Sha Tin1957 | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Sha Tin1957

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Sha Tin1957
Submitted by Bryan Panter
Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Monday, April 1, 1957
Gallery: 
1950s Bryan Panter's photos
Connections: 
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Comments

Submitted by Bryan Panter on Mon, 2018-06-25 01:12.
Photo says,-Resting at base of The Old Lady of Sha Tin with 2 happy local girls,and Jonny Preston ,Colin Miller and Smudge Smith.-Apr.1957

Submitted by OldTimer on Mon, 2018-06-25 09:02.

Greetings, and thank you Bryan for posting your Sha Tin photos.

In this photo, I compare the rock's appearance with one of Google's "hill" views of Shatin's Amah Rock; they are at, I would say, the same location.  (Google Chrome seems to work better than MS Edge on my computer.  Use 2D to access view-path.)  The Google photo was taken in 2015 so the Old Lady has endured the test of time and weathering.   It must have been a challenge to place the camera or have your colleague standing on the tree at the edge of a cliff.

Your other distant shot of Amah Rock is also of personal interest - https://gwulo.com/atom/30426  .  It is wonderful to see again those low vegetations on the trail and around Amah Rock, the same year of my first hike to Amah Rock.  Regards,   Peter   

 

Submitted by Bryan Panter on Mon, 2018-06-25 23:55.
Hi Oldtimer. Just viewed Amah Rock on google hill, -Brilliant, my what a change from my old photo. Thank you for enlightening me with the correct name of this location, after reading about it on Gwulo, I realise it has religious/ spiritual connections and apologise if my naming upsets anyone, will alter the description in my old album A.S.A.P. Regards Bryan.

Submitted by OldTimer on Wed, 2018-06-27 06:36.

Hi Bryan, ASAP, Sir, you don't need to make any change.  I don't consider your term offensive or upsetting.

People in my time living in Hong Kong called the place by several names.  The most popular name then, and I think still is, in Chinese is 望夫石.   The first word has several English translations, among them - hope, look at/for, wait, all proper description given its background.  The next two words are husband-rock.

Amah is a Cantonese term (two words) we use to address our grandma, a female servant, a nanny.  I think it was a wrong choice of word because the story line has been lost in the translation.  Thanks to Gwulo, and Google too, we can see online places from our early life.  And looking close-up at Amah Rock brings about special feeling and a bit of emotion too, regardless of how we name her.   Regards,  Peter

P.S. (1) Your 1957 photo shows some big boulders along the right/east side of the walk path.  They appear also in the Google ground photos.  The construction of the concrete walkway and stairs might have shifted some of the boulders, but I think most of them remain at the same spot as in 1957.

P.S. (2) Hi Bryan, I just noticed that the fallen rock you sat on is still there.  Take a look at the 2015 Google photo taken at the spot of your group / at the end of the path.  The rock has moved slightly away (likely with some human intervention) from the main rock and turned counter-clockwise a quarter turn.  The size and shape, especially the rough edges, what is the probability of having two twin-like fallen rocks at the same spot?