Welcome to Gwulo

Here you'll find over 50,000 pages about old Hong Kong to explore, including over 30,000 photos. The content is added by a friendly community of people who enjoy sharing what we know about Hong Kong's history, and you are very welcome to join us.

Kind regards, David

P.S. To receive more old Hong Kong photos and stories, please sign up for our free weekly newsletter.

Upgrade - London talk - Chinese translation - Missing wartime diaries

Submitted by David on

Gwulo website upgrade

The Gwulo website is back online again after I've finished upgrading the software that runs it. The next job is to fix the problems that inevitably occur after an upgrade like this.

London talk on 5th April

[Update: we're now fully booked for this talk. Thank you to everyone who has booked, and I look forward to seeing you on the 5th.]

If you attended the Gwulo's farewell talk I gave in Hong Kong last year, and can think of any friends in the UK who might enjoy it, please could you let them know I will give the talk again in London on 5th April? When I last checked there were only 10 seats still available for the 70-seat venue, so I'm hoping we can make it a full house.

Chinese translation of Gwulo's first book

Some exciting news for Gwulo's books: I've signed a contract with a Hong Kong publisher to publish a Chinese-language translation of Volume 1 of Old Hong Kong Photos and The Tales They Tell. That's all I can say at the moment, but I'll share more details when I can.

Missing wartime diaries

The daily Wartime Diaries emails couldn't be sent during the website upgrade. If you'd like to catch up on the missed days, please use the links below:

83 years ago

82 years ago

81 years ago

80 years ago

It's upgrade time again

Submitted by David on

The software used to run the Gwulo website needs to be upgraded. It isn't as big a project as the last major upgrade in 2022, but this upgrade will still take several weeks.

I've created a new forum where I'll post updates on progress, and where you can report any problems: 2025 Gwulo upgrade

During this time I'll focus on getting the upgrade finished ASAP, so I won't be sending out any new newsletters or videos, and my responses to emails and messages on the website will be delayed. From time to time the website will be unavailable as I make updates to the software.

If you're missing the newsletters you can always visit the What's new page, to see what Gwulo's contributors have added lately.

I'll send out the next newsletter once the upgrade is complete.

Regards, David

1960 Hong Kong in colour slides

Submitted by David on

Visit 1960 Hong Kong via twenty colour slides. As always, lots of clues to explore, plus a mystery with the Furama Hotel I hope you'll be able to explain.

(If the video doesn’t appear below, please click here to watch it on Youtube). 

Here are links to more information about the various topics mentioned, listed by the time they appear in the video:

New on Gwulo: 2025, week 05

Submitted by David on

What's new and updated on the Gwulo website:

 

Organisations & People

There have been some great stories added these last two weeks:

  • The epic is the almost 500-page Mum's diaries by Jon Rollins. As the name suggests, it is based on diary entries written by his mother, Phyllis Lang, in Hong Kong, Macau, and finally England, during the years 1941-46. When it starts she is aged 19, and studying at Hong Kong University, so we get a very different view of life in wartime Hong Kong than we've seen in previous diaries. If you had family members in Hong Kong at that time, you might want to start with the Index of Names to see if they are mentioned.

     
  • February 1944 saw American pilot Donald Kerr shot down over Kai Tak airfield. His journal of the dogfight, parachuting to the ground, and the long escape to free China makes fascinating reading.

     
  • Chandru Vaswani writes about his father, Assudamal Hashmatrai VASWANI [1899-1949]. Chandru knows his father was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned by the Japanese during WW2, and is hoping to find out more about why that happened. We've been able to add some details, but any extra information will be gratefully received.

     
  • Moving post-war, Martin Reynolds has posted his mother Shirley Gillard's impressions of visits to Repulse Bay, Fanling, a Japanese circus, etc., after she came out to HK in 1956 as a young teacher with the Army School at Murray Barracks.

     
  • Stuart Braga continues his series of biographies of the thirteen Braga siblings with a page for Paul BRAGA [1910-1989], businessman and fine arts collector.

Other people:


 

General


 

Places & Streets

An unusual rickshaw on 19th-century Pottinger Street

Submitted by David on

Something unusual about this rickshaw will help us work out When the photo was taken, and other clues will shed light on the photo’s Who, What, and Where.

For more on that, and several other stories about this scene, please see the video below. (Or you can click here to watch it on Youtube).

For more information about the topics in the video, please use these links: