Taken in 2006 this is hopefully a then and now comparision with the place where I photographed my pal Brian in 1958
Site of seat on Cheung Chau
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Submitted by Andrew Suddaby
Date picture taken (may be approximate):
Friday, December 1, 2006
Gallery:
Connections:
- Site of seat on Cheung Chau shows Place Cheung Chau [????- ]
Comments
What can I say
Hello Andrew,
Usually after so many years even the stone seat would no longer the same and the pathway, if not a paved one, would likely being washed away layer by layer on every rainfull. Yet something has to be remained there. Here is my humble suggestion.
When looking at a photo, only the focal point is at the forward direction and all the rest are at some angles. So what is on the far left and those on the far right is really not in the same direction. They could be more than 90 degree apart, like from southeast to southwest, if no tele-zooming being employed. I did carefully examine at the leather camera carry case that was with your pal Brian which is in the TCY photo and assume the camera was a regular SRL without the Tele-zooming feature. Therefore I would pick the stone wall behind which is roughly the same direction with Brian.
Now unless a much bigger building ( ie the ground floor area ) was being built on it, otherwise that stone wall should remained unchanged. And now you have some solid reference to look for.
This stone wall locates at the start of the zig-zag road up-running to the Peak Road right at the Lan Villa. By now you maybe able to figure out if you had that golden touch on the same stone seat during the 2006 visit.
Can you smile now?
Regards
Tung
Hello Tung
Hello Tung
Ar this distance, both in time and place, it is difficult to be certain but I am fairly sure that you have located things accurately. It is just possible that I took a short bit of video in 2006 when that last photograph was taken and I'll have a look when I return home. I do recall that it was the tree on the left of the 2006 photograph that made me think that I was in the right place but on that occasion I did not have my 1958 photographs with me for a more accurate decision. As you say, years of heavy rain and building work all around have changed things so much So perhaps it was a tenuous connection but, at the time, it was a powerful feeling. Yes, I think you have done an excellent job. I suspect that in early 1958, when the 'new' runway jutting out into the harbour was not yet in use, the flight path onto the original Kai Tak runways for the old propeller planes - Stratocruisers, Constellations, DC6s and the B.O.A.C. Argonauts - did not overfly Cheung Chau. But I might be wrong!
best wishes, Andrew
Another picture maybe helpful too
Hi Andrew,
Years ago I have a color photocopy of the aerial view of the 1970s Cheung Chau and I posted it on gwulo as I following the Page of ' Mystery Rock on Cheung Chau'.( Since then I wrote a lot about the old CC related to the same vicinity. )
There you could see the Charity School playground was in fact having trees encircled. This picture already reveals the great changes of CC in general apart from 1958. You may want to take a look first!
As for the low-pass fliers, they appeared over my home area ever since I was a baby.My first childhood home was at the foothill of the Radar Station, best seeing their come & go from the hill towards the Police Station. As teenager my family lived directly under this CC NDB flight path about 250 m from the Charity School playground. So I saw all different types from the busy air corridor,, big or small. I learnt letters like BOAC, CAT,.DC ,H. CATHAY PAN AM.. before my kindergarten school years. The floating plane Sutherland really seemed to be coming down on water of Tung Wan.They flew really really slow. I am not so sure of what type of radio traffic system they had in the early years. But we know there was a radar station operated at the site used by the Royal Navy and also their Minesweeper and Patrol came to CC regularly. The air traffic beacon ( ie CC NDB--- Cheung Chau ---Non-Directional Radio Beacon ) stood on the high point ( the site of European House #30 ) of the Peak Road West. During the mid-1950s the Vampire was so crazy fast and ear-deafening, that I thought every pilot was a hero already! Of course there were the Comet Constellation, DC 3,.....countless of small planes. And as for the mid-1960s lots of Boeing 707,727,737 even 747 in the 1970, Douglas DC8, DC9, L1011, Convair 880, Trident...many US military air Transport during the Korean war period too. RAF.Hunter ..even the Vulcan bomber ( that was so beautiful, it made couples of circle as if in love with CC----Oh No we don't want any bomber! ).........and more. All had landing gears ready while over CC at between 250' to 400' level until the system switched to IGS in the early 1970s.I speculate under the IGS the Charlie-Charlie ( a term air traffic used) had to stay much higher altitude over the North CC island. After that No more CC low-pass joyride, folks! And I have left for oversea to see the world too
I did read some pilot accounts describing the thrills of the CC NDB approach and the let-down before the IGS ( Instrument Guidance System ) era..
Well....maybe there is better aerial picture over TCY to help the stone seat mystery!
Tung
Hi Tung
Hi Tung
What an interesting series of comments - and all stemming from my rather vague photograph of the school children and then my pal on a seat!
I was very interested in your memory of the planes coming into the OLD Kai Tak. My first sight of Hong Kong in October 1958 was when we flew over Kowloon. The pilot of the BOAC Argonaut has announced over the tannoy something along the lines of "Well, everyone, we are now approaching Kai Tak. It's probably the most interesting and challenging landings that I know. Hold tight and happy landings." The next thing we knew was that the plane was actually flying between some buildings and people were waving at us from the balconies. I have a memory that they were higher up than the plane. I guess, from your interesting memory of the flight path we must have directly overflown Cheun Chau so didn't see it. The flight crew of planes like the Argonaut (a DC4 derivative) had at least one pilot, an engineer and a navigator, with one of them possibly being the second pilot. There was also a wireless operator who worked in both voice and Morse, although I suspect that on finals the pilot would be the one in touch with the Kai Tak control tower. The radio beacons at airports sent out an automatic and specific Morse signature code so that the flight crews could get a bearing to guide them in. I was stationed at the R.A.F. Camp of Little Sai Wan (now Siu Sai Wan) and we often sat on our balcony watching the planes as they flew low not so far away in front of us when either leaving or going into Kai Tak through the narrow Lye Mun channel. In my time the Sunderlands were not based at Kai Tak but they occasionally flew up from Singapore apparently so that R.A.F. aircrew, who were temporarily 'flying desks' as they used to say, could do the required air hours to retain their flying pay. By then in 1958 the Sunderlands were basically the only planes that the R.A.F. had which could serve that purpose. You are right. They seemed to fly very slowly. Where I now live in England, Hercules planes sometimes fly low over our house and they fly very slowly and remarkably quietly for such large propeller planes. The very last flying Vulcan bomber made its last flight a few months ago - I believe that it had reached the limit on its air frame and it made a series of flights over different parts of the U.K.. As you say, it was very graceful and, again, rather a quiet plane for such a large one.
Your memories of growing up on Cheung Chau are very interesting - maybe you should write a short book about them. The younger generation have no understanding of what life was like for people in those times.
Best wishes. Andrew