At Repulse Bay

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 19:53

Photo courtesy of the Booth family.

[Update: This was supplied titled "At Shek O", but in the comments below it has been identified as Repulse Bay.]

Date picture taken
1953
Shows place(s)

Comments

I don't think that the location can be Shek O beach, there being no high hills behind the Eastern end of the Shek O beach - just the village.  If the photograph was taken on the island, the pass between the hills in the background looks very much like the one behind Repulse Bay.

Greetings Andrew.  That's about the same changing stand I used two years after this photo was taken, bring back memories of those days with my siblings.  Your attention to detail got me interested, yes, Google current photos show the same mountain ridge behind Repulse Bay, and the gullies look similar.  Regards, Peter

Good morning Peter,

Thanks for confirming that this photograph of young Martin Booth and his mother was taken at Repulse Bay. Perhaps David can change the title? I never intend to be pedantic but do think that it's best to be as historically accurate as possible in order to prevent confusion In the future - if future generations care! Several Gwulo followers have been able to re-identify locations of my own photographs and that's a good thing.  Best wishes, Andrew

Greetings Andrew and David,   The invention of photography is one of humanity's great achivements well reflected here by our recounting of old Hong kong.  Due to urban buildup, it can be difficult to find current HK street views that show distant landscape from the spot where we long time ago stood.  Fortunately, the Booth photo shows a bit of the hill behind the beach.

After a very hot and dry summer, Toronto has had some rain, and heavy downpour yesterday, all reminded me of my times in HK when I was all drenched by rain while hikng to NT and still didn't catch a cold.   

Well done Andrew and Peter for spotting this photo to have been at Repulse Bay. Sharp eyes indeed.

Corroboration of your identification comes from the small, one storey, building with two windows on the hillside above the far end of the line of huts. It's also seen here, near the top right corner.

1949 Repulse Bay
Pillbox 18.jpg, by Moddsey

And again here, towards the top left corner.

1950s Repulse Bay Beach
1950s Repulse Bay Beach, by moddsey

 

Great.  I wonder how many more wrongly identified images - especially mine - are lurking on Gwulo? I guess that those amongst us who are living H.K. might be in a better position (literally) to spot them. Regards to all.  Andrew