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During the week I called in to Wattis Fine Art to see their current exhibition. On the left as you walk in to their gallery, there's a 1946 poster of the Tiger Balm Gardens.
Two Chinese-style bridges at centre-left caught my eye:
They're outside the gardens, so my first reaction is that the bridges came from the artist's imagination, adding a bit of interest to an otherwise dull section of the poster. But recent conversations about the three pavilions on the hillside above the gardens reached the conclusion they were built as an extension to the gardens, even though they're outside the gardens' land. So, did these bridges actually exist too?
Another recent topic on Gwulo popped up at the end of the exhibition, in this map of the New Territories drawn by R C Hurley in 1925:
Here's a closer look at the area I was interested in. The Kowloon reservoirs are at bottom right, above them is the text 'TUNNELS', and a dashed line to the left shows the tunnels' route.
On a hike last year I passed this channel, with water flowing out from a large pipe and into a nearby tunnel:
Further investigation showed it was the entrance to the North Tunnel, part of the project to bring water from the Shing Mun Valley to the Kowloon reservoirs, and one of the tunnels shown on Hurley's map. It might seem an odd item to get such a prominent mention, but the tunnels were being built as the map was drawn (the North Tunnel was completed in 1926), and Hong Kong's frequent water shortages meant the project was big news.
Those are just two items from either end of the exhibition. In the middle there's lots more to see, with a selection of rare prints and photos of old Hong Kong to enjoy. If you'd like to visit, don't wait too long as the exhibition closes on December 3rd: exhibition highlights, address, and opening hours.
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