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.

70 years ago

Submitted by David on Sun, 01/22/2012 - 06:09

Seventy years ago, Hong Kong had recently surrendered to the Japanese, and the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong had begun.

A new project on Gwulo.com gives you a daily summary of news from 70 years ago, compiled from diaries and newspapers of the time. Here are some recent examples:

29 Dec 1941. Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reports "Ceremonial entry into Hong Kong by Imperial Japanese Army and Navy"

Submitted by David on Thu, 12/29/2011 - 23:28

I bought this Japanese newspaper on eBay a couple of years ago. I can't read any Japanese, but the seller included this description:


The main headline is:

"Ceremonial entry into Hong Kong by Imperial Japanese Army and Navy "

Some articles and pictures:

1935-7 James McAndrew's photos

Submitted by David on Mon, 11/28/2011 - 10:00

I'm always pleased to see new collections of old photos, but this came at an even better time than usual. We moved house last week, and between packing, unpacking and cleaning, there hasn't been any time to get a new photo ready.

So I was very pleased to hear from Alan, who said he'd recently scanned in several photos from his father-in-law's album, was visiting Hong kong, and would I like to see them.

Yes please!

Here's a sample, the Bank of East Asia building decorated for King George VI's coronation on 12 May 1937: