A couple of weekends ago I joined Thomas to explore the WW2 radar station [1] and anti-aircraft gun sites [2] that the Japanese built on Tai Mo Shan. We'd read Tymon Mellor's account of the Japanese wartime radar site there [3], and wanted to see what remains today.

"Tai Mo Shan" is Cantonese for "Big hat mountain", and it certainly had its cloudy hat on the day we visited. Despite the fog we still found lots to see.

Getting there - the walk to the site

Here's the route we took, marked in red on the map [4].

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The short version:

In February I visited Barbara Anslow for a chat about her memories of moving to Hong Kong in 1927, aged eight years old. Below the recording I've added photos and additional notes.

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Additional notes:

In 1904, aged just 21, G. Warren Swire became a director of his father’s firm, John Swire & Sons Ltd. Two years later he was sailing east to visit the company’s operations in China. Fortunately for Hong Kong’s record, he was a keen photographer.

Here’s what he saw on that first visit…

1906-7 Dockyard construction