A look at the most popular pages that appeared on Gwulo in 2014.
#10 - Squatter village below Mount Davis (8,792 views)
This newsletter showed a 1974 photo of shacks on the hillside, and talked about the squatter village they were part of.
Read about the Squatter village below Mount Davis
#9 - Alberose, 132A & 132B Pok Fu Lam Road [1926- ] (9,164 views)
Alberose is an old mansion on Pok Fu Lam Road, that will soon reach its hundredth birthday.
Read about Alberose
#8 - Birthday Buildings in 2014 (9,748 views)
Speaking of birthdays...
Each year I list the 50-, 75-, 100-, 125-, 150-, and 175-year-old buildings that we've documented on Gwulo. It's a chance to introduce some of Hong Kong's older buildings that readers may not have seen before.
Can you guess three buildings that were 150 years old in 2014, and are still standing?
Read about the Birthday Buildings in 2014
#7 - Started 1919, pg 1-23 (10,481 views)
I'm not sure why this page made it into the Top Ten! I remember there was a spam attack that for a few days sent lots of visitors to random pages on the website - maybe that's the reason?
It's the page where volunteers worked through the 1919 Jurors List, typing it up so that other readers can benefit from it.
Here's that original page: Started 1919, pg 1-23
And here's what the finished list looks like, after all the typing was done: 1919 Jurors List
The project still continues, and we still need volunteers' help. We're currently working on the Jurors List from 1934 - please click here for details of how to help type a page.
#6 - City of Darkness Revisited - a new edition of the Kowloon Walled City classic (12,292 views)
Even if you don't have a copy of this famous book, you probably recognise its photos. In this newsletter I interviewed Ian Lambot, one of the book's co-authors, about the new edition and the major update to the original book.
Read about City of Darkness Revisited - a new edition of the Kowloon Walled City classic
#5 - WW2 volunteer nurses, part 2: The Auxiliary Nursing Service (ANS) (12,297 views)
This article looks at The Auxiliary Nursing Service, or ANS, one of the two groups of volunteer nurses who served in Hong Kong during the Second World War.
Read WW2 volunteer nurses, part 2: The Auxiliary Nursing Service (ANS)
#4 - Please help send these home (19,615 views)
In 2014 I bought a bunch of photos on eBay, hoping that they'd have lots of good scenes of old Hong Kong. Instead they were mostly photos of people, that really belonged in the family's collection. In this newsletter I asked Gwulo's readers to help put me in touch with a member of the family, so I could send the photos to them.
After an initial burst of activity the leads went cold. But there was a happy ending in 2016, when a family member read the page on Gwulo, recognised some of the old photos, and got in touch. The photos are now back home again.
Read Please help send these home
#3 - 110 years of Hong Kong Trams in photos (23,700 views)
Hong Kong's trams have changed their appearance several times over the years. This page shows photos of the different versions, and gives the years they were seen in use. The idea was to make a resource to help readers put a date on any photo that shows a tram.
Read 110 years of Hong Kong Trams in photos
#2 - Welcome to the new server (24,093 views)
This page introduced readers to a new-look Gwulo, after a major upgrade to the software that runs this website. That was six years ago already, so we're about due for another major upgrade - time to bite the bullet and get on with it!
Read Welcome to the new server
#1 - 011 A pagoda maybe in New Territories 1948.JPG (24,677 views)
This page was our attempt to identify this scene, a fuzzy screen-capture from an old 8mm film.
We never did work out the location, so if you recognise it please click through to leave a comment and let us know.
Read 011 A pagoda maybe in New Territories 1948.JPG
If you'd like to see more of the top pages from 2014, here's the full list.