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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Childhood memories of 1920s Hong Kong

Submitted by David on Sat, 09/21/2013 - 14:00

Barbara Anslow remembers her childhood in Hong Kong in the 1920s:

1927 - Sailing to Hong Kong with the P & O

Nothing in our village life in Crombie, Scotland had prepared us for the enthralling new world we were entering when we trooped up the gangway on to R.M.S. 'Rawalpindi' [1]. The Redwood family were setting off to Hong Kong where my Dad, an Electrical Engineer, was to work in the Naval Dockyard. Mum was 32, Dad 35, sister Olive 11, Mabel 4, and I was 8.

Three Years and Eight Months

Submitted by David on Wed, 09/11/2013 - 12:00

Introduction

This is an unusual book. It covers a topic we don't often read about in English - the experiences of the local Chinese and Eurasian population during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. And despite the dark subject, it has lots of colour illustrations and writes about the experiences of a young boy, making it attractive to a younger audience.

Sample pages from "Three Years and Eight Months", by Icy Smith

c.1961 Cine-film of Hong Kong

Submitted by David on Mon, 05/27/2013 - 21:49

Many thanks to Tania Scott for sharing her family's cine films. 

They were taken by her father, David Scott, between 1960 - 1962. He was in Hong Kong with the RAF on a two year posting.

My favourites are the shots of boats where he's so low you think he must be whizzing along in a speed-boat, but then... well, see if you get the same surprise I did!

(Subscribers, you'll need to click here to visit the web version of this page to see the links to the videos.)

Regards, David

CPS Project: 1st update, more questions

Submitted by David on Tue, 04/09/2013 - 10:30

I'm still searching for photos of the Central Police Station, Magistracy, and Prison [1]. Here are some of the photos I've found, and also a few questions that they've raised. Thank you to everyone who has helped so far, and any extra offers of help will be very gratefully received!

The Central Police Station and its parade ground

Here's an old postcard view that was sent by reader 'moddsey':