Chunghing Hotel.jpg

Stanley Lai
Fri, 05/03/2019 - 12:25
oldernewer
Chunghing Hotel.jpg
Date picture taken
1986
Shows place(s)
Clover Hotel / Royal Hotel / Chunghing Hotel, 380 Nathan Road [c.1957-c.1987]
Nathan Hotel [1968- ]
Astor Theatre / 普慶戲院, Nathan Road [1957-1987]
Shows street(s)
Nathan Road (formerly Robinson Road & Coronation Road) [????- ]

Comments

Hi there,

I believe there is a ventilation shaft besides the crossing at Gasgoine.  That is likely for MTR.  If this is the case, tho photo should be taken after 1982.

T

Cliffside Mansions, Methodist College and its North Wing annex can be seen at the far background. Even a small portion of Yaumati Kaifong Association School can be identified. But they are of no use in narrowing down the period (1982-1987) further. 

Okay Google Lens pointed me to an intermediate source of this image which is a post in the uwants forum. In the same post there is this photo: 

Entrance to Astor Theatre on Nathan Road
Po Hing Theatre entrance, by qazwsxedcrfv000

It looks very similar to the movie billboard in the photo. This photo also has the same picture frame effect. So I suspect they are from the same collection.

All in all good eye eurasian_david. 

Together with the coming soon billboard for Cocoon. The photo was almost certainly taken in 1986. We can even pinpoint the date period if we know when the King Solonmon's Mines and Cocoon was released respectively in Hongkong. Sad that the newspaper clips at playitagain.info do not have dates. 

https://playitagain.info/site/1986/cocoon/

Okay I have found the source. It is from a Japanese site 香港なんでもケンショウ堂 (Hong Kong Nang Demo Keng Show Do): 

  1. http://hongkong.my.coocan.jp/cinema-as.html [Internet Archive]
  2. http://hongkong.my.coocan.jp/cinema-as-more.html [Internet Archive]

The owner of the site visited Hongkong between 1st and 20th March 1986.

 

※このギャラリーに展示している写真は、すべて1986年3月1日から3月20日の期間に学芸員Ｋが撮影したものです。

[Photos displayed in this gallery were all taken between 1st March and 20th March 1986 by curator K (学芸員Ｋ) (the owner of the site)]

http://hongkong.my.coocan.jp/mukashi.html

 

このギャラリーの写真を撮影した1986年3月、初めての香港で泊まったホテルは、油麻地の彌敦道に面したフォーチュナホテルという中級ホテルでした。

[The photos in this gallery were taken in March 1986. I stayed at a mid-range hotel called Fortuna the first time I visited Hongkong. ]

啓德空港からタクシーでこのホテルに来て、チェックインを済ませて部屋になんとかたどり着き、ほっとひと安心して窓のカーテンを開けて下を見たら、彌敦道を挟んで斜め向かいに、この普慶戲院の映画の看板があったのでした。

[I took a taxi to the hotel from the Kai Tak Airport. After checking in and getting my room, I opened the curtain on the window with a sense of relief. There were billboards of the Astor Theatre diagonally across the Nathan Road]

http://hongkong.my.coocan.jp/cinema-as.html

 

この写真は到着の次の日に撮影したものだと思います。

[I think this photo was taken the next day after arrival. ]

http://hongkong.my.coocan.jp/cinema-as-more.html

With these descriptions, I think this photo was taken on 2nd March 1986.

The weather in HK on 1st March 1986 was windy and rainy about 6C average 

The weather in HK on 2nd March 1986 was sunny and about 12C average

Source: https://weather.sumofus.org

Based on above photo, probably taken on day of arrival on 1st March 1986 but worth checking the newspapers eg SCMP for the daily weather report for those early days in March.

 

Good find everyone!

 

P.S. I actually remembered the billboard. Astor theatre was just one of many of my cinematic memories of HK