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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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?

Views along the tram line in the 1950s

Submitted by David on Thu, 02/26/2009 - 09:00

In chapter 9 of Martin Booth's book, he describes a tram ride from Kennedy Town to Shau Kei Wan.

Here are the photos we've been sent that show the views he'd have seen along that route.

Many thanks to the people who have shared their photographs with us.

(You can click any of the photos below to see other readers' comments, and / or leave your own.)

A Travel of Hong Kong Mainland Defence Ruins (World War II) - further information

Submitted by David on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 13:42

Here's a place to find / add further information related to the above book. Scroll down to see a list of the Routes from the book, click on the one you are interested in.

The book

The book gives a series of walks through the New Territories, each accompanied by a map, lots of photos, and further information. You can approach it as a hiking guide-book - each route takes you through an interesting part of Hong Kong's countryside. But if you'd like to see some of the remains of Hong Kong's wartime history you'll find them especially interesting.

When were the Harrison Forman photos taken?

Submitted by David on Thu, 01/08/2009 - 09:00

The library records for these photos show the date of each photograph as 'circa 1941'. We now believe the photos were taken in at least two batches: one during Sep - Nov 1940, and one in Sep 1941.

Raymond Lo has helped us pinpoint the dates for several photos, based on cinema advertisments that can be seen. The first group date the photos between Sep - Nov 1940: