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
Hong Kong Island (Central and Wan Chai)
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| Electra House |
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| Carnarvon Road |
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| Hennessy Road, Wan Chai district |
6 comments:
Great photos of OLD HongKong and Kowloon. I enjoyed the HongKong area many times in the mid-sixties while in Uncle Sam's Navy. It was still a very interesting city back then. I always wanted to visit again later in life but never have made the trip. Thanks for the post. Also great Kodachomes....Most of my photos from that era were on Ektachome and have faded and turned color....My dad always told me I should use Kodachome for slides......LOL
Your dad made a lot of great pictures in the short time he spent there. Easy to imagine them illustrating a book on the place and time.
Did your father leave a dairy of his travels?
He did write a diary of this 1950 trip. He included notes on the hotels, tourist sites, and costs. The diary is how I assigned dates to many of the photos because he did not write on the slide mounts.
Scan your Ektachromes. The auto color correct tool in Photoshop Elements can bring back an amazing amount of information. In a future post, I will show Ektachrome scenes from Karachi.
I enjoyed this post very much. I cannot imagine what it would have been like during that time, but it is fascinating seeing the daily routine. I enjoyed the black and white of the earlier post, too. Thank you for including those.
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