Botanical Gardens 1940 | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Botanical Gardens 1940

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Botanical Gardens 1940
Submitted by OldTimer
Tags: 
Botanical Garden

OldTimer's Parents at HK's Botanical Garden in either 1940 or 1941. Note the background scenary resembles closely this one:

http://gwulo.com/node/2627

Date picture taken (may be approximate): 
Monday, January 1, 1940
Gallery: 
1940s Hong Kong
Connections: 
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Comments

Submitted by moddsey on Mon, 2009-04-27 12:41.

OldTimer, thank you for sharing the photo. It is a nice scene of a smiling couple walking up the path towards the statue of Governor Arthur Kennedy, the founder of the public gardens. Note the policeman beside the old fountain and the original Government House which today is dwarfed by the skyscrapers in Central.

1940 Botanical Gardens

Submitted by David on Mon, 2009-04-27 18:36.

Oldtimer, thanks for sharing your family photo. I remember you wrote that they got married just before the Japanese invasion. Hard to imagine what was just around the corner, when they're looking so happy in this photo.

Did they stay in Hong Kong throughout the occupation, or were they one of the many families forced back to mainland China?

Submitted by OldTimer on Mon, 2009-04-27 20:37.

Thanks Moddsey and Mr. B for the response.

My parents were married on Dec 5, 1941 in Hong Kong, three days before the Japanese invasion.   It was a chaotic time and not able to obtain a marriage certificate was likely their least worry.  My previous postings mentioned that grandfather got hit by a bullet and he drank his own urine hoping to survive the injury; and he did.  Mother told me later she would have been a goner if she had not ducked below the hails of Japanese machine gun fire.  It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times, so true Mr. Dickens.

The occupation forced them to return to Guangzhou our home town, then further inland during the evacuation when I was born.  We returned to HK after the war.  Their marriage lasted a life time of 62 years.  They kept this photo by their bedside in the last years of their life.  

Submitted by David on Tue, 2009-04-28 10:39.

Thanks OldTimer. I enjoy looking at all the old photos we receive, but when we can hear a little of the story behind a photo, that always makes it a little extra special.

Submitted by philk on Fri, 2009-05-01 19:23.

I have to say that looking at the fountain today is quite depressing. Compared to the landscaped beauty of the place in the photos above, the current version is really ugly. It's a shame they can't restore it to its former glory.

Submitted by moddsey on Sat, 2009-05-02 09:34.

Note the missing statue of Governor Kennedy.

1950s Botanical Gardens Fountain

 

Submitted by David on Sat, 2009-05-02 13:25.

I like the open, grassy spaces too in the old photos. There aren't many of those in HK today.

Submitted by annelisec on Mon, 2010-02-22 09:42.

Re: "Note the background scenary resembles closely this one:" - the difference was at least 3 years and 8 months - the length of the Japanese occupation.  Government house sprouted a tower during that time.

Submitted by tngan on Sun, 2020-08-30 00:25.

Hi there,

The two terraces are still there.  Being modernized a bit.

T

DSCF0662 (2).JPG
DSCF0662 (2).JPG, by tngan