The description on the message side of this postcard purchased new in 1970 reads: A view of a typical street scene with steps in Central District, Hong Kong.
Color photograph by Cheng Ho-Choy.
This stone-stepped street, running up the hillside from Queen's Road Central and originally unknown to me, has now been identified as Aberdeen Street by our colleague “Klaus”. It is one of those streets that Ellen Thorbecke describes in her book Hong Kong, Kelly & Walsh Ltd., Hong Kong n.d. (1938?) as ‘a ladder street’: “A typical feature of Hong Kong, owing to the steep slopes on which the city is built, these narrow streets consist of a flight of steps, amphitheatres where Chinese life picturesquely displays its colourful peculiarities.”
In the submitted depictions of this scene from 1969 and 2010, a hydrant is clearly visible on the footpath at the base of the steps. There is no hydrant to be seen in the above postcard image, which probably dates it to some time prior to 1969. The Chinese signage in my postcard is very similar to that seen in the image (also without a hydrant) submitted by “Admin”, and labelled 1960’s “A13 Street scene of H.K.”