To learn how to use Gwulo's maps, please watch this short video, or follow the instructions below.
Zoom in:
- Click the '+' in the top-left corner, or
- Use your mouse-wheel, or
- Stretch two fingers apart on a touch screen
Zoom out:
- Click the '-' in the top-left corner, or
- Use your mouse-wheel, or
- Pinch two fingers together on a touch screen
Go full-screen:
- Click the [ ] icon in the top-right corner of the map.
- When you've finished, click the icon again or press the 'Esc' key on your keyboard.
View different layers:
- Click the layers icon on the right of the map. Click a layer to toggle it between hidden and shown.
View Places:
- Each marker is a Place in Hong Kong that has a page on Gwulo.
- The colour of the marker shows the current condition of that Place:
- Green=In use,
- Yellow=Ruin,
- Red=Demolished,
- Blue/White=Unknown.
- Click any marker and a pop-up appears to show the name of the Place. Click on the name to see photos and further details of that Place.
Groups of Places:
- The larger circles with numbers show groups of Places. The number shows how many Places are there. You can either zoom in to see them individually, or click the number to expand it.
More about the layers:
- When you click the layers icon, you see two lists of maps:
- Base maps
- Map by ESRI - Buildings outlines, plus contours and shading in the countryside
- Map by OSM - Less detail in the city, but good coverage of the footpaths in Hong Kong's countryside
- Hybrid by Google - Satellite view plus names of streets and major buildings
- Satellite by Google
- Overlays
- Scanned paper maps, matched to the correct location
- Base maps
If anything isn't clear, please ask in the comments below.
Comments
Genius!
Dear David,
I have to say this is a truly remarkable piece of work. My next task is to try and overlay the old lot numbers from 1934 onto the current layout...
Best wishes
Kim
CC's Boundary Stones vs the Old European Reservation line
Hello,
Much confusion about the topic, at least on my part, puzzled me for years.
But now I try to come to a very simple fact.
Based on the 1938 map here, there are serveral lines with different direction and each of their joint may come with a BS marking. Clearly SOME of them are nothing to do with the European Reservation line.
The only European divisional line is a arrowed line from the St John Hospital. Please look carefully here the short straight line, from this Boundary Stone towards Nam She Tam's BS, has an arrowhead. It is quite faded off to be seen yet barely visible!! It is shooting all the way to Pak Tso Wan, also known as the Italian Beach, at the other end of this southern CC island.You can see the letters E----------PEAN--------over the Tai Choi Yeun area on this imaginary line.
The boundary of Houses and Districts reserved for the Europeana were shown here with the broken line of dash-dot-dash-dot type. The largest district with multiple ER Houses was on the western slope between Peak Rd. and the later CC Government School site.
And along the line for ER boundary, of course, you could expect the more BS stones along this line if and only if they were set up in year 1919 for that purpose. I believe there were at least 2 more BS stones between the Peniel Church and the Church of Christ in China, a hillet containing the gigantic Twin Erythrina Trees. And possible more BS stones beyond following the line.
However you still could discover BS stones which are nothing to do with the ER line boundary if and simply if those away from the vicinity of this ER line.
Agree?
Regards, Tung
The non-govt (Sun Sun?) map of 1956
In the early days, it's impossible for us to have street maps of HK from the Government, so we had to turn to those non-government published maps, even for academic uses. One popular source was the so-called Sun Sun maps. I suppose the map overlay of Kowloon 1956 here is one of these. Yet, we could not deem these maps as accurate as those from the government.
Here is an example:
On the map, there is King's Park Road, now Wylie Road. But the northern section of this road was not correctly drawn; it ran through the football field of Wah Yan College, Kowloon instead of running parallel with the railroad.
I myself had worked at Wah Yan College for over 30 years. The school moved to the present land lot in 1952 and that section of misplaced "King's Park Road"was indeed the lining of the underground culvert (it still exists) which was originally a stream before the ravine was filled.
Though such maps were quite handy and helpful in the long past, we still have to refer to them with care.