c.1902 Shau Kei Wan

When: The date, 1902, is printed on the photo's mounting card.

Where: The card is titled "Looking east over the bay and fishing village of Shaukiwan, China". An 1895 map of this area [1] shows the bay marked "Aldrich Bay", with Lyemun Barracks at the top of the hill.

The names have changed over the century or so since this photo was taken. Aldrich Bay has fallen out of use, though Mr Aldrich's name is still used for several buildings in the area.

The Barracks buildings are still there, but they no longer house any soldiers. The area is now open to the public, and known as the Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village [2].

Who: The most obvious person in the photo is the girl in the foreground. She had a special reason to be in this photo, which we'll talk about later.

Beyond her, most of the people in this area lived and worked on the sea. On the left are the big sea-going fishing junks, many with their nets hanging up to dry:

While to the right and closer to the shore are the smaller sampans, probably accommodation for the fishermen's families.

Along the shoreline are a couple of rows of simple, two-storey houses:

Opportunities for work in the area included providing services to the fishermen or to the soldiers, working in the quarries around this area, or working at the Taikoo Sugar Refinery behind us in Quarry Bay.

There would also have been a few Europeans and Indians living here at the Shaukiwan Police Station, which opened in 1872 [3]. I can't see it here, but from maps of the area it was in the line of buildings across the bay, near the left edge of the photo.

The other Europeans in the area were soldiers from the British Army. The barracks buildings on the hilltop are clear to see, and we can also make out signs of construction on the left. They were the coastal defence batteries, now housing the Museum of Coastal Defence:

What: Though most of the ships are sailing ships, a column of smoke leads us to a steam launch, with another, larger launch to the left.

It's not clear whether they were carrying workers on business, or if they provided a public ferry service.

Getting to and from Shau Kei Wan was about to get a lot easier, as just two years later the brand new electric trams started running here.

Trivia:

Have you guessed the source of this photo?

The square shape is one clue, and the girl in the foreground is another. Here's how it looked originally:

A stereoview card, published by C.H. Graves. Stereoview cards often have a person or other eye-catching item in the foreground, to emphasise the distance between them and the background. It makes the 3-D stereo effect easier to see.

If you can make yourself go cross-eyed, try it on the picture of the card above. You need to make the two images overlap, then your brain should be able to see the picture in 3-D.

References:

1. 1895 'Collinson' map revised. Plate 2-5, Mapping Hong Kong.
2. Lei Yue Mun Park and Holiday Village: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/camp/p_lymp.php
3. Police station: http://gwulo.com/node/23997