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Gwulo.com is for everyone that is interested in old Hong Kong.

If it's your first visit, you might like to start with one of the popular articles listed on the right, or just scroll down to browse through recent articles.

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Enjoy the site,

David

PS 'Gwu lo' is roughly how '古老' sounds in Cantonese. It means 'ancient' or 'old-fashioned'.

Fire Control sites

Here is the second batch of Places from Rob Weir's research. The first [1] showed the artillery batteries around Hong Kong. This batch records Fire Control sites and buildings. These housed the people and equipment responsible for identifying targets, then telling the gunners where to aim their gun so they'd hit the target.

Here they are on a map (subscribers, please click here to view it on the website):

1930s Royal Navy ship moored at dockyard

in

What: I'm hoping one of our nautical readers can tell us which ship this is.

Where: Behind the ship is the big chimney that we've seen before [1]. It was attached to the Naval dockyard's power station.

The ship was moored across the front of the

1920 Born to be wild

What: A motorbike, registration number 190, which I guess makes it the 190th motor vehicle registered in the colony. Do we have any motorbike historians reading, who can tell us what model we're looking at?

The white suit is an interesting choice, given the

Nancy, get your gun!

The following guest post is courtesy of Bill Griffiths, introducing us to his late wife, Nancy Kong. Nancy joined the Hong Kong Defence Force Naval branch in 1949, and soon gained a reputation as a sharpshooter. Here is her story:

Joining the Wrens

In 1949, the Hong Kong Regiment was reorganized and became part of the Hong Kong Defence Force, which also included separate Air and Naval units. A certain young Chinese girl, Nancy Kong who had lived in constant danger and suffered under the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War two, joined up to serve as a Naval Rating determined to do her best in serving as a volunteer.


Learning to shoot

It was not long before she was introduced to the service rifle, and started learning to shoot using the old Lee Enfield bolt action .303:

1920s Brownies

When: Here's the back - Read more »

1961 - Doug Brentlinger's photos

Many thanks to Doug Brentlinger for sharing this set of photos with us. I understand that Doug visited Hong Kong in 1961 with the US Navy. The photos (probably slides) are still sharp, with lots of detail to see.

Here are a few samples from the set:

View of Wanchai from the harbourView of Wanchai from the harbour

1909 Unveiling statues in Statue Square

When: King Edward's birthday, the 11th of November, 1909. This auspicious day was chosen to unveil the latest additions to Statue Square: statues of his wife, Queen Alexandra, and his daughter-in-law Mary, the Princess of Wales.

Where: We are looking out from Read more »

1954 Side-party

What: This group of smiling ladies worked as a side-party. Not 'party' as in drinks and dances, their job was to paint the side of navy ships visiting Hong Kong.

Here's a description of Mary Soo, well-known in this line of business:

The U.S. 7th Fleet, which plies its trade in the troubled waters of the Far East, has a girl friend named Mary Soo. Mary Soo, by tradition but not contract, has the garbage concession of all United States Navy ships entering Hong Kong, which out here is no small potatoes. Read more »

c.1922 The best hotel in Hong Kong

What: "The best hotel in Hong Kong", at least that's what whoever bought this postcard thought: Read more »

Artillery Batteries in Hong Kong

Thanks to Rob Weir who has generously shared his records of British military sites in Hong Kong with us. The first list is of artillery batteries, and covers over 70 sites.

He's further sub-divided the list by category. Here's a map of batteries in the largest category, Harbour Defence Battery:

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