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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Sir David Wilson and the Rose Garden

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Tue, 09/21/2010 - 13:54
The Hong Kong economy fell off a cliff, overnight. Emigration to Canada, Singapore, wherever, increased massively.
The British decided that they had to do something to restore business confidence in Hong Kong.

I was not in, or anywhere near, the room at the time and I have no idea why it happened, but the Hong Kong Government decided to pull off the shelf a project that had been languishing in a forgotten corner.

Mystery photos # 2

Submitted by David on Thu, 09/09/2010 - 12:11

Three more mystery photos, but with a different background: This week and next I'm working on a paid project for local publisher FormAsia. The task is to provide accurate background information on a selection of photographs, for use in a future book.

Here are the three that have me stumped - all suggestions welcome (please click any photo to see more detail):

The first shows two identical houses on a hillside.

A chapter of scandals, and the rise of the 1997 issue

Submitted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on Mon, 08/30/2010 - 13:47

May I draw your attention to the rather architecturally undistinguished white office tower in the middle of this picture?

Today, it's the Bank of America Tower.

When built, in 1970, it was the Gammon Building, named after the still - prominent HK construction firm who built it as a speculative office block.

It was once at the centre of the greatest corporate bankruptcy in Hong Kong's history - the Carrian case.