Charles Gesner van der Voort (1916-1991) worked for Holland-China Trading Company (HCHC) in Shanghai; it also had offices in Hong Kong and Tientsin (Tianjin). One of its first directors, Mr. Willem Kien, worked in China from 1898. After HCHC was founded in 1903, he worked for the company in Hong Kong and Shanghai. In 1921, he left China and worked for the head office in Rotterdam, at Diergaardelaan 36, until 1948, when the company was obtained by Internatio.
In the 1930s, Mr. Willem Kien made at least one voyage to the East. The Hong Kong photo wrapper still has the images of one of these voyages: a trip to Macau with steamliner Fat Shan. One of the photos is of a natural rock temple. The photos were probably purchased.
Courtesy Kien family archives
Comments
Hong Kong 1930s, natural rock temple
Dear reader,
Do you have any idea where this temple is located?
Kind regards,
Pieter
Re: Natural rock temple (not in Hong Kong)
Hi There,
I looked up the carved words 水樂洞 and it lead to somewhere in Hangzhou. Even if you do not read Chinese I supposed you should be able to compare the the carvings in the photos. In both your photos and the URL, the words were carved from right to left 洞樂水, which Traditional Chinese writing do. The phrase could be loosely translated as Water Happiness Cave.
T
Natural rock temple, Hangzhou, 1930s
Many thanks tngan, I appreciate it!