The Grand Tour 03: Kodachrome Slides from Hong Kong, 1950

Hong Kong was the first stop on my dad's ambitious Grand Tour westward en route home to Massachusetts. For a New England boy, this destination may have felt exotic, a hint of the Orient.  He arrived in Hong Kong on October 30, 1950, after a long flight via Manila. 

In 1950, Hong Kong was a crucial strategic outpost for the American and European powers. The brutal and terrible Chinese Civil War was over, and Mao Tse-tung's communist forces had defeated Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang army in 1949. China had become a closed society. Thousands of refugees had fled to Hong Kong before Mao sealed the borders. Hong Kong was still a British Crown Colony in the post-war period when the United Kingdom still maintained some of its overseas empire. 

You will see more than the normal number of photos below because they show a Hong Kong that has changed drastically, a city without skyscrapers and with rice terraces on the hillsides. It was dramatically less urbanized than it is now. Please click any picture to see more detail.  

Victoria Harbour

This is the view from Victoria Peak of Victoria Harbour, one of the world's great natural harbors. It is a spectacular view, accessible by the Peak Tramway. There are two aircraft carriers at anchor, a non-subtle hint to Mao Tse-tung to behave and not try to invade the colony.

The waterfront from Wan Chai or Kowloon was always dynamic. Thousands of refugees lived on these sampans. As of 2014, I did not see these floating communities. I love the elegant motor launch in the photo above. Behind it is one of the traditional ferries.

Kowloon

In 1950, Kowloon was a crowded area of low-rise building and slums, densely occupied by refugees. Crime was rampant.  

       

Hong Kong Island (Central and Wan Chai)

Electra House

Electra House (also called Mercury House) was Cable & Wireless Ltd.'s regional headquarters on Connaught Road Central.

Carnarvon Road

Hennessy Road, Wan Chai district

This ends our quick stopover in the Hong Kong of 1950. My dad only stayed a few days and proceeded on to Bangkok.

I posted some of his B&W photos earlier (click the link). 

He took these Kodachrome slides with a Leica IIIC camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. I think he used a GE PR-1 light meter at the time. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED film scanner running under NikonScan 4.03 software. Many of the colors were off, but I corrected most using the automatic color function in Photoshop Elements 2024 software. 

NO KINGS! Olympia, Washington, March 28, 2026 (Oly 26)

 

Washington State Capitol

On Saturday, March 28, 2026, angry Americans rallied at more that 3,300 NO KINGS protests around the USA and in many foreign countries. More and more people are disgusted by the nation's shift to kleptocracy, corruption, authoritarianism, Christian nationalism, and governmental incompetence. 

NO KINGS protesters gathered at the Washington Capitol Campus starting about 10:30. I biked to the campus and walked around. People were peaceful - no fire bombs or good stuff today. I loved the creativity of the signs. People in the following photographs gave me permission to take their pictures.  

Many (most?) of the signs were oriented to US politics, diversity, the excesses of ICE, and the rights of all humans. I saw some protests against the war in Iran. Oddly, I did not see any Ukraine or Gaza signs, but I may have missed them. Possibly most people here have moved on. 

 

Yup, same old s***. They could have added Mao Zedong's octagonal cap.

Ah, the wheel of corruption

Who is a puppet? Not me.....

Ferocious mountain dog is sick of all the doodoo, too

Time to wee - this one was seemed appropriate

More and more of these Handmaids are appearing at protests. 

 

These ladies are an allegory of a dystopian totalitarian America, where fertile women become the baby-making slaves for the leaders. The television series was based on the 1985 novel, The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. Women vote? Not in that brave new America.

I took these pictures with my Fuji X-E1 digital camera with the 18-55mm lens. I set the jpeg emulation for Astia film. The output is colorful and "sharp," but definitely looks digital. There is no character. 

This is an old camera on digital terms. I am sure it does not have enough megapixels, bokeh, or equivalence (bogus concept among D shooters), but it works well. It has been to Burma, Cuba, Hong Kong, the Colorado River, Columbia, Nepal, Greece, and more, and it keeps truckin' along.

Next week, we will continue on the 1950 Grand Tour around the world in Kodachrome slides.

The Grand Tour 02: Kodachrome Slides from the Pacific, 1947-1950

Guam

My dad worked for PIE engineering company on Guam for two assignments, 1947-1949 and 1949-1950. In mid-1949, he had returned to Massachusetts but was unable to find a suitable job there, so off he went to Guam again. There, he lived in a Quonset hut on the US Navy base in Agaña, now called Hagåtña.  

In those days, flying from Honolulu to Guam was a long trip, requiring two stops for refueling.

It is a long way to anywhere from Guam (note the New England road map)

Honolulu to Guam route

Ready to fly at NAS Hagåtña (Agana), now the A.B. Won Pat International Airport

I am not sure if my dad flew with these people of if he was just wishing them goodbye. The massive airplane in the background is a Pan American Boeing 377 Stratocruiser. It was luxurious and comfortable but suffered from two major flaws: high fuel use and propellers that tended to crack and disintegrate in flight. 

The PIE Camp was rather basic. The engineers had their own living quarters, consisting of half of a Quonset hut. They had no air conditioning, but the mess hall and cinema were cooled. When it rained, there was mud. The jeeps were mostly wrecks that broke regularly. 

 

Minor hole in the road

 

My dad told me that when he and other engineers went up-country to look at watersheds or survey, two armed soldiers accompanied them because there were still Japanese soldiers living in the forest. 

Yap Island

Yap is an island group that is part of the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific. Now it is a state within the Federated States of Micronesia. In 1948, the US held the Caroline Islands as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands.

My dad flew there in January 1948 on a PBY Catalina flying boat to do a quick inspection of water sources and aquifers. He saw the round stone money disks, used as a symbol of wealth by local families. From Wikipedia, "... stone money, known as Rai, or Fei: large doughnut-shaped, carved disks of (usually) calcite, up to 4 m (13 ft) in diameter (most are much smaller). The smallest can be as little as 3.5 centimetres (1.4 in) in diameter. Many of them were brought from other islands, as far as New Guinea, but most came in ancient times from Palau."

 

Oops, a bit of mud. Local gents are helping.

Stone money lining a path

Impressive stone money samples

This ends this short look at the Pacific in the 1940s. We will continue on to Hong Kong when my dad finished his one-year contract and headed west.

I think he used an American Perfex camera for these Kodachrome slides. I scanned them with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED scanner. Considering their age, the slides were in remarkable condition. He bought his Leica IIIC at the post exchange in early 1950. I do not know what happened to the Perfex. 

The Grand Tour 01: Kodachrome Slides from North America, 1949

 

Background

One of my New Year's resolutions (every year!) is to clear out more old photographs, files, and papers from the house. We have an overwhelming amount of stuff (junk) that has followed us around the world. After retiring, I donated, sold on eBay, and sold via a New Orleans auction house family souvenirs that we had accumulated over the decades. It felt good to lighten the load. The worst thing you can do to your children is leave a mess for them to clean up. They end up resenting you. 

Over the 2025 Christmas-New Year holiday, my wife and I spent many evenings looking at my dad's slides. He was a prolific photographer. Oddly, he did not record dates and places on most of the cardboard slide mounts. We had a general idea where most were taken, and his diaries sometimes provided a date. But some of his photos remained a mystery.

We discarded "pretty" pictures. No one cares about a colorful flower, sunset, Old Faithful, or a garden. The exception is if the subject covers a topic that no longer exists. (Following this subject line, I no longer take "pretty" photographs.)

Most of the slides from 1947 to about 1960 were Kodachrome film. Many from before 1950 were marginal technical quality, possibly taken with a Perfex camera. I think he did not buy a light meter until 1950. For the older photos, he may have used the Kodak printed exposure recommendations. 

In 1950, he bought a Leica IIIC camera with a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens at the Post Exchange on Guam (Marina Islands). This was a major upgrade in optical quality. I still occasionally use this camera and lens. 

Here is a short collection of some of my dad's more interesting Kodachrome slides. We will start in North America in 1949, when he flew to Guam for his second contact there. When the contract ended in late-1950, he returned to Massachusetts the long way, moving west across Asia, Africa, and Europe. I will approximately follow his 1950 trip west around the world. His travel book was very handy to check dates and locations (see scans below).

The earlier article shows Celilo Falls (now underwater) of the Columbia River in 1949. My dad took those pictures on the return from his first Guam contract. 

Mexico City to San Francisco

Mexico City

 

 

Self portrait at Teotihuacan, Aug. 2, 1949

Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,  Zócalo

  

Monterrey, Mexico

American Airlines DC-4, Monterry, Mexico

The DC-4 was a robust and reliable airplane. But it was not pressurized, so the cruising altitude for passenger use was between 8,000 and 10,000 feet. Cargo versions of the DC-4 played a major role in the Berlin airlift.

Reno, Nevada

The flamboyant signs of Reno, Nevada. Recall, in the 1940s, gambling was illegal in most of the USA except Nevada. So Nevada was the destination for excitement and naughtiness, although easterners could also fly to Cuba for some Latin indulgence. 

San Francisco

Oakland Bridge, August 1949

Downtown San Francisco, August 1949

In the 1940s, San Francisco had a working waterfront with warehouses, railroad, and cargo docks.

Honolulu, Hawaii

In the era of propeller airplanes, it was a long flight from the mainland to Hawaii. The US Coast Guard stationed patrol ships along the route in case of emergencies. My dad wrote that he flew in a Mars flying boat! That was a monumental 4-engine flying boat of which only seven were ever made.

Honolulu and Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii. Where are the hotels and highrises? 

On the waterfront, Honolulu, August 1949

Hawaii was still a US Territory in 1949. It was an exotic tropical destination for mainland tourists in the post-war tourism boom.

I scanned these slides with a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED film scanner running Nikon Scan 4.03 on a Windows 7 32-bit computer. Many of the colors were off, and I made minor color corrections using Photoshop CS6.