Car queue 1920s? | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Car queue 1920s?

Car queue 1920s?
Submitted by jill
Tags: 
cars
vehicle registration

I'm baffled as to the reason why this photo is in my family's collection of Hong Kong photos. It's a copy of a framed photo, so may already be in circulation. Two of the visible number plates are 461 and 773, which should give an indication of date. Most of the passengers and the chauffeurs have got out and there are two women standing in the road by their cars. Up ahead a uniformed man is holding a dog on a lead. There seems to be a hold up, otherwise the cyclist would be going forward. Are the white-hatted men policemen? Grateful for identification of the place. Perhaps this photo is a record of a well known incident.

Jill

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Thursday, January 1, 1920
Gallery: 
1920s Hong Kong
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Comments

Submitted by jill on Wed, 2014-06-11 02:11.

Sorry David, I've already turned this picture round so that it saved with the correct orientation on my computer. I've had this upside down problem before when transferring a picture to Gwulo. How can I avoid this happening and how can I adjust the orientation once saved on the site?

 Jill

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2014-06-12 16:41.

Hi Jill,

The easiest way is to scan them in the right way up in the first place. On my scanner there's an arrow at one corner of the glass, showing where the top is. Be sure to have the top of the photo facing that edge of the scanner.

It's also worth getting the hang of cropping in your scanner software. Usually there's the option to do a preview scan, then draw a box around the picture you want to scan. Then when you scan you just get the photo, without any extra white border.

If I've scanned a photo upside down, then I go to Windows Explorer, right-click the thumbnail and choose "rotate clockwise". I do that twice to turn it back the right way up.

Once you've got the image looking right, you can come back to Gwulo, click "Edit" on the offending image's page, click "Choose file" and select the corrected file from your computer, click ok, then click Save at the bottom of the page to update it to use the correct image.

Regards, David

Submitted by jill on Fri, 2014-06-13 22:48.

Thanks to everyone who has given me advice and assistance beyond the call of duty in enhancing and uploading my photos. Having followed David's first two instructions, I was disconcerted after pressing "Choose File" to see the same old upside down image in the Thumbnail image. I tried a few more times but then gave up. In case anyone else is as dimwitted as me in this process, the new image doesn't actually appear until "Save" is pressed. I should have been confident enough to follow David's instructions to the end. Sorry for messing up the photo gallery! Any ideas about the event depicted in this photo or the location will be very welcome.

Jill

Submitted by moddsey on Sat, 2014-06-14 05:46.

Looked at the photo a few times. If the uniformed personnel were policemen, their uniforms, coats and caps look different from those of the Hong Kong Police. Thinking America?

Submitted by 1314 on Sat, 2014-06-14 16:54.

Officers of the Traffic Section of the Hong Kong Police wore white cloth cap covers during this period.Cars right hand drive and one man in a solar topee,not America.

Submitted by jill on Sun, 2014-06-15 17:49.

Is this perhaps a border crossing into the New Territories? Hence the fencing and small white building on the hill that might be a watch post. It would also explain the fact that all the chauffeurs had abandoned their cars if they were at a further point forward obtaining permits. There is only one chauffeur hurrying back who might have already obtained his. I don't know enough about the geography and history of the crossing points into China. Grateful for any comments.

Jill

Submitted by jill on Sat, 2018-01-27 03:03.

Just come across the photos posted by Liz Chater at https://gwulo.com/atom/17619

Could this photo not be of a similar motorcar trial similar to that one of August 1923?

Jill

Submitted by moddsey on Sat, 2018-01-27 10:47.

Well the timeline fits. It is possible. Do you the licence plate of the family car?

Submitted by jill on Sat, 2018-01-27 16:52.

I’m afraid not, unless the family car is one of the two in the photo titled “Chauffeurs at St John’s Cathedral”. The plate of the car at the front is 454. I can’t quite read the other one.

Jill

 

 

Submitted by jill on Sat, 2018-01-27 19:10.

..... and I posted this photo of a car belonging to family friends some time ago at https://gwulo.com/atom/20195  

It may be somewhere in the "car queue" picture too.

Submitted by anonymous-01 on Sat, 2018-01-27 19:41.

Seen this pic before. Somewhere in my family colection. Failing memory - must be a dozen years ago at least - tells me me it has something to do with pony racing at Happy Valley as it was with a bunch of such snaps. Csrtainly did not strike me as being important in any way and am  not inclined to search my voluminous collection at this stage.  Probably drivers waiting for their owner to return from losng their money! Sean