In my youth, ships used to anchor in the middle of the harbour. Small junks and sampans would sail out to them. Cargo would be winched from the ships to the junks, which would then bring them ashore to be stored in godowns.

Then some genius invented the idea of using large containers for carrying cargo. Hong Kong had to find somewhere to house container terminals. Lai Chi Kok was one of the areas where land was reclaimed and container terminals were created.

Where I used to swim as a kid there is now a lovely Chinese Garden, built on part of that reclaimed land. It is called the Lingnam Garden.

The photo above shows the old Sham Shui Po Police Station in Kowloon which is still in active service.

In the early years of the British Colony, piracy was a serious problem.

Some years before Hong Kong was established, a woman called Ching Shih became the leader of the pirates and she commanded a fleet of 600 ships and about 50,000 hardened pirates. They fought pitch battles against the Portuguese navy.

Although the threat of piracy had been reduced, due in part to the victories of the Portuguese, the British were still faced with sporadic attacks from local pirates. The Marine Police were tasked with defending local shipping from such attacks.

Up until 1907 the Time Ball (highlighted in red in the photo) would be raised high and then swiftly lowered precisely at Noon. Before 1907, the Signal Tower would have been visible to most ships anchored in the harbour. The Noon Day Gun would have been fired at the same time to give ships' navigators the precise time to check their chronometers. Back in the day before GPS and Satellite Navigation, ships would need accurate time to calculate Longitude.

Mind you, because we were a young crew of six who were rank amateurs, with minimal sailing experience, we ended up getting much more publicity in the press than the rich man who won the race, on a yatch called "Solo". That really pissed that rich man off, much to our proletarian delight! It took his Solo just 7 days to sail from Auckland to Sydney. It took our Shiralee 15 days.

A few years after the Second World War, it was once again renamed, this time as the King George V School (KGV). My brother and I were in the very first intake of students enrolled in that school in 1946, when it was reopened after the War, and when it was still called the Central British School.

This building now houses the Antiquities and Monuments Office. It is located at 136 Nathan Road, opposite what is now Kowloon Park.

Sir Robert was a fascinating man. He was born Robert Ho Tung Bosman. His father was of Dutch Jewish ancestry and his mother was Chinese, who came from what is now Shenzhen. Although Sir Robert was Eurasian, he considered himself to be Chinese, and often dressed accordingly.

By the age of 35, he was regarded as the richest man in Hong Kong. He was renowned for his philanthropy, and had donated generously for education, medicine and the arts.

I was very lucky to meet him in the late 1940s, when he must have been in his 80s. My brother was a very talented pianist and he had been invited to play at a soiree hosted by Sir Robert.

I tagged along as the younger brother. I had learnt to play the violin, and, although I was a truly lousy violinist, I did learn how to read music, so my job at that soiree was to turn the pages of the music score for my brother.

I recall that on that occasion, Sir Robert wore a traditional Chinese costume and he looked very distinguished.

Another great philanthropist, Sir Catchick Paul Chater (1846 - 1926), made a donation of HK$35,000 which allowed the Church to be completed in 1906.

One interesting bit of its history reveals that during the Second World War, when Hong Kong was occupied by the Japanese, the Church building was under serious threat of demolition, until it was briefly turned into a Shinto Shrine!

That saved it from the scrap heap.

Some people I know may be horrified to discover that Sir Paul secretly took soundings of Hong Kong harbour at night in a sampan, and he was thus involved in the very earliest land reclamation schemes in the Crown Colony.

He also built in Hong Kong one of the earliest electric power stations in the world. His Hong Kong Electric Company started business in 1890.

He was a keen cricketer and he loved horse racing. Apparently, he never missed the weekly races in Happy Valley in 60 years!

This photo show the Lye Mun Passage. It is the narrowest gap between Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, and it was here that the Japanese forces crossed over to the Island on the 18th December, 1941.

Behind the museum, the long white building with the verandah arches is the old Lye Mun Barracks. I am told that those barracks witnessed some atrocities during the invasion of Hong Kong.

The main building, shown above, is a replica of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. I particularly like the two Chinese Lions guarding the insence holder.

Kowloon derives its name from the ridge of mountains separating it from the New Territories. There are 9 peaks on that ridge and they are known as the Nine Dragons. In Chinese, these Nine Dragons are called Gow Loong (Kowloon).