Terry Bennett has written a three-volume history of photography in China in the nineteenth century. He has very kindly allowed us to post the chapter about Chinese photographers in Hong Kong here on Gwulo.

As an appetiser, here are several of the photos from that chapter, many very rarely seen. For the main course, you can read the full chapter at http://gwulo.com/node/31857. It has detailed information about Hong Kong's early Chinese photographers and their studios, and also many more of their photos to enjoy.

And in particular four of its foundation stones. This first one lives on a small island, 30+ miles southwest from Hong Kong:

Click these links to update the map above:

• Show 1866 map with markers
• Show 1866 map without markers

This 1866 map of Hong Kong's north shore was originally printed in the 1867 edition of The Chronicle and Directory for China, Japan, & the Philippines. Thank you to Peter Crush for compiling and sending in this digital copy.

The highlight of his first visit was the construction of the new Taikoo dockyard [1] at Quarry Bay. On this next visit, four years later, he could show it as a going concern.

He took several photos of ships under repair, both up on the slips and down in the dry dock: