala subtropical garb Ni n 1, ft; 11 HONGKONG and as beautiful as Naples or any of the other Mediterranean harbors nestling on the shores of Italy. A portion of Hongkong seems to be bathing in the waters of the harbor, and the remainder rises in series of shelves to Victoria Peak, 1,200 feet high, and standing some distance from the harbor. The city of Victoria rests on the hillside between the peak and the harbor. A CITY OF STAIRS ICTORIA, were it to be lifted bodily from the waters of the South China Sea and placed somewhere in the United States or Europe, would hardly prove a popu- lar place of residence — for the topography of the city usually prevents the use of automobiles or horse-drawn carriages. The streets are either long stretches of stairs ascending to the "Peak" — as the hill is called by the Europeans in Hongkong — or winding shelves on the slopes, and auto- mobiles and carriages often come to grief in one way or another while touring the city. Eighteen Since occidental conveyances are usually impracticable in Victoria, the Orient comes to the rescue, and jinrikishas and sedan chairs are used extensively by the residents, whether they be stout Chinese mandarins, sleek half-castes, or Englishmen on their way to tea, or dinner, or business. The HONGKONG customary charge for sedan chairs is 30 cents an hour, or $1.75 a day, for chairs with two coolies per chair, or just double this rate for chairs of four coolies per chair. The charge for jinrikishas varies consider- ably, but is always less than the rates for sedan chairs. High Caste Lady in Sedan Chair Several of the principal streets of Hong- kong are arranged in arcades so that, in the rainy season especially, the shoppers can parade without going into the open except at street corners. Many tempting curios are on sale in the various stores and shops, but the stranger, if he intends to visit Chi- nese cities on the continent, should delay Nineteen HONGKONG Villas on the Peak making purchases until then, for the Hong- kong merchants seek the trade, chiefly, of passengers from visiting steamers who are satisfied with inferior curios at much higher prices than those charged in the inland cities of China. The English have done their best to make Hongkong as much like home as pos- sible, and one of their ways of doing so is to Twenty name many of the streets after those in "Merrie England." Among the thorough- fares are several reminding the visitor of London rather than of Hongkong, such as Chancery Lane, Bonham Strand, Queen Victoria Street, Albert Road, and Aberdeen Street. Connaught Road, generally known as "Praya" or "Beach Road," is the principal street, or rather boulevard, in Hongkong. The road winds leisurely along the water front for a distance of 5 miles or more, and is a jaunting place on pleasant days for the foreign residents. ' ' Praya ' ' is one of several old names that have clung to landmarks in and around Hongkong since the Portuguese helped the Chinese in their expeditions against pirates before the coming of the British. Des Vaux Road, which runs parallel with and slightly above Connaught Road, is the shopping center of Hongkong and one of the few streets having a trolley line along its entire length. Queen's Road is the next thoroughfare above Des Yaux Road and runs between some of the principal buildings, often being as crowded as Broadway — but crowded HONGKONG with sedan chairs and jinrikishas instead of automobiles. The visitor, ascending the stair streets to Queen's Road, finds the British Navy Yards, Murray Barracks, the Parade Grounds, the Law Courts, the City Hall, and a spacious cricket field standing along the road. The "national capitol" of Hongkong is the Government House, which faces the Upper Albert Road at about the center of the city, and is surrounded by extensive grounds and gardens. The port and islands are ruled by a colonial governor, assisted by an executive council of seven members, and also a legislative council of seven persons in addition to two Chinese who hold unoffi- cial positions in the government. The commanders of the naval and military forces hold the most important positions in the legislative and executive councils. Other public offices and buildings in Hong- kong are as follows: Colonial Secretariat, Albert Road; Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, New Post Office Building; Sailors' Home, Des Vaux Road West; Supreme Court, New Law Courts; Police Magistrates' Court, Arbuthnot Road ; Civil Hospital, West Point; Lunatic Asylum, West Point; Botanical High Caste Lady's Feet and Forestry Department, i Albany Road; Queen's College, Aberdeen Street; Public Works' Department, Albert Road; Hong- kong Naval Yard; His Britannic Majesty's Military Forces, Headquarters, Victoria Barracks; U. S. Consulate, 9 Ice House Street. Twenty-One HONGKONG THE NATIVE QUARTER LTHOUGH the Chinese pop- ulation of Hongkong out- numbers the English by two or three score to one, the island has been so thoroughly Anglicized that the visitor sees little of n native manners and cus-/ toms unless he deliberately avoids the course followed by most travelers and roams through the native quarter seeking the strange and quaint and unusual in this island outpost of the British Empire. The European population of Hongkong does not consider it "quite the thing" to be seen in the Chinese quarter of the city, and many travelers follow their example; but the visitor who wishes to see something of native life and has no foolish scruples against exploring around a bit, despite "public opinion," invariably disregards the well meant advice of his fellow whites and is generally well repaid for his independ- ence. Even in the native quarter the influence of the civilization of the West is seen, Twenty- Two especially as regards dress, and many natives wear European clothing. Since Hongkong is near the tropics and the native dress is more suitable for warm weather than European clothing, the action of many of the natives in donning Western garb constitutes an appeal obviously to vanity rather than comfort. Another Western "custom" which has acquired favor in the native quarter of Hongkong is that of eating cornflakes, and the practice has caused the Chinese as much trouble and discomfort as that of wearing European clothing. One writer remarks that the first Chinese to eat cornflakes with chopsticks deserves special commendation for patient endeavor. In discussing clothing and cornflakes, however, we are getting away from our sub- ject, which is the native quarter of Hong- kong, and provided we are willing to brave the stares of the white population of the island, let us leave the "Orient of the West" behind and plunge into the Orient of the East. "Native quarter," in the sense here used, applies to the land population of Chinese Hongkong. There is a "native quarter" in HONGKONG the harbor and it is fully as picturesque as the Chinese city of the land, but that has been touched upon in a previous chapter and only the tenement district remains to be visited by the stranger before he completes his "slumming" tour of the island. Proceeding into the native quarter, the visitor finds himself in a district as crowded as Manhattan and with a people as varied in nationality as those in the East Side of New York City. The predominant race, of course, is Chinese, but there are East In- dians, Hindoos, South Sea Islanders, and other transplanted peoples whose presence heightens the cosmopolitan effect apparent even in the poorest sections of Hongkong. The Chinese land residents of the island live, for the most part, in tenements in the native quarter, and rich and poor (high caste and low caste) fill the streets with their bodies and the air with their voices, leading an existence sometimes placid and some- times disturbed — their peace of mind being generally dependent on the weather and the rice supply. There are narrow streets and dark, foul alleys, and damp cellars; dingy houses, whose frames look as if they had lived their lives Street in "Chinatown" and were preparing quietly to collapse; slant-eyed coolies in breech clouts, toiling beneath their loads of merchandise or prov- ender; mandarins in heavily embroidered robes that breathe a faint aroma of oriental perfumes; Chinese merchants in round black caps and satin slippers, chattering with their customers; pale yellow students with composed features and oily hair; long Twenty-Three HONGKONG Indian Street Musician and Child strips of paper hanging in front of the shops and stores inscribed with characters in the Chinese language. A little farther on we see a stout person with pigtail coiled around his head walk across the narrow sidewalk, lift himself into a jinrikisha and speak a word of command to Twenty-Four the diminutive human beast of burden who immediately starts up the crowded street, hauling the stout person at a good rate of speed. In the dirt of the street sits a beggar with sunken eyes and talons for fingers, and whose wrinkled skin resembles saffron- colored parchment. The beggar lifts his voice in a singsong whine for alms — and a "cash" or Chinese coin of little value is gratefully received with a word of blessing. If the beggar goes without alms he usually does not abuse the passers-by, nor hurl curses at them, as does the beggar of other nations, but instead he sits dreaming for a while and with a far-away look in his sunken eyes, only coming to himself with a start when the dull ache of hunger in his stomach reminds him that life still remains in his ancient body. On the other side of the street a school- girl in silk blouse and trousers, with mouse- like feet and shining hair, pilots a small person of five or six — evidently her brother — through the ebb and flow of traffic. They jabber excitedly and seem to find a great deal of interest in the quaint signs along the way. Following them is a small dog HONGKONG of questionable breed who stops a moment to fight the cloud of fleas swarming over him and snarls and yelps impatiently at the persistence of the insects. There is a great uproar at the corner. A coolie has dropped a sack of rice and the white kernels lie strewn about in the water and mud, while the owner of the grain, greatly angered and with contorted face, is belabor- ing the coolie with a club. Two native policemen interfere and lead the angry one and the coolie away. The angry one is expostulating in his singsong voice, while the coolie is busily engaged in rubbing his hurts. Upon turning a corner the odor of fish fills the nostrils and there, in long rows of stalls, are piled thousands of mackerel, trout, perch, and other specimens of the innumerable finny tribes which swarm in the waters around Hongkong. Some of the fish are fresh, but life in some of them, undoubtedly, has been extinct a long time. Both varieties are eagerly purchased by the Chinese who eat them with rice. The larger fish are sought by the wealthy classes, while tiny fish no larger than a small coin are bought by the poorest of the poor who con- sider them quite delectable. Field rats are *> also eaten by the natives, and this practice has given rise to the belief that Chinese are great eaters of common gray rats. Such a belief is really a libel on the Chinese — for the gray rats are as different from the field rats of China as the dogfish is from the succulent rainbow trout — and a respectable Chinaman would no sooner think of eating a common gray rat than an American would think of doing likewise. Twenty-Five HONGKONG Americans have little difficulty in finding their way around the native quarter of Hongkong, for most of the Chinese have a smattering of English and are usually very willing to volunteer information. When the visitor is unable to make himself under- stood by using the king's English he may succeed by speaking pidgin English. "Pid- gin" is the Chinese pronunciation of "busi- ness," and the dialect grew out of the efforts of traders and natives to understand each other. "Piecee" for "article," "chop-chop" for "get a move on," "savey" for "under- stand," and the Navy and Army term, "chow," are examples of the pidgin dialect. POPPIES AND PIPES PIUM smoking is supposed to have decreased in Hong- kong since the British took the island over, and doubt- less much has been done to wipe out the traffic in the dried juice of the poppy, but the vice has taken such a strong hold on the natives that efforts to cure them of the opium habit have Twenty-Six not been entirely successful and "poppies and pipes" are still in favor with many of the natives of Hongkong. Some opium is imported by Hongkong but the greater portion of the drug consumed by the natives is prepared from poppies grown on the island, and fields on fields of the scarlet flowers growing in the island districts stand as places of beauty to the traveler, unless perchance he calls to mind the black pipes, the sallow faces and the emaciated bodies of the smokers of opium in the tenement districts of Victoria. The poppy plant has been known in China for twelve centuries; and its product, opium, has been used both wisely as a medi- cine and not well as a narcotic for seven centuries. The juice is extracted from the green seed pods of the poppy as soon as the flower appears which is dried and made into little pellets, brownish red in color. The opium is then ready for use. Opium was introduced into China by Arabs during the thirteenth centurv and was at first used as a medicine. By the seven- teenth centurv, however, the people had formed the habit of smoking opium and early the eighteenth centurv the Government HONGKONG attempted to put an end to its use by for- bidding its importation. Despite the official ban the use of opium continued and more than a century later another effort was made to check the vice. A shipload of opium belonging to the English and worth, in American money, about ten million dollars was destroyed by the Chinese, and to pun- ish the Government for what was considered overzealousness, the British began the "Opium War" which continued from 1840 to 1842; and at the conclusion of hostilities the Chinese agreed to permit the importa- tion of opium into China. The practice of opium smoking spread so rapidly that poppies instead of rice were grown in many sections of China and fam- ines descended upon the ancient empire. A great deal of money was also taken out of the country to pay for opium imported from India. In 1906 the use of opium was forbidden in the Chinese schools and in the army, and all those who used the drug were ordered to cure themselves of the habit and the people were also forbidden to grow pop- pies for opium-making purposes. In 1 9 16 the Chinese Government finally passed a law putting an end to all traffic in %m .w **!&« TWlP iffi?' W.JE5 HhMPe^^i 'i^j^^^lW H'nfi E$fl * ^^^1 m Botanical Gardens opium, and addicts were given ten years in which to readjust their habits in accordance with the law. Hongkong is not included in the scope of the anti-opium law of the Chinese Gov- ernment and the traffic still continues on the island, although the British, realizing Twenty-Seven HONGKONG Chinese Girls — Botanical Gardens the harm wrought by use of the drug, are endeavoring to help the natives break them- selves of the opium habit. Opium smoking is practiced more gen- erally in the native quarter of Hongkong than in other districts and the traveler who tours the tenement districts can visit the so-called "dens of iniquity" where the odor Twenty-Eight of opium taints the air and where men give themselves up to the influence of the drug, dreaming fantastic dreams when under its spell and suffering the tortures of the damned when deprived of the "dried juice of the scarlet poppy." THE CENTURY PLANT MONO the natural curi- osities in the Botanical Gardens opposite the Gov- ernment House on Upper Albert Road is the century plant, or agave, which grows wild in many parts of China. The century plant sometimes reaches a height of 20 feet in Hongkong, and not in- frequently puts out blossoms contrary to the popular superstition that flowers bloom on a century plant only once in every hundred years. The Mexican drinks, "pulque" and "mescal," are made from several varieties of the century plant; the leaves are used as fodder and yield a fiber used in the manufac- ture of thread, cord, and rope. A substi- tute for soap is often made from the leaves HONGKONG Lgave Hedg Botanical Gardens of the century plant, and the stalks have been sliced into strips, dried, and used as razor strops, although century plant razor strops can hardly be compared to the leather kind. The papyrus, from which the ancient Egyptians manufactured their writing paper, is also found in the Botanical Gardens and is chiefly distinguished by its long, reedy stems from 4 to 1 6 feet in length and a large brownish, bristly flower at the top. The fiber of the papyrus is used in making sandals, mats, rope, coarse garments, and light sailcloth. There are many other varieties of Chinese plants and trees, and beds of chrysanthe- mums and roses, in the Botanical Gardens, all of which thrive in the subtropical climate of this distant possession of the British Empire. SEATS OF LEARNING HE prospective visitor in Hongkong who scans these pages should not imagine for a moment that because opium is used here to some extent, and because a large portion of the native popu- lation has yet to learn the ways of the civilization of the Occident, that the island is a center of vice nor even a purely typical example of the oriental world. Indeed, Hongkong is both oriental and occidental — Chinese and European — and its '/'..< nty-Nine HONGKONG Protestant Cemetery — Wong Nei Chung Valley people are no more inclined to wander into the questionable by-ways of life than the people of other occidental and oriental cities. We have read of the opium traffic in Hongkong and now comes something that is helping to eradicate that which is vicious — or merely ignorant — on the island and bringing about Thirty a better order of things, thanks to the praiseworthy efforts of the British. And that "something" is education. One of the leading institutions of higher learning in the Orient is Hongkong Univer- sity, founded in 1910, and modeled after the universities of Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, and London. The university offers to the Chinese a knowledge of Western science, and thousands of natives have visited the workshops and laboratories and, in consequence, have initiated electric light- ing projects and plans for using machinery. Queen's College, Staunton and Aberdeen Streets, is another institution of high rank in Hongkong and serves in a way as a pre- paratory school since its graduates are eligi- ble for the University of Hongkong. Hongkong is said to have less illiteracy than any other city in China and credit for this fact is given to the mission schools, as well as to the schools under Government supervision — which include not only the university and college, but a thorough sys- tem of elementary classes. Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism are the prevailing religions among the natives of Hongkong, although many of HONGKONG them have been converted to Christianity by the American and European missionaries on the island. The Chinese joss houses in Victoria add a bit of "local color" to the principal districts and there are also several Christian churches. Among the occidental places of worship are the following: St. John's Church (Roman Catholic), Garden Road; St. John's Cathedral (Episcopal), Garden Road near the Parade Grounds; the Roman Catholic Cathedral, Caine Road near the center of the city; and St. Peter's (built especially for sailors), on the corner of Des Yaux Road and Western Street. Union Church, Kennedy Road, is the largest Protestant church in the city, being main- tained by several denominations, including Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Metho- dists, Baptists, and others. Hongkong also has a Jewish synagogue. The Hongkong Y. M. C. A., on Bridges Street, occupies the entire block from Ladder Street to Tank Lane, and is a modern, well- equipped building modeled after the "Y" buildings in the United States. The facili- ties include a gymnasium and swimming pool and outdoor courts for volley ball and basket ball. Roman Catholic Cathedral Among the clubs listed in Rosenstock's directory for 1918 are the following: Hong- kong Corinthian Yacht Club, Praya East, opposite No. 2 Police Station; The Catholic Union (a club for young men), Roman Cath- olic Compound, Glenealy; Civil Service Cricket Club; Club Lusitano, 20 Shelley Street; Craigengower Cricket Club, Wong Nei Chong, Recreation Ground; Hongkong Club, Chater and Connaught Roads; Hongkong Thirty-One HONGKONG 1 , • » -J^j "^sfiE? '':■ " * *, i <-* Bovasta Hotel and Praya Grande — Macao Cricket Club, grounds at Cricket Pavilion; Hongkong Cricket League, 144 Des Vaux Road; Hongkong Jockey Club, Chater Road; Hongkong Polo Club, Causeway Bay; Kow- loon Bowling Green Club, Kings Park, Kowloon; Kowloon Cricket Club, Kings Park, Kowloon; Peak Club, Mount Gough Road; Royal Hongkong Golf Club, Happy Thirty-Two Valley; Deepwater Bay, 9 holes; Fanling, 18 holes; Royal Hongkong Yacht Club, North Point; United Sendee Recreation Club (rowing, swimming, and boxing), cor- ner Murray Road and Connaught Road. CHINESE MOVIE FANS HE "movies" have invaded Hongkong and furnish en- tertainment for thousands of foreign residents of the island, and the natives have become as devoted to the "silver screen" as the people of the United States and European countries. The Chinese pre- fer comedies to tragedies and as a result Chaplin and Arbuckle are great favorites among the natives in Victoria. There are few theaters other than moving picture in Hongkong, because English theatrical com- panies seldom visit the island. Quaint theatrical productions are staged by the natives and these plays invariably arouse interest among those strangers who seldom have an opportunity to witness plays in other than their own tongue. The Theater HONGKONG Roval at Queen's Road Central is one of the principal playhouses in Hongkong. Happv Valley is the most popular out- door recreation center in Hongkong, a,nd on gala days many thousands of people travel to the valley where they view the horse races and cricket, football, or tennis matches. Many of the island clubs have their head- quarters in Happy Valley, and sportsmen generally make it a point to visit the recrea- tion center during their stay in Hongkong. ON VICTORIA PEAK ICTORIA Peak, which stands about 2,000 feet above sea level, is reached by road and cable railway and is another popular place of interest on the island of Hongkong. The lower sta- tion of the Peak tram, or railway, is on Garden Road just above the Episcopal Cathedral, and the upper station is located at the Peak Hotel. While climbing the slopes of the Peak from the city the traveler sees the villas of European and American residents peeping from masses of trees surrounded by flower Br* '*" SI , "^*kv™ ^.T" ' . HP ' f ^■IhI I hL_ — ^ Incline Railway up the Peak gardens, and there are also tourist hotels, parks, and gardens. The tram does not go the entire distance to the Peak but stops at the Peak Hotel, and the passengers take sedan chairs or jin- rikishas, or walk the remaining distance to the top of the hill. From the elevation the visitor sees the city and harbor spread out before him and in the distance the haze which marks the coast of China. Thirty-Three HONGKONG Summit of Victoria Peak Walking down from the Peak is a favorite afternoon pastime, the trip taking about an hour's time. The sudden change from sea level to the top of the peak often nauseates those who are not acclimated, and the possi- bility of paying such a price should be taken into consideration before the trip is begun. Hongkong is covered by rugged hills and small valleys, through which a number of Thirty-Four streams flow over rocky beds, and the scenic splendor of many parts of the island is a sufficient recommendation for a tour outside the city. Although automobiles are seldom seen in Victoria, because of the shelf-and-stair streets, the machines are often used in tour- ing the island and one of the most popular motor routes follows the base of the hills through Aberdeen to Repulse Bay. The own- ers of the Hongkong Hotel have built a new hotel at Repulse Bay and there is also a swim- ming beach. The road proceeding beyond Repulse Bay enables the traveler to complete a circuit of the island. The rates for auto- mobile hire range from $6 to $10 an hour. On another tour to Fanling, through the "new territory," the traveler gets a glimpse of Chinese village life as well as a view of the sea and shore. The dockyards, sugar refinery, and dairy farm are among the principal places of interest in and around Fanling. A third tour recommended by travelers is over the Jubilee Road to Aberdeen. The road passes through Pokfolum, where the publishing plant of the French mission is located. This plant is said to have the largest collection of type in the world, HONGKONG including metal for printing in every oriental language. There is also a large sanitarium at Pokfolum. Aberdeen is a quaint fishing village and the scene of the annual Dragon Boat races, which arouse as much interest among the natives as the Yale-Harvard races do in the United States or the Oxford-Cambridge races in England. Many of the natives in Aberdeen own cormorants trained to fish in the waters around the village. A piece of hemp string is tied around the neck of the bird so that it can not swallow its catch and thereupon obediently swims back to its master's boat and delivers up the fish. A TRIP TO KOWLOON TfjHE peninsula of Kowloon, or Laolung, is across the bay from Hongkong, and the trip can be made in 2 hours by ferry boats, which leave Victoria every i o minutes. The old walled city of Kowloon is the main attraction on the peninsula and the traveler can there see the Chinese under Kowloon Seen from Bowen Road — Hongkong circumstances a bit more typical than in Hongkong. Macao lies across the bay, 35 miles west of Kowloon, and in this Portuguese-Chinese city the stranger finds an oriental Monte Carlo unlike any other city in the Far East. Its bright pink, blue, and yellow plaster buildings as seen from the water front Thirty-Five HONGKONG present a gay appearance ; the streets swarm with Chinese; the church and convent bells ring through every hour of the day; and, in strange contrast to the sound of the bells, the click of roulette wheels and the rattle of dice are heard in the gambling houses that fill the streets and alleys. The Portuguese settled in Macao nearly five centuries ago and intermarried with the Chinese to such an extent that few Portu- guese of pure blood remain on the peninsula. The settlers planned to make Macao a greater gambling place than Monte Carlo, and while they have not definitely succeeded in doing so, they have managed to give Macao a reputation for being quite a resort among those who are fond of bowing before the fickle Goddess of Chance. Most of the Chinese in Macao are invet- erate gamblers and seem to be fond of play- ing everything except the American game of poker. When the natives win they stake their winnings in an effort to obtain more. And they are generally plucky losers, sometimes betting the clothes on their backs to retrieve their fortunes after they have lost the last cent of their money. The betting sometimes becomes more or less, Thirty-Six gruesome. For example, the story is told that the Chinese sometimes bet their fingers and, if they lose, they promptly pay the wager. Two steamers leave Hongkong for Macao every day, except Sunday. The round trip costs about $3.50 and a one-way passage requires about three hours' time. Information regarding excursions may be obtained at Cook's Tourist Agency on Des Vaux Road in Hongkong or at the Chinese Y. M. C. A. on Bridges Street in the eastern part of the city. One of the best excursions is by sedan chair over Bowen Road to the reservoir at Tytam, or Taitam, by way of the Wong Nei Chung Gap. MONEY AND POSTAGE ONGKONG has its own currency, and besides the official money, the old Mex- ican or Spanish dollar is still accepted on the island. It is difficult to quote ex- change rates on money in China inasmuch as values are constantly shifting. As an illustration of the fluctuations in exchange rates, the HONGKONG Statesman's Year Book for 191 9 gives the following values by years for the Hongkong dollar: 1913, 2s.; 1914, io>