OldTimer's Parents at HK's Botanical Garden in either 1940 or 1941. Note the background scenary resembles closely this one:
Botanical Gardens 1940
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Submitted by OldTimer
Date picture taken (may be approximate):
Monday, January 1, 1940
Gallery:
Connections:
- Botanical Gardens 1940 shows Place Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens [1864- ]
Comments
Re: Botanical Gardens
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.
re: Botanical gardens
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?
Botanical Gardens
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.
re: Botanical gardens
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.
Modern day botanical gardens
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.
1940s Botanical Gardens Fountain
Note the missing statue of Governor Kennedy.
re: Modern day botanical gardens
I like the open, grassy spaces too in the old photos. There aren't many of those in HK today.
Re: "Note the background
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.
Re: The two terraces
Hi there,
The two terraces are still there. Being modernized a bit.
T