Fishing junks

Is this Cheung Chau?

Regards, David

David Wu asks:

Were those two pictures of fishing junks from Cheung Chau? If so, what year?  Noted that no buildings on the hill, must be pretty old, older than 40s.

Looking through the photos we have of Cheung Chau I found this one:

Cheung Chau in the '50s, by doug

The skyline matches, confirming the location. It also shows the southern part of the island was still very empty in the 1950s.

I'll set the date to 1948, Siobhan's suggested date for some of the other photos.

Regards, David

Hello,

Refering to the first photo with fisherman junks floating at the bay........

The view is towards part of the southern Cheung Chau island. The hill on the far-right stands the site of House #27 which is within the Fairy Well area. The ridge above the island residences runs part of the Peak Road West which is heading towards the Tin Folk area.  The ridge opens up a big slice of flat field suitable for many village kids to fly their kites or for cattle's freedom grazing. Here in this picture you couldn't see any houses over the ridge because there was steep roll-off and without or few proper trails for people. Later years houses were built on the the slope and the area was known as the Guo San Chuen ( means High Hill Village). The walkway for the village is indeed very steep.

The street level covers the Chung Hing Street and the Tai Shek Hou area. You can see the Hung Shing Mew ( the temple) near the central section of the photo.The Tai Choi Yeun area, which is the biggest farming valley here on the island, was right behind the Chung Hing Street area and was totally hidden from the view.

Over the Harbour, these big fishing boats were known to be capable to set sail for month-long fishing expedition in groups, mostly to the South China Sea during the fishing season. That's why Cheung Chau traditionally has the best seafood in the region.

Finally, I am a bit suspicious about the dark patch over the hill, in the middle. It indicates there was a European House on the east end of the Fairy Well area.

Hope this info be useful to someone!

Tung

Hello,

For the first photo on the very top:

Let's begin to describe the ridges and hills from the right. There comes the Peak Road, winding on top of the   eastside of Tai Choi Yuen Valley which is all hidden from the resident houses of the shore and their surrounding trees and small forests.

Peak Road then turns westward to the top of the southside of Tai Choi Yuen Valley. There appears as a flat grassy headland. Winds blow strong over here all the times so it is the best place for the CC kids to fly their kites. The big boulders seen here divide the slope where Lung Tsai Chuen and the Gao San Chuen coming to exist.

Beyond here along the hidden roll-off was the Papaya Garden which is a village of dozen families. They are just at the foothill of old European House # 27 which actually can be seen near the left edge of the picture. I believe this house was of a bungalow style. ( I could make mistake on a different photo, thinking it as the House #30.) My years on CC, #27 was like a big Brick on the some site, it was a two-level apartment built with marble stone.

Over the shoreline, The Hung Sing Temple is at the middle. The shipbuilding businesses were very active around this part of CC island. And the main street alley is th Chung Hing Street. The small hill behind the Hung Sing Temple has lots of huge trees of various spieces, some local otherwise very foreign like the Flaming Flower , Royal Palm, and the Erythrina ....

I think the crowns of the twin Erythrina trees can be seen on the very right of these forest group because not much houses or big buildings were there to block the subjects in general.

The harbor just looks like the same as my childhood days.

Can you see a long narrow Dragon Boat sitting on two small sampans alongside the big junk on the left?  As for the fishing community, it is about time as a tradition, after the Dragon Boat Race, to launch those month-long fishing season off the South China Sea.

Local shrimp fishermen gets their catches quite easily along the waterway off Lantau Island nearby---almost everyday

Tung.