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

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The Battle Box [????-????]

Submitted by David on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 09:00

Nicknamed the 'Battle Box', the armed services underground headquarters was built in the late 1930's, where Pacific Place stands today.

Here's what we know about it so far. It's not much, so if you can add anything, please leave a comment below.

Reader Malcolm Bradbury starts us off. He has kindly emailed us:

I have a book titled VICTORIA BARRACKS 1842 - 1979 published by: Headquarters British Forces, Hong Kong.
Page 57..........

Historic Military Buildings in Hong Kong

Submitted by David on Thu, 05/14/2009 - 09:00

A surprising amount of Hong Kong's military buildings still exist. Sometimes because they are in out-of-the-way places that noone has thought about redeveloping yet. Sometimes because they are still under the control of the military authorities, and so are out of bound for redevelopment. And a precious few are considered listed buildings, and so are actively protected.

During its time as a British colony, Hong Kong's role as a military base went through several different phases.

A catalogue of Hong Kong's history

Submitted by David on Thu, 03/26/2009 - 09:00

Shall we build one?

We've made a good start: batgung.com already has 900+ places, 1,800+ photos, and several thousand notes and comments. But recently I've been thinking about how we can keep it growing and improving, and would like to hear your ideas and feedback.

Why bother?

Let's clear up one obvious question first – we already have the internet as a catalogue of Hong Kong's memories, and Google to search it. Do we need anything more?