In operation from 1891 - 1932 | a forgotten piece of history

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The Mount Parker Ropeway - The First in Hong Kong

In operation from 1891 - 1932 | a forgotten piece of history

click on the image to enlarge

(Source: Historic Photographs of China, G. Warren Swire Collection, University of Bristol)

This is one of the best images that I have found in terms of clarity, apparently taken in 1912. The cable car or ropeway went up to Quarry Gap on Hong Kong Island, the pass between Mount Parker and Mount Butler. Some old maps show the pass as named Sanatorium Gap, which explains the need for a ropeway or cable car up at the Gap, it was quite a hike, all uphill!

Situated to catch the cool breeze in summer, stood the Taikoo Sanitarium (or hospital retreat) In the middle distance is a reservoir.

Although aerial ropeway or cable car are the normal terms used, the term wire tramway was also used back then and it has also been noted that the Mount Parker Ropeway was the first in the world (not just the first in Hong Kong) to be used to carry people, quite a thing I would say.

Taikoo the company that built the ropeway is a subsidiary of Swire Pacific one of the largest companies in Hong Kong and the sugar we use at home is Taikoo Sugar, one of Hong Kong’s most famous brands.

Learn more | Watch this great 5 minutes video about the history Mount Parker Ropeway

Learn more | Watch this 12 minute video detailing the actual hike following the path of the Mount Parker Ropeway, it is absolutely fascinating!

The Aerial Ropeway (1891-1932) and Sanitarium (1893-1932) of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery on Hong Kong Island

This is the complete text of a great article by Jennifer Field Lang written for the Industrial History of Hong Kong Group, it is very comprehensive.

I should point out that I am confused by the term Sanitarium for this what is essentially an apartment block built as a summer retreat, back in the day the term Sanitarium meant that it was a specialised hospital, I guess it served 2 purposes, certainly the image below reflects that it looked more like a hospital.

To give you some context, the amazing NP 360 Cable Car ride on Lantau Island in Hong Kong is 5.7 km long and the ride takes about 25 minutes, building a 2.3 km ropeway 130 years ago was quite a feat of engineering.

“In 1891, a 2.3-kilometer long aerial ropeway was constructed from a location near the Taikoo Sugar Refinery (approximately located at today’s intersection of King’s Road and Yau Man Street)[1] in Quarry Bay up the Taikoo Valley to Quarry Gap (also known as Sanitarium Gap). Quarry Gap, the high pass between Mount Parker and Mount Butler at approximately 1000 feet above sea level, was the site of the Taikoo Sanitarium. The Taikoo Sanitarium contained blocks of flat apartments for Taikoo Sugar Refinery and Taikoo Dockyards upper management and family to use during the hotter months of the year in order to escape Hong Kong’s heat and disease.

click on the image to enlarge

(Source: Historic Photographs of China, G. Warren Swire Collection, University of Bristol)

View of the Taikoo Sanitarium circa 1911 at the gap of Mount Park showing the addition in the middle section linking the original two end buildings together

The English firm Bullivant constructed the aerial ropeway at a cost of 5,000.00 British Pounds.[2] The aerial ropeway was composed of steel lattice towers with a single overhead cable along which a two-wheeled track ran with two open suspended ‘traveling carriages’ (a double seat with passenger seating for six, back-to-back) operating on a counterweight system and powered by a steam engine winding winch located at the lower terminal.[3] The suspended carriages moved along the rope at a maximum speed of 8 miles per hour. Although constructed after the 1888 Peak Tram[4] (the funicular railway that runs on wheels scaling Victoria Peak), the Taikoo ropeway was Hong Kong’s first aerial ropeway, and an early example of a private aerial ropeway.[5] Providing a type of commuter transportation between the refinery and the Sanitarium at Mount Parker during the seasonal months during which the Sanitarium was open, the aerial ropeway operated from 6:00 am to midnight.[6] The aerial ropeway is indicated by a dotted line on an 1896 tourist guide map of Hong Kong.[7]

The Sanitarium, built in 1893, originally consisted of two blocks of three-story residential apartments located on Mount Parker and were accessed via the aerial ropeway or by hiking up the valley to Mount Parker, and provided cool and sanitary housing for Taikoo Sugar Refinery senior management and families during the hot months of the year. In the later part of the 19th century, Hong Kong experienced many outbreaks of the plague and other epidemics such as cholera and typhus; during the summer of 1894 an outbreak of bubonic plague swept across Hong Kong and Southern China killing thousands. The construction of the Sanitarium housing blocks on Mount Parker for senior management and their families (many of whom were European) was a direct response to these epidemics.

as well as to sanitary, drainage and fetid air conditions in Hong Kong. Not until 1895 did French and Japanese researchers identify the cause of bubonic plague as a bacillus transmitted by rat-fleas.[8] Those Hong Kong residents who were able sought relief in the clean air of the mountains where the temperature was several degrees cooler than the air below, and an area of the Peak in Hong Kong was developed as a type of hill station.

The Sanitarium buildings originally consisted of two, end-adjacent, three-story rectangular shaped flat roofed residential buildings constructed of red brick with granite detail at the arched segmental windows and cornices. The two buildings were located on stone foundations with supporting sloping brick buttresses (on the Quarry Bay elevation), with a terrace area separating the two structures. The original two Sanitarium building footprints and name “Tai Koo Sanitarium” are indicated on an 1896 tourist guide map of Hong Kong. Additionally, this tourist guide recommends specific programs for visiting Hong Kong, and details of this area in Programme No. 7 is described as:

“Proceed by ricksha to Bay View (the name of a building that stood where the Tin Hau MTR is located today), as the road is too long and uninteresting up to this point, thence walk to Quarry Bay, where, after having passed the entrance to the Sugar Refinery, about one hundred yards further on, just before crossing a bridge, you will see on your right hand, the pathway up the hill (today’s Mount Parker Road). Something under one hour should bring you to the top, which is only a gap about 1,000 above sea level. Here are the Sanitarium buildings of the Taikoo Sugar Refinery, Messers. Butterfield & Swire…” [9]

In order to accommodate additional Taikoo Dockyard staff, in 1911 a four-story addition, designed in the same style and materials as the original two blocks was constructed on the terrace between the original two blocks, making one large symmetrical rectangular building with a higher center section. The interiors of the building(s) were divided into large, high-ceilinged apartments. Although by 1892 the Taikoo Village below featured electrification, the Sanitarium buildings were never electrified; oil lamps provided internal lighting.[10] By 1932, both the Sanitarium building and the aerial ropeway were demolished presumably because the plague was no longer a concern in Hong Kong”

Image courtesy of my friends at Old Hong Kong in Colour | They do amazing work

click on the image to enlarge

Learn more | Read my blog post on the Lion Rock Cable Car Project in Hong Kong 1971 - 1975

Amazingly on the day I published my Lion Rock Cable Car blog post, an image popped up on Instagram with regards to an old aerial ropeway forgotten in the mists of time, these days we call them cable cars but ropeway was the old term and this was the first, please note this is an aerial ropeway and not to be confused with the Peak Tram which began operations in 1888 and is called a funicular railway, it is still a world class tourist attraction.

So, here is one from the archives courtesy of my friends at Old Hong Kong in Colour, the privately built Mount Parker Ropeway from 1891 - 1932, now it is not quite on the same level as a cable car system but if they could build this 130+ years ago how hard could it be to build a cable car to the summit of Lion Rock! you will notice that the image has been colourized!

Please note the quote below from an article, oddly enough the article comments are not accurate, it seems the Government Source in the 1970’s had no idea that an aerial ropeway was in service on Mount Parker in Hong Kong from 1891 - 1932!

“The tender calls for plans of not only an aerial ropeway from the base to the top of Lion Rock but also sketches of the type of carriages and pylons to be used and plans for upper and lower stations. In this impression of installations the design is imaginary but the placement is accurate

A Government spokesman has said that the aerial ropeway, the first of its kind in Hong kong, will have to be designed in such a way so as not to mar the beauty of the area. The whole idea of the project is to provide a worthwhile attraction for both tourists and residents and as much as possible will be made of the scenic beauty of the area, he said”

I imagine the Lion Rock cable car would have been a much more modern and substantial “ropeway”

So there you go, it is quite amazing what they managed to build in the old days and the big surprise for me anyway is why the Hong Kong Government does not build more aerial ropeways or cable car systems, there are no technical reasons why they cannot be built and the cost is very reasonable and they would be welcomed as world class attractions.

So in my wildest dreams I have a cable car system that runs from West Kowloon near ICC (118 floor building) across Victoria Harbour and then up to Victoria Peak and then a long journey to Stanley on the South Side of Hong Kong Island - a world class attraction that would double tourism for decades.

People often forget that Ocean Park our world class theme park has quite the cable car system as well, I have been on that about 15 times over the years.

Below, some more historical images of the Mount Parker Ropeway

The amazing Mount Parker Ropeway Hong Kong 1891 - 1932

click on the image to enlarge

Learn more | Contact Hong Kong A La Carte for fabulous tours of Hong Kong

Stephanie and Alexandra, two wonderful young ladies run Hong Kong A La Carte a Hong Kong Tour Company and we have been friends for many years. Both ladies are avid Hikers and love to show guests offbeat locations in Hong Kong and it just so happens that they are very familiar with the Mount Parker Ropeway! If you contact them by clicking the button above they would be happy to show you this historic site and others. I cannot recommend them highly enough, they are terrific.

The remains of the Mount Parker Ropeway in HK

click on the image to enlarge

Learn more | The Ocean Park Website and the Ocean Park Cable Car

The NP 360 Cable Car in Hong Kong from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping on Lantau Island

click on the image to enlarge

Learn more | The amazing NP 360 Cable Car in Hong Kong

Hong Kong does have a fabulous cable car ride, 5.7 km long that opened in 2006 taking visitors from Tung Chung to Ngong Ping high up in the mountains where awaits the Big Buddha and the Po Lin Monastery, it is just an awesome thing to do and this project shows what can be done when the Government puts their mind to something, a Lion Rock Cable Car project would be a piece of cake compared to the NP 360 Cable Car project, we live in hope that Lion Rock will get it’s cable car!