Hong Kong in colour

This newsletter usually features a black & white photo, so let's see some colour for a change.

"1960'S SLIDES...SCENES & VIEWS IN HONG KONG"

That's how they were described on eBAY when I bought them.

A good thing about slides is they often have a date printed on the cardboard frame. These show "AUG 69", when the Peak still towered over Central's buildings ...

... and today's Admiralty district was still very low-rise.

We'll see plenty more views from the harbour, as there is at least one in every tourist's album! Other popular scenes come from the standard tour around Hong Kong island, or a day trip to the New Territories:

Looking at the walls, I guess these ladies were photographed in Kam Tin walled village.

If we're lucky, we also get a couple of shots like these that are different from the usual tourist scenes. Any thoughts on where they were taken?

"HONG KONG : SKYSCRAPERS IN CLOSE-UP 1980s"

Our next photographer likes construction. We still get the classic tourist views:

But buildings are his preference (Admiralty doesn't look low-rise any more!):

If the photo can include a digger, so much the better...

In the next view he's looking at some larger construction project underway. Does anyone recognise what was being built?

"Are the 1980s too recent to count as history?"

Sometimes I'm asked if modern photos are suitable for posting here on Gwulo. I answer that if a photo captures a change, it's good to see. So this is my favourite slide in the set. It catches the old tidal basin at HMS Tamar being filled in:

There aren't any dates printed on these slides, but they weren't taken in the 1980s - the tidal basin wasn't filled in until the 1990s. The descriptions on eBAY aren't always accurate!

"VINTAGE CONNAUGHT ROAD JAL AD HK COLOUR SLIDE"

Aahh, "Vintage"... must be worth a high price!

The first set two sets we saw were taken by visiting amateur photographers. This one is from a set that was taken professionally, then duplicated and sold to tourists. These commercial slides often fade badly - we'll see some examples in later newsletters. This one has held its colour pretty well though.

The slide has "CONNAUGHT ROAD C" stamped on the cardboard frame. We're looking at the section of Connaught Road between Gilman Street (just out of sight on the left) and Rumsey Street (just past the white Marine Department building at the right). We can see the same section of seafront in the 1969 photo at the top of the page. By 1969 several of the old shophouses shown here had been demolished and replaced by office buildings, so this is an earlier photo from the late 50s or early 60s.

"SLIDE CASTLE PEAK HOTEL KOWLOON HONG KONG 1950's VINTAGE AERIAL VIEW "

Vintage again!

Another commercial slide, this time showing the peaceful view across Castle Peak Road to Lantau. If anyone remembers visiting this hotel, what was it like? I guess it is the brown-roofed building behind the trees, but can you confirm?

If you have any slides or photos of old Hong Kong that need a good home, please contact me!

If you've enjoyed seeing these, let me know and I'll take a look at some more slides in a future newsletter.

Regards, David

PS you can click / tap on any of the photos above to see a larger version and any extra information we have about it.