156-661: The Kowloon–Canton Railway ( KCR ; Chinese : 九廣鐵路 ; Cantonese Yale : Gáugwóng Titlouh ) was a railway network in Hong Kong . It was owned and operated by the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) until 2007. Rapid transit services, a light rail system, feeder bus routes within Hong Kong, and intercity passenger and freight train services to China on the KCR network, have been operated by
312-500: A flag stop at Tai Po Market ( aka .Tai Po New Market, Tai Wo Market) which shortly became a proper station for passenger service. 1910 the Kowloon–Canton Railway owned four steam locomotives, eight coaches and 40 goods wagons. Traffic on the new railway was at first quiet as there was little demand for passenger and freight services by the inhabitants of the then undeveloped New Territories north of Beacon Hill. Only after
468-522: A 1796 edict issued by the Jiaqing Emperor and the only way that the drug could enter the country was if it was smuggled in. At the time, opium was legal and considered relatively safe in the West. As a result, the trade hungry British Empire considered China's refusal to allow imports of the drug an affront to their principles of free trade espoused by Adam Smith and other leading thinkers of
624-652: A Briton could establish a business on the East India Company's preserves. He could accept the consulship of a foreign country and register under its laws. This method, first used by the Scot's born seaman John Reid , was employed by Jardine to establish himself in Canton . He followed in the footsteps of Magniac, who had obtained an appointment from the King of Prussia as Vice-Consul under his brother Charles, and became
780-602: A bond issue floated in London in April of the same year. The importance attached to the project was reflected in a speech made to the Hong Kong Legislative Council by the colonial governor, Sir Frederick Lugard , in 1908: "You will recall that in 1905 it was decided to build the railway by means of a loan. It was not a question of whether the undertaking would be an immediately remunerative concern; it
936-743: A broken and humiliated man, was allowed to return to Macao by land and not by ship as requested. Struck down by a fever, he died a few days later. Following this debacle, William Jardine saw an opportunity to convince the British government to use force to further open trade. In early 1835 he ordered James Matheson to leave for Britain to persuade the Government to take strong action in pursuit of this end. Matheson accompanied Napier's widow to England using an eye-infection as an excuse to return home. On arrival, he travelled extensively and held meetings both for government and trade purposes to gather support for
1092-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
1248-507: A commercial approach to operating what was increasingly becoming a major business in investment and revenue terms. Corporatisation of public services as a means to permit government-owned public utilities to operate more along the lines of private sector business was an approach that was beginning to gather interest at the time from several governments – the US and UK governments under Reagan and Thatcher being prime movers. The object of corporatisation
1404-413: A flourishing tea trade with China, leading many people to question the company's continued monopoly. Further, certain high-handed methods used by the East India Company in dealing with competitors aroused the moral indignation of the British at home while anybody that sought to enter the market and bring competition to the company was labelled a privateer – "a pirate" for which the penalty was "death without
1560-522: A free merchant and later, in 1828, joined the established firm of Magniac & Co, which was the forerunner to Jardine Matheson & Co. James Matheson was born in 1796 in the far north of mainland Scotland and also attended Edinburgh University. He began work in 1815 as a free merchant in Calcutta at his uncle's Agency House, Mackintosh & Co., trading goods and services between different markets and communities. One day his uncle entrusted him with
1716-531: A letter to be delivered to the captain of a soon-to-depart British vessel. Matheson forgot to deliver the missive and the vessel sailed without it. Incensed at his nephew's negligence, the uncle suggested that young James might be better off back in England. He took his uncle at his word and went to engage a passage back home. Instead, on the advice of an old sea captain, Matheson went to Canton. Here he became an independent merchant acting as agent for firms engaged in
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#17327876677991872-523: A monopoly on carriage of passengers and goods into and out of China. It took a further 30 years before the idea of building a railway from Hong Kong to China was again given serious consideration. In the last decade of the 19th century increasing diplomatic and trade activity by France in Guangzhou (Canton) and the granting of a concession to Belgian interests to construct a railway from Beijing to Hankou , led to diplomatic and commercial concerns from
2028-526: A naturalised Briton of Huguenot extraction named Charles Magniac, brother of Hollingworth Magniac , both of whom would later partner with the Scotsman. Jardine learned that there were ways by which to a small extent the monopoly of the East India Company could be circumvented so in 1819 Jardine left his first employers and began the process of establishing his own private firm. In 1822, he set up in Canton as
2184-696: A railway from Kowloon to Guangzhou that would link to the Beijing–Hankou–Guangzhou line . While the British & Chinese Corporation undertook a preliminary survey of the proposed route of the line in 1899, the financial uncertainties created by the Boxer Rebellion in China (1899–1901) and the Boer War (1899–1902) in South Africa made it difficult for the corporation to raise funds for
2340-542: A rate of about 100,000 per month during this period. Although freight demand to China gradually fell, the influx of people from China continued due to the Chinese Civil War . Through-train passenger services to China stopped on 14 October 1949, the day prior to the capture of Guangzhou by the Communists. Passengers and goods then had to be transhipped at the border. Despite the inconvenience that this caused,
2496-572: A severe decline in rail revenue. The situation saw little improvement until 1955, and to reduce the operating costs of the steam locomotives a decision was taken in 1954 to gradually replace these with diesel locomotives. For the rest of the 1950s and 1960s, despite some short-term disturbances in 1967 resulting from a spill over into Hong Kong of the Cultural Revolution in China, both domestic and cross-border traffic continued to show steady overall growth. One major decision taken during
2652-619: A tariff imposed on those travelling across the border to mainland China. There are two payment methods: In 1998, the MTR and KCR started using the Octopus Access Control System as the main payment method for travel on its network, replacing the Common Stored Value Tickets . Octopus cards are rechargeable, contactless smart cards , thus the value of the money is digitally stored in the card, and
2808-578: A trading and military base on 26 January 1841, though it had already been used for years as a transhipment point. Trade with China, especially in illegal opium, grew, and so did the firm of Jardine, Matheson and Co, by that time already known as the "Princely Hong" for its status as the largest British trading firm in East Asia. In the 1840s, the Royal Navy leased several carronade -armed clippers from Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1840 to supplement
2964-448: A war with China. In some ways unsuccessful in his mission, on being brushed aside by the "Iron Duke" ( Duke of Wellington ), the then British Foreign Secretary , he reported bitterly to Jardine of being insulted by an arrogant and stupid man, but nevertheless his activities and widespread lobbying in several forums including Parliament bore the seeds that would eventually lead to war. Matheson returned to China in 1836 to prepare to take over
3120-812: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
3276-515: Is an island at the mouth of the Pearl River , about 90 miles (140 km) from Canton separated from the mainland of Kowloon by a strip of water which at the narrowest point is only 440 yards (400 m) wide. As late as 1840, the island seemed to have no potential development value. Lying just below the Tropic of Cancer , its climate was considered hot, humid, and unhealthy. In area the island
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#17327876677993432-407: Is less than 30 square miles (78 km ), and rises steeply from the water. Before westerners arrived, the total land and water population of around 5,000 fisherfolk and quarrymen lived along the eastern and southern shores. It was also suspected that pirates used the island as a hiding place. Prima facie, the only thing to recommend the island was its natural deep-water harbour. "Hong Kong" came from
3588-406: Is not advisable at present to interfere with any water communications which are already established and can generally be worked more cheaply than railway traffic." The main reason for this decision, which effectively killed MacDonald Stephenson's idea, was that many of the businessmen concerned had a personal interest in protecting their investments in the established shipping companies that enjoyed
3744-548: Is now known simply as the Light Rail. Mong Kok station on the East Rail was renamed Mong Kok East. On 2 August 2007, Chief Executive Donald Tsang announced that, considering the technical requirements, passenger forecast, Hong Kong's future economic development and the closer trade ties between Hong Kong and Guangdong, the new Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link would adopt the dedicated-corridor option after
3900-566: Is now owned jointly by Veolia Transport and The Wharf (Holdings) , successor to The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited. Jardines insurance business, founded as the Canton Insurance Office in 1836 to support its shipping business, began offering underwriting services in many of the places where the company had offices and agencies and, as late as 1860, was still the only insurance company in China. In addition, to cater for clients travelling between Europe and
4056-459: Is one of the old warehouses with the date 1843 engraved in the stone above the door. and establish their head office in what was officially declared a new British colony in 1843. Godowns, wharves, offices and houses were also built on the island and facilities established to maintain Jardine's fleet of ships and their crews. At the same time, the company played an active role in the development of
4212-537: Is satisfactory." The British Section of the original Kowloon–Canton Railway was originally operated by a department within the Hong Kong Government. Following the government's plan to corporatise the operation of the railway, the Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation (KCRC) was established in December 1982, with the government remaining as the sole shareholder. With the development and urbanisation of
4368-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
4524-613: The British and Chinese Corporation (BCC). The civil engineering partnership of John Wolfe-Barry and Arthur John Barry were appointed Joint Consulting Engineers to the British and Chinese Corporation. The Corporation rebuilt the old Woosung line and then went on to be responsible for much of the development of China's railway system, both in the Yangtze valley and in extensions of the northern Imperial Railways from Shanhaiguan to Niuzhuang and Mukden . The Shanghai to Nanjing line
4680-531: The Cantonese Heung Gawng (香港) meaning "fragrant harbour" and possibly originated from the scent emanating from the sandalwood incense factories across the water in what is now Shenzhen . James Matheson had long believed in the future of Hong Kong. In his own words: "...the advantage of Hongkong would be that the more the Chinese obstructed trade in Canton, the more they would drive trade to
4836-498: The Danish Consul . On this basis the partners had nothing to fear from the company and over time relations between the firm and the East India Company seemed to become amicable. It is recorded that when ships of the East India Company were detained outside the harbour by the authorities, Jardine offered his services "without fee or reward." These services saved the East India Company a considerable sum of money and earned Jardine
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4992-574: The Kensiu language . British and Chinese Corporation Jardine, Matheson & Co. , later Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd. , forerunner of today's Jardine Matheson Holdings , was a Far Eastern company founded in 1832 by Scotsmen William Jardine and James Matheson as senior partners. Trafficking opium in Asia, while also trading cotton, tea, silk and a variety of other goods, from its early beginnings in Canton (modern-day Guangzhou), in 1844
5148-572: The Legislative Council and the minority shareholders of the MTRC (the government, which had a 75% stake in the MTRC, did not vote). It was later decided that the merging of the corporations' two rail networks would take place on 2 December 2007. Since then the KCRC has become a holding company. Under the service concession, the MTRC pays the KCRC a fixed annual sum of HK$ 750 million, and from
5304-596: The Pootung Wharf purchased. The Star Ferry Company, started by Parsee Dorabjee Nowrojee was bought by the Jardine/Chater controlled Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited in 1898. The company operated steam powered ferries between Hong Kong island and the Kowloon peninsula. Jardines helped establish Hong Kong's tram system, which began directly as an electric tram in 1904. The company
5460-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
5616-547: The reform and opening up of the country. The British and other nations had traded informally with China since the beginning of the seventeenth century. Chinese silk and tea gradually became popular in Britain, but imperial China had little need for British manufactured imports such as woollens. Concerned at what they saw as the encroachment of "barbarians" in their Celestial Kingdom , successive Chinese emperors issued numerous edicts restricting trade with foreigners under what
5772-593: The 10th Plenary of the Hong Kong/Guangdong Co-operation Joint Conference. The Kowloon–Canton Railway Corporation had submitted a detailed project proposal to the government. However, the project was instead built by the MTRC. In 2017, the Hong Kong Government announced that Guangzhou–Shenzhen–Hong Kong Express Rail Link would be leased to KCRC, and MTR would operate the railway under the rail merger service concession agreement. There were two different fare classes on
5928-733: The 19th century, the western colonial powers competed with each other to establish and maintain commercial and political spheres of influence in China . Hong Kong held a vital position in protecting British trading interests in South China. The idea of connecting Hong Kong and China with a railway was first proposed to prominent Hong Kong businessmen in March 1864 by a British railway engineer, Sir Rowland MacDonald Stephenson , who had considerable experience of developing railways in India . The minutes of
6084-619: The British Section (as it became known) depended on the raising of the loan for the Chinese Section. The arrangements were finally ratified by the Hong Kong Government's passage of the Railway Loans Ordinance in 1905, clearing the way for construction of the British Section. It took until 1907, however, for the loan agreement for the Chinese Section to be concluded, with the financing being provided by way of
6240-532: The British about protecting Hong Kong as the major trading port for South China. Li Hanzhang [ zh ] , Qing governor of the Guangdong province, also made at the time a similar proposal for a railway connecting Guangzhou with the rural hamlet of Sham Shui Po just outside the British border . Britain was at the time vastly expanding her sphere of influence in the Far East and was striving to obtain
6396-400: The China trade became more difficult due to increased controls by the Chinese government to halt the worsening outflow of silver. This trade imbalance arose because Chinese imports of opium exceeded exports of tea and silk. A rush to participate in the fast developing China trade, which was initially centred on tea, had begun when the East India Company monopoly ended in 1834. From the middle of
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6552-493: The Chinese Section was completed and opened in 1911 did traffic start to build up as people took advantage of the fast journey time of only 3 hours 40 minutes from Kowloon to Guangzhou. Little changed up until the Second World War, with the commercial success of the railway being closely linked to events in China. During the defence of Hong Kong in December 1941, various bridges and tunnels were deliberately blown up by
6708-450: The Chinese name "Ewo" (怡和洋行), meaning "Happy Harmony" and taken from the former well-regarded Ewo hong run by Howqua as one of Canton's Thirteen Factories. By 1830, the enemies of the East India Company had begun to triumph, and its hold on trade with the East had noticeably weakened with Jardine Matheson by then controlling around half of China's foreign trade. During the mid-1830s,
6864-513: The Chinese ports. They were fast enough to make the 400-mile (640 km) trip in two days less than rival P & O vessels. In spite of firm resistance, Jardines lobbied hard against the government of China for many years to open a railway system. This failed completely, but in 1876 Jardines attempted to move forward on its own by forming the Woosung Road Company to purchase a 10-mile-long road between Shanghai and Wusong for
7020-469: The East India Company's old market supported by its fleet of fast, elegant tea clippers that could out-sail most competitors to be the first to reach consumer markets. These included the Sylph , which set an unbroken speed record by sailing from Calcutta to Macao in 17 days, 17 hours. Jardines was also the first company to engage an official 'tea taster' in China to ensure they had a greater understanding of
7176-607: The Far East, the firm had representation along the main steamer routes and at points on the Trans-Siberian Railway , including an agency in Moscow. The Canton Insurance office was later renamed the Lombard Insurance Co. Known in Chinese as Yíhé Lóuqì Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī (怡和機器有限公司), literally, "Happy Harmony Tool House", what became Jardine Engineering Corporation (JEC) in 1923 grew out of the period when
7332-466: The Japanese and had to be reconstructed from the memories of serving and previous staff; shortages of coal for the engines necessitating their conversion to burning fuel oil; currency exchange rate difficulties due to devaluation of the Chinese currency requiring agreement with the Chinese authorities to use the Hong Kong dollar as the basis for all transactions; worn-out equipment; and staff shortages. At
7488-575: The KCR: Adult and Concessionary. Only children between the ages of 3 and 12, and senior citizens 65 years or over qualified for the concessionary rate. Like the MTR, the KCR did not provide a concessionary fare for students, although there was a student discount system available for students who lived in Tuen Mun , Yuen Long and Tin Shui Wai . Fares on the East Rail, Ma On Shan Rail, West Rail and
7644-598: The KCRC accepted the government's invitation to build and operate a light rail system in northwestern New Territories. The Light Rail Transit (known later as the KCR Light Rail, and now simply the Light Rail ) was opened in 1988. The KCRC won a bid in 1996 to build a "Western Corridor Railway", later branded as the KCR West Rail and opened in 2003. The British Section of the original Kowloon–Canton Railway
7800-514: The Kowloon hills at Beacon Hill and reclamation in Kowloon for a terminus. However, underestimation of the challenges, changes in design, depreciation of the Hong Kong dollar against the pound sterling (much of the equipment had to be imported from Britain), difficulties in recruiting suitable labour coupled with a high mortality and sickness rate amongst the workers ( malaria , beri beri and dysentery were endemic in Hong Kong at that time) and right-of-way land acquisition costs greatly pushed up
7956-420: The Light Rail (Octopus fare system only) were based on the distance between the start and end points of the journey. The Light Rail implemented a zone-based fare system for single journey tickets; there are six zones in total. The fare for first-class service on the East Rail was double that of normal fares. Fares to Lo Wu were substantially higher than fares to the station just before, Sheung Shui , because of
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#17327876677998112-694: The MTR Corporation since 2007. While still owned by its previous operator, the KCR network (which is wholly owned by the Hong Kong Government through the KCRC) has been operated by the MTR Corporation Limited under a 50-year, extensible, service concession since 2 December 2007. The two companies have merged their local metro lines into one unified fare system. Immediately after the merger, steps were taken to integrate
8268-480: The New Territories, the British Section became an important corridor to connect the new towns in eastern New Territories with urban Kowloon. Electrification and conversion to a dual-track system was completed in 1984. Since then, the suburban rail became much more metro -like. Frequent service was provided, and in the 1990s trains were refurbished to provide fewer seats and more standing places. In 1984,
8424-637: The Octopus card to travel on the KCR was slightly cheaper than using Single Journey Tickets. Various discount schemes on different lines, and free or discounted transfer to other modes of transport have to be done through Octopus card. Updated: Dec 2009 ²This steam engine was once used on the Sha Tau Kok Branch Line, but since its closing in 1924, the engine has been displayed in the Tai Po Railway Museum. It has been
8580-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
8736-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
8892-438: The amount can be automatically calculated and deducted by Octopus card readers. The system was originally proposed and introduced by the MTR. It has been extended to different services such as minibuses , franchised buses, supermarkets, and fast food restaurants. It has the potential to be further developed in other fields of services. The older, traditional magnetic ticketing system is also still in use for single journeys. Using
9048-551: The amount divided amongst the partners amounted to $ 15,000,000 – approximately £129,480,000 at 2011 values, "the greater part of which had been accumulated in the opium traffic." Nevertheless, in the face of increasing domestic Chinese competition and a growing anti-opium movement back home in England, in 1872 Jardines formulated an explicit policy ending significant involvement in the opium trade. This move freed up huge amounts of capital, which were then available for investment in new market sectors. In terms of property, Jardines were
9204-405: The benefit of clergy." Occasionally, free traders did manage to secure a license from the company to engage in the "country trade," usually with India, but never with Britain. Other free traders, called "interlopers" who competed with the Company ran the risk of having their cargoes seized by the company's navy of armed Indiamen before they were hanged. There was one method available by which
9360-473: The building and it is today home to the Shanghai Foreign Trade Bureau ( 外贸大楼 ). In 1862, William Keswick bailed out the fledgling Shanghai Race Club to avoid its financial ruin. At its Spring and Autumn meetings, rivalry between the big hongs such as Jardines and Dents proved intense. The private EWO stables, located next to the Shanghai Race Club, housed 46 ponies in 1922 while the firm had 21 gentlemen riders on its payroll. New offices were also opened in
9516-535: The business of importing machinery, tools and industrial equipment to support China's development, until then handled by Jardine's Engineering Department, increased to a stage where it could stand alone as a separate company. JEC pioneered ammonia-type air conditioners and new types of heating and sanitation as well as in 1935 providing the vault doors for the new headquarters of The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in Hong Kong. JEC also introduced fluorescent strip lighting into Hong Kong in 1940 and in 1949 installed
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#17327876677999672-474: The claimed concerns of the villager elders at the time was to be able to carry coffins across the tracks to the nearest road as not all villages were served by an alternate road access. During this 10-year period, thought had also been given by the government as to the future management of the railway. Hitherto the railway had been run as a department of the government, and was subject to the normal civil service rules and requirements. This made it difficult to take
9828-404: The committee of the Chamber of Commerce meeting in Hong Kong, where a letter setting out his ideas was considered on 7 March 1864, stated that "the opinions of the Chamber in respect to his suggestions should be recorded in the form of a letter, to the effect that the Committee deem it essential for the advancement of the project that short lines of railway should at first only be tried, and that it
9984-442: The company's gratitude. The earlier activities of Jardine, Matheson, Beale and Magniac made an important contribution to the 1834 termination of the East India Company's monopoly in China whereupon Jardine, Matheson & Co. took this opportunity to fill the vacuum left by the company's departure. That year the firm sent the first private shipments of "Jardines' Pickwick tea mixture", a blend of Chinese teas , from Whampoa aboard
10140-505: The day. William Jardine was born in 1784 in the south west of Scotland and graduated from Edinburgh University with a degree in medicine. In 1803, at the age of 19, he became a surgeon on the ships of the British East India Company working the trading routes between London, China and India; a position he held for the next 14 years. As a senior ship's officer, Jardine was allocated an amount of cargo space equal to two chests which he could use to conduct his own business. Using this space,
10296-471: The defeat of Japan, the railway was in a sorry state. Initially the task of restoring the railway to a working condition rested with the military. Twelve locomotives were urgently ordered from Britain (arriving in 1946–47) and efforts focussed on bringing the railway up to a workable condition. Civilian management of the railway was again resumed in 1946. The post-war management faced many problems, including lack of records, which had almost all been destroyed by
10452-617: The different varieties of tea, thus enabling them to command the best prices. In the early years of the 19th century both Jardine and Matheson went into partnership with Magniac, who subsequently retired to England in 1828. In 1832, two years before the East India Company lost its monopoly over British trade with China, the partnership was restructured as Jardine Matheson and Company with William Jardine, James Matheson, Alexander Matheson, Jardine's nephew Andrew Jardine, Matheson's nephew Hugh Matheson, John Abel Smith , Henry Wright and Hollingworth Magniac as its first partners. The firm later adopted
10608-414: The doctor soon discovered that trading opium was more profitable than practicing medicine. It was during these early days that Jardine found himself on board a ship captured by the French with all its cargo seized. Despite this setback, a trading partnership formed at the time by Jardine with a fellow passenger, a Parsee Indian called Jamsetjee Jeejebhoy , would endure for many years. In Canton, Jardine met
10764-518: The early decades of the twentieth century with new cold storage, packing and brewing businesses while the firm also became the largest cotton spinner in Shanghai. After the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, doing business in the country became increasingly problematic. As a result, foreign businesses gradually withdrew from the mainland with Jardines leaving in 1954 to reconsolidate its business in Hong Kong. The firm would not return to mainland China until 1979, following
10920-437: The early deliveries. Nevertheless, William Jardine wanted to expand the opium trade in China and in 1834, in conjunction with Lord Napier , Chief Superintendent of Trade representing the British Empire, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the Chinese officials in Canton. The Chinese Viceroy ordered the Canton offices where Napier was staying to be blockaded and the inhabitants including Napier to be held hostages. Lord Napier,
11076-406: The exception of the tunnels to reduce budget), allowed for the laying of a future second track. This decision, although it might have seemed unnecessarily costly at the time, proved of benefit some 75 years later when the railway was finally double-tracked. The railway was formally opened on Saturday, 1 October 1910, but without a terminus, this event being officially recorded by way of a notice in
11232-554: The final cost of the project. The most difficult part of the project was the construction of the Beacon Hill Tunnel , which ended up costing about one quarter of the whole project. Together with the construction of the Sha Tau Kok line , a two-foot narrow gauge branch railway from Fanling to Sha Tau Kok (making use of the rails and rolling stock used in the construction of the main line and later closed in April 1928),
11388-454: The final cost was HK$ 12,296,929, making it one of the most expensive railways in the world and, as costs escalated, the subject of much concern in both Hong Kong and London. Although the design called for the construction of only a single track of a standard gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches (1,435 mm), an important decision made was to ensure that as far as possible the right-of-way of the railway, i.e. all bridges, cuttings, and embankments (with
11544-504: The firm as William Jardine got ready to begin his temporarily delayed retirement. Jardine left Canton on 26 January 1839 for Britain, ostensibly to retire but in actuality to continue Matheson's lobbying work. The Qing Daoguang Emperor , pleased to hear of Jardine's departure, then proceeded to appoint a special Commissioner, Lin Zexu , to stop the opium trade altogether, at that time centred on Canton. Lin commented, "The Iron-headed Old Rat,
11700-461: The firm established its head office in the new British colony of Hong Kong then proceeded to expand all along the China Coast. By the end of the nineteenth century, Jardine, Matheson & Co. had become the largest of the foreign trading companies in the Far East and had expanded its activities into sectors including shipping, cotton mills and railway construction. Further growth occurred in
11856-400: The firm is a hill top known as " Jardine's Lookout ". From here, in the days of sail, a watch was kept for the first glimpse of the sails of the firm's clippers coming from India and London. As soon as a vessel was signalled, a fast whaleboat was sent out to collect Jardine's mails. The correspondence was rushed back to the office so that the directors could have the first possible information on
12012-538: The firm's clipper Sarah bound for the docks of Glasgow, Falmouth, Hull and Liverpool, England. Jardine Matheson then began its transformation from a major commercial agent of the East India Company into the largest British trading hong , or firm, in Asia. William Jardine was now being referred to by the other traders as " taipan ", a Chinese colloquial title meaning 'Great Manager'. In a thunderous tribute to Jardine, Matheson wrote, "I am sure none can be more zealous in your service." Jardine succeeded in capturing much of
12168-419: The firm's correspondence, and other complex articles including legal affairs. Matheson was known to be behind many of the company's innovative practices. The two men were a study in contrasts, Jardine being tall, lean and trim while Matheson was short and slightly portly. Matheson had the advantage of coming from a family with social and economic means, while Jardine came from a much more humble background. Jardine
12324-676: The firm's expansion. In 1835 the firm had commissioned construction of the first merchant steamer in China, the Jardine . She was a small vessel intended for use as a mail and passenger carrier between Lintin Island , Macau, and Whampoa Dock . However, the Chinese, draconian in their application of the rules relating to foreign vessels, were unhappy about a "fire-ship" steaming up the Canton River. The acting Viceroy of Liangguang issued an edict warning that she would be fired on if she attempted
12480-468: The firm's initial investment of £500 in the land was by then worth £1,000,000. Plans for a new Renaissance style building with five stories were drawn up by local architects Stewardson & Spence and work began in 1920. The building was completed in November 1922 and featured a specially designed silk room with exceptional lighting to aid the silk inspectors in their work. Another story was later added to
12636-653: The first land sale. Additional offices subsequently opened in Kobe , Nagasaki and other ports where a large and profitable business was conducted in imports, exports, shipping and insurance. Jardines also operated in Nairobi in the then British protectorate of Kenya through its Jardine Matheson (East Africa) Ltd. subsidiary and held a majority stake in the South African company Rennies Consolidated Holdings, until it disposed of this 74% stake to Old Mutual in 1983. This
12792-645: The first two unofficial members of the Legislative Council appointed by the Governor in 1850. The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1861 with Jardine's 7th Taipan Alexander Perceval , a relative of James Matheson's wife, as its first chairman. In 1878 the firm pioneered sugar refining in Hong Kong with the formation of the China Sugar Refinery Co. There are a number of landmarks that record Jardine's role in
12948-413: The following Friday's Hong Kong Government Gazette. Some 39 acres (16 ha) of the harbour at the south of the Kowloon peninsula, between Signal Hill ( Blackhead Point ) and Hung Hom, had taken place using material excavated from the route and carried to the site by a two-foot gauge railway. However, the final decision to locate the terminus at the tip of Kowloon peninsula was not made until 1910, and
13104-549: The formal approval of the Colonial Office in London was not given until February 1906, the Governor, Sir Matthew Nathan , had anticipated a positive outcome and had already instructed the Public Works Department to start earthworks on the route from Tai Po Market to Fanling in December 1905. The initial estimate for the project was HK$ 5,053,274, which included the cost of excavating a tunnel through
13260-531: The fourth year after merger of the two networks, a sliding percentage scale share of annual revenue above HK$ 2.5 billion earned from the KCRC network. As part of the merger, the KCR East Rail , KCR West Rail and KCR Ma On Shan Rail were renamed East Rail line, West Rail line and Ma On Shan line, respectively; the latter two lines were eventually merged into the Tuen Ma line in 2021. The KCR Light Rail
13416-529: The government and shipped to Taiwan where they were left to rust on the beach. The line would not be reconstructed until 1898. Jardines eventually succeeded in winning approval from the Viceroy of Zhili Li Hongzhang for the construction of a mule tramway from the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company 's colliery at Tangshan after it was shown the prospective canal would be unable to run
13572-513: The government. Under the Ordinance a managing board, comprising 10 members appointed by the governor (chairman, managing director and not less than 4 nor more than 8 other members), became responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the corporation. The corporation was required to "perform its functions with a view to achieving a rate of return on the assets employed in its undertaking, and in accordance with ordinary commercial criteria,
13728-560: The head of a trading house. As a penalty Jardines were ordered to fire the gun every day at noon in perpetuity. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, Jardine, Matheson & Co. were the first to register a building lot on the Bund in 1843 where their first premises at No. 27 were completed in 1851. In the second edition of his Shanghai handbook published in 1920, the Rev. C. B. Darwent estimated that by 1900,
13884-406: The history of the community. In the early days, fevers and plagues were a constant menace to the dwellers in Hong Kong, and, the heat during the summer months was difficult to bear. The directors of the firm pioneered construction of residences on The Peak where living was considered more pleasant and healthy. "Jardine's Corner" was one such landmark , but the best known location associated with
14040-479: The idea of a railway similar to this was first considered with much interest. The British Government extracted a number of railway concessions from the Chinese Government for the British & Chinese Corporation , a joint venture formed in 1898 between the trading company of Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank . These concessions included the right to construct and operate
14196-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
14352-531: The island's first major industrial air-conditioning plant at Tylers Cotton Mill in the To Kwa Wan District. Jardines was the first foreign trading house to establish a base in Japan when William Keswick , a descendant of William Jardine's sister Jean, was sent there in 1859 following the country's opening up to the outside world. He established an office in Yokohama after acquiring Lot No. 1 in
14508-483: The last 6 miles (9.7 km) to the mine. Again ignoring official injunctions against constructing a railroad, the CEMC's engineer Claude W. Kinder first insisted on constructing the tramway at standard gauge and then jury rigged a locomotive from material around the mine. This proved more economical than the mules and the canal's tendency to freeze in the winter – and the coal's strategic importance for
14664-491: The late 1960s was to relocate the large railway workshops from Hung Hom to their present location at Ho Tung Lau in Sha Tin and to construct a new terminus at Hung Hom. This was necessary to permit construction of the first cross-harbour road tunnel – replacing the previous reliance on ferries to cross Victoria Harbour – and to overcome the constraints imposed on rail traffic growth by the first terminus at Tsim Sha Tsui. While
14820-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
14976-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
15132-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
15288-523: The move to Ho Tung Lau took place in 1968, the Hung Hom station complex was not completed and opened until November 1975, at which time the Tsim Sha Tsui terminus was closed and shortly thereafter demolished except for the clock tower, which remains a landmark today. So far improvements to the railway had been incremental in nature. In the 1970s it became clear that a radical rethink was needed if
15444-451: The network into the same fare system as the MTR , and gates between the two networks were removed in several stages in 2008. Although the MTR Corporation is a listed company, the Hong Kong Government is the controlling shareholder with a stake of about 75%. In 2006, the local KCR local passenger train network (i.e. intercity services excluded) recorded an annual ridership of 544 million. During
15600-431: The new English settlement. Moreover, Hongkong was admittedly one of the finest harbours in the world. His enthusiasm was not shared by many of his fellow merchants. Understandably, they preferred not to abandon their comfortable residences on Macau 's Praya Grande for the bleak slopes of Hong Kong Island. Bad luck made matters worse for the early Victorian builders. In quick succession, two typhoons and two fires flattened
15756-473: The new colony's infrastructure while also providing commercial leadership, credit and services of all kinds to the growing community. In the early years, this included Hong Kong's first ice-making factory, which was later amalgamated with the Dairy Farm Company , the first spinning and weaving factory and the establishment of Hong Kong Tramways. David Jardine, a nephew of William Jardine, was one of
15912-558: The new colony. Lot No 1 is now the site of the formerly Jardine owned Excelsior hotel, now owned and operated by Mandarin Oriental . Originally, the settlement consisted of hastily constructed mat sheds and wooden buildings with Jardines the first to build a house using brick and stone. It was erected at East Point, and the firm still retains most of the original property. Among the buildings that can still be seen in East Point today
16068-479: The new company was the reclamation of an area of 65 acres (260,000 m ) of building land some 250 feet (76 m) wide along a new waterfront road that came to be known as Chater Road . Following an amalgamation of several local wharves in 1875, Jardine, Matheson & Co. were appointed general managers of the Shanghai & Hongkew Wharf Co., Ltd. In 1883, the Old Ningpo Wharf was added, and in 1890
16224-671: The new settlement while a virulent malaria epidemic almost succeeded in wiping out the island's population. For years, the Canton Press in Macau never lost an opportunity to ridicule and slander the venture. Even Queen Victoria was unimpressed with her new acquisition. Once she wrote a sarcastic note to the King of the Belgians:"--Albert is so much amused at my having got the island of Hongkong, and we think Victoria ought to be called Princess of Hongkong as well as Princess Royal." Despite
16380-466: The new towns were intended to be constructed to a "balanced design" concept under which employment opportunities as well as people would be relocated from substandard accommodation in the older urban areas, thereby minimising the additional demand on the transport network. As later became apparent, however, while people were moved in their hundreds of thousands to live in the New Territories, the major centres of employment and of leisure activities remained in
16536-528: The number of troops and warships needed in what was known as the Jardine Paper . War followed and in 1842, the Treaty of Nanking was signed by official representatives of both Britain and China. It allowed the opening of major five major Chinese ports, provided indemnification for the opium destroyed and completed the formal acquisition of the island of Hong Kong , which had been officially taken over as
16692-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
16848-492: The old track in the New Territories had remained unfenced, with footpaths or roads alongside or across the track used by many villagers, the faster, quieter and more frequent electric services required the complete fencing off of the track from Lo Wu to Hung Hom, necessitating the construction of footbridges with both steps and sloping ramps at various village locations. As a former Assistant District Officer in Tai Po recalls, one of
17004-548: The only foreign firm to feature on an 1881 list of the eighteen largest land taxpayers in Hong Kong with a bill of HK$ 4,000 per annum. Such was the influence of the firm that an old joke ran: "Power in Hong Kong resides in the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club ; Jardine, Matheson & Co; the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation ; and the Governor – in that order. Shipping played an important role in
17160-464: The only steam engine in Hong Kong for over 40 years (since the KCR last used a steam engine). ³Unit E44 (cars 144-244-444) didn't undergo refurbishment, and No. 144 is now kept at the Tai Po Railway Museum for display. All Kinki Sharyo stock are purchased and imported from Japan. Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are a standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan ,
17316-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
17472-422: The payment of duty. To profit in the China trade participants had to be ahead of all competition, both legitimate and otherwise. Each year, fast ships from Britain, Europe, and America lay ready at the Chinese ports to load the first of the new season's teas. The ships raced home with their precious cargoes, each attempting to be the first to reach the consumer markets, thereby obtaining the premium prices offered for
17628-427: The perfect opportunity for Matheson to join in commerce with Jardine. Matheson proved a perfect partner for Jardine. James Matheson and his nephew, Alexander Matheson, joined the firm Magniac and Co. in 1827, but their association was not officially advertised until 1 January 1828. Jardine was known as the planner, the tough negotiator and strategist of the firm and Matheson was known as the organisation man, who handled
17784-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
17940-468: The project from the government on 24 September 2002. Disputes on the funding and location of the eventually cancelled Canton Road station in Tsim Sha Tsui , which was in the proposed alignment, postponed the construction by a year to 2005. Construction started on 7 November 2005. The new link started operation on 16 August 2009. Various proposals to merge the KCRC and the other railway operator in
18096-558: The project. However, by the beginning of the 20th century, the Hong Kong Government under the leadership of the colony's governor, Sir Henry Blake , decided that urgent action was required. Discussions between the Colonial Office in London , the Hong Kong Government and the British & Chinese Corporation, led to an agreement in late 1904 that the Hong Kong Government would undertake the financing, construction and operation of
18252-510: The purpose of converting it first to a mule tramway and then to a narrow-gauge railway (the Woosung railway ), the first in China. The first spike was hammered in on 20 January and the line was opened to traffic running six times a day on 3 July. Operations were considered satisfactory until a suicide on the tracks on 3 August 1876 caused the Viceroy of Liangjiang Shen Baozhen to renew his previous objections. The British authorities ordered
18408-497: The railway benefitted by Hong Kong becoming the centre of communications and trade with southern China, especially as much of the traffic that had hitherto gone by sea could no longer do so. Refugees fleeing the new communist government of China also often settled in squatter areas along the railway, and this, together with an increase in the British Army's presence, added to domestic travel demand in Hong Kong. In 1951 agreement
18564-500: The railway was to cope with future demands. In 1972 the government set up a steering group to examine the need for future short-term and long-term improvements to the railway given the growth in freight and passenger traffic to China, coupled with the government's plans to construct large new towns at Sha Tin, Tai Po, Sheung Shui and Fanling in the New Territories that would further increase domestic travel demand. At that time
18720-433: The rapidly expanding Indian export market. He then entered into a partnership, known as Yrissari & Co, which quickly became one of the five principal Agency Houses in China at the time, branching out into trade with many different countries. After Francis Xavier de Yrissari's death, Matheson wound up the firm's affairs and closed shop. Yrissari, leaving no heir, had willed all his shares in the firm to Matheson. This created
18876-602: The rest of Hong Kong up to the Sham Chun River . Li saw this chance as a method to develop Sham Shui Po as another probable trading hub. Although Li did correctly prophesy the village's prosperity following to the annexation of the New Territories in 1898, Li's proposal was eventually rejected by the Central Government in favour of the budget being allocated to the much anticipated Guangzhou–Hankou railway . The British, however, caught up with this proposal and
19032-452: The retreating British forces. After repairs had been made, the line was operated throughout the war by the Japanese using the services of the Chinese staff who had remained after the fall of the colony. During this period the railway gradually deteriorated through lack of adequate maintenance. Rolling stock and other equipment were also sent to China for use there by the Japanese. After the British resumed control of Hong Kong in 1945, following
19188-404: The same time, there was a huge demand for passenger and freight services as people who had fled to China during the war moved back to Hong Kong, and because huge volumes of goods needed to be carried into China to help in post-war relief efforts there. From an immediate post-war figure of around 600,000, the population of Hong Kong rose to nearly 2 million by the end of 1947, with the influx reaching
19344-401: The section of the line within Hong Kong. The remaining section to Guangzhou would be financed through a loan raised by the British & Chinese Corporation on behalf of the Chinese Government, which would operate the section after its construction by the corporation. Settling the detailed financing arrangements for the British and Chinese sections proved to be complicated because the funding of
19500-521: The set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
19656-417: The setbacks and ridicule, the colony's founders refused to be discouraged. Hong Kong provided a unique opportunity for Jardine's expansion. On 14 June 1841, the first lots were sold in Hong Kong. At the instigation of James Matheson, three of these, comprising 57,150 square feet (5,309 m ), at East Point were purchased for the sum of 565 Pounds sterling, where Jardines set up one of the first offices in
19812-500: The seventeenth century this drink had been growing in popularity in Britain and the British colonies, but the trade in teas was far from simple. The British crown charged duty of five shillings per pound (0.45 kg) regardless of the quality, which meant that even the cheapest variety available cost seven shillings per pound – almost a whole week's wages for a labourer. This punitive level of taxation meant that huge profits were available, which gave rise to widespread smuggling to avoid
19968-545: The sly and cunning ring-leader of the opium smugglers has left for The Land of Mist, of fear from the Middle Kingdom's wrath." The commissioner then ordered the surrender of all opium and the arrest of opium trader Lancelot Dent , the head of Jardine Matheson rival Dent & Co. , which triggered a series of events leading to Lin destroying more than 20,000 chests of opium – a large part of which belonged to Jardines. Once in London, Jardine's first order of business
20124-637: The steamships it used against Qing dynasty China during the First Opium War . Jardines had 19 inter-continental clippers by 1841, complemented by hundreds of smaller lorchas and other craft used for coastal and upriver smuggling. As well as smuggling opium into China, Jardines traded sugar and spices from the Philippines, exported Chinese tea and silk to England, acted as cargo factors and insurance agents, rented out dockyard facilities and warehouse space as well as financed trade. Hong Kong
20280-562: The terminus was only fully completed and commissioned in March 1916, although the platforms themselves were put into service in 1914. The railway opened in 1910 with a number of temporary stations. Part of a godown (warehouse) next to the site of the present day Star Ferry pier in Tsim Sha Tsui was rented and converted into a passenger station with rails to it laid down Salisbury Road from Signal Hill. Temporary stations were built at Hung Hom and Lo Wu, with permanent stations being built at Sha Tin, Fanling and Tai Po (later named Tai Po Kau), and
20436-551: The territory, the MTR Corporation (MTRC), had been on the government's agenda since the 2000s. In 2006, the government, as the sole shareholder of the KCRC, decided that the two railway networks should be merged with the MTRC being granted a service concession to operate the KCR network for an initial period of 50 years. The decision was passed by the Executive Council on 11 April 2006, and was later approved by
20592-401: The tip of Kowloon peninsula via Tsuen Wan to Castle Peak Bay and thence to Yuen Long and the border with China, and a more direct eastern route of about 21 miles (34 km) requiring tunnelling through the Kowloon hills and thence to the border via Tide Cove ( Sha Tin ), Tai Po , Fanling and Sheung Shui . Following a detailed survey in 1905, the eastern route was proposed. Although
20748-441: The trading centres of Fuzhou and Tianjin and, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the firm underwent a dramatic transformation from an agency house acting for principals to a more diversified business. It traded in a wide variety of imports and exports, promoted railways and other much needed infrastructure projects in China, and founded banks and insurance companies as the country strove towards modernisation. There
20904-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
21060-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
21216-491: The train service to cease operation and the Chinese government announced that it wanted to purchase the line within the year. Jardines were told that as the railway had been built without official approval it could not be defended by the British government and the firm agreed to sell as long as all its costs were covered. Tls . 285,000 were paid in October 1877 for the land, rolling stock and rails which were then dismantled by
21372-562: The trip. On the Jardine's first trial run from Lintin Island the forts on both sides of the Bogue opened fire and she was forced to turn back. The Chinese authorities issued a further warning insisting that the ship leave China. The Jardine in any case needed repairs and was sent to Singapore. Jardines launched a cargo line from Calcutta in 1855 and began operating on the Yangtze River . The Indo-China Steam Navigation Company Ltd.
21528-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
21684-432: The urban areas, leading to an even greater dependence on the railway to support a rapidly increasing daily commuter flow. In 1974 a 10-year investment programme was started to provide for the complete double-tracking and electrification of the railway from Hung Hom to Lo Wu , requiring the building of a second Beacon Hill Tunnel together with the construction or upgrading of stations and other facilities. This exercise
21840-670: The viceroy's Beiyang Fleet – eventually allowed the line's expansion first down the length of the canal and then to major cities like Tianjin . Over two decades, the Kaiping Tramway thus expanded into the China Railway Company , which again was purchased by the Qing government but this time kept on as a paying concern. In 1898, Jardines and the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company (HSBC) founded
21996-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
22152-560: The world's markets. Jardine's Bazaar off Jardine's Crescent dates to 1845 and is one of the oldest shopping streets in Hong Kong. The Noonday Gun , located opposite the Excelsior Hotel , dates to the 1860s and a time when Jardine's private militia would fire a salvo to salute the arrival of the firm's taipan in the harbour. This upset the British Navy who insisted that such salutes were reserved for more important people than
22308-488: Was a gentleman of great suavity of manner and the impersonation of benevolence." But there were also similarities. Jardine and Matheson were second sons, possibly explaining their drive and character. Both men were hardworking, driven and single-minded in their pursuit of wealth. For a long time the East India Company had been growing increasingly unpopular in Britain because of its monopoly on Far Eastern trade. Following their independence in 1776, American merchants established
22464-565: Was built by Jardines between 1904 and 1908 at a cost of £2.9 million. The BCC was also responsible for the construction of the Kowloon to Canton Railway . On the initiative of Jardines and Paul Chater , The Hongkong and Kowloon Wharf and Godown Company Limited was formed in 1886. Three years later on 2 March 1889, then Taipan James Johnstone Keswick again partnered with Chater to form The Hongkong Land Investment and Agency Company Limited (later Hong Kong Land ). The first project undertaken by
22620-413: Was completed by the early 1980s and on 16 July 1983 the use of diesel-hauled trains ceased for domestic passenger services. Diesel locomotives continued to be used for through-train passenger services, which resumed in 1979 following implementation by Deng Xiaoping of economic reforms in China, and for freight and track maintenance services. One consequence of the electrification was that, whereas much of
22776-616: Was formed in 1881, and from then until 1939 maintained a network of ocean, coastal and river shipping services, which were managed by Jardines. In 1938, during the Second Sino-Japanese War , the company bought four ships, Haiyuan , Haili , Haichen and Haiheng from the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company , which were subsequently operated between Hong Kong and Tianjin . The first ocean-going steamships owned by Jardine's ran chiefly between Calcutta and
22932-514: Was known as the Canton System . From the middle of the eighteenth century merchants were restricted to an area of Canton on the south China coast, where they were permitted to trade with a group of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong who operated from Thirteen Factories located on the banks of the Pearl River . One of the commodities that the Chinese merchants were interested in buying
23088-493: Was later merged with Safmarine to form Safmarine and Rennies Holdings (Safren). The firm became so important that for much of the history of the Executive Council of Hong Kong , the business community was represented by 'unofficial members' of the Council who included the head of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and the taipan of Jardines. Jardine, Matheson and Co. became a limited company during 1906 and until
23244-415: Was no practical alternative [to the opium trade] before 1870s. It was not until the firm [Jardines] had been forced from the trade as a major participant that it began proposing the use of capital and techniques for many alternative investments in the treaty ports and in the domestic Chinese economy. Profits accruing to the firm in the early years were enormous. According to one source, over a ten-year period
23400-444: Was not a question of whether the railway should pay interest and sinking fund on the capital expended, or even if it would at once pay working expenses. It was a question of preserving the predominance of Hong Kong. It was a question of seeing that the final outlet of the main trunk railway should be at Kowloon, and at no other place." Two routes were suggested for the British Section, a western route of about 34 miles (55 km) from
23556-544: Was opium – considered to have been "the world's most valuable single commodity trade of the nineteenth century". Trade in the drug was controlled by the East India Company , who had been granted a monopoly by the British crown in 1773 giving them sole access to the opium of Bengal although independent traders could still obtain supplies in Malwa , India. However, opium imports were banned in China as reaffirmed by
23712-476: Was reached with the Chinese authorities for goods wagons to again cross the border, but passenger services continued to terminate at the border at Lo Wu station. However, the Korean War (1950–1953) led to an embargo by western governments on certain goods being exported to China, and tough restrictions introduced by the Chinese government on the number of people allowed to cross the border, which together led to
23868-667: Was renamed KCR East Rail, and the LRT became KCR Light Rail. The names "Kowloon–Canton Railway" or "KCR" has come to refer to the network operated by the KCRC. The KCR Ma On Shan Rail was opened in 2004 as a branch line to the KCR East Rail. The KCRC also made proposals to plan, build, and operate the Kowloon Southern Link , an extension of the West Rail to connect with the East Rail; the KCRC received permission for
24024-462: Was to allow the public service providers to make a commercial return on their assets, thus reducing the need for investment of public funds raised predominantly from taxes, while still remaining under government control. On 24 December 1982, the KCRC Ordinance (Cap 372) was enacted and the KCR ceased to be a government department, although the statutory corporation remained wholly owned by
24180-517: Was to meet with the new Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston who had replaced Wellington. He carried with him a letter of introduction written by Chief Superintendent of trade in Canton Charles Elliot that relayed a few of his credentials to Palmerston. Jardine persuaded Palmerston to wage war on China and provided a comprehensive plan along with detailed maps and strategies, the indemnifications and political demands from China and even
24336-528: Was tough, serious, detail-oriented and reserved while Matheson was creative, outspoken and jovial. Jardine was known to work long hours and was extremely business-minded, while Matheson enjoyed the arts and was known for his eloquence. William C. Hunter, a contemporary of Jardine who worked for the American firm Russell & Co. , wrote of him, "He was a gentleman of great strength of character and of unbounded generosity." Hunter's description of Matheson was, "He
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