1950s Sketches of life in Hong Kong: View pages

'Stanley' bus from depot past Kowloon ferry 60 cents.

The buses are like English ones only the driver sits at the front and is not cut off.

The Repulse Bay bus goes through Wanchai: a typical Chinese quarter. It's very crowded with many more coolie types dressed in black than you see in the central part. Children sit outside doors: they are all ages and all look alike.

The shops on the whole are clean: especially the cake shops where you can buy lurid looking things that apparently are tasteless. There are many jewellers and shoe-repairers.

Above all the shops, in the windowless tall buildings are lines of washing. These all seem to dry in the dust and when you see the conditions, it is amazing how the greater percentage of Chinese people look so fresh and starched. The long bamboo poles denote a Chinese laundry.

After Wanchai, which is rather smelly the bus climbs past the Tuberculosis centre above the garrison playing fields of Sookunpoo, above the H.K. Jockey Club. This area is known as Happy Valley.

Leaving Victoria behind the bus goes round the side of the Peak in a road literally carved out of the Rock face. In some places, there are houses made of cardboard set in caves where a Chinese family lives.

Suddenly rounding a corner you come upon a breathtaking view of the other side of the Island. On the left you can see the black mass of fishing junks in Aberdeen harbour. Directly beneath you, you see the golf course and beaches of Repulse Bay.

Here the sea is very blue and warm. The sand is white with tiny sand crabs running about. There is a very pleasant restaurant just above the beach with a juke-box (the first one I've seen!) All sorts of foods are served: it is spotlessly clean.

A changing room is provided on payment of 1$. At our first visit we paid the 1$ and then reclaimed it at the end. This was the wrong thing to do!

The back of the beach has palm trees along it. You can see other islands rising green and steep out of the sea. They all seem to be uninhabited.

Coming back in the bus after our first visit we were bumping along in the bus and I turned to admire the view we were leaving behind. At that moment the bus bumped extra violently and I was deposited across in the lap of an Englishman sitting opposite.

This visit was the beginning of our suntan.

This is reached by taking the ferry across to the island of Lantaow.

The ferry is similar to the star ferry service. It costs 60 cents. There are two stops before Silvermine Bay.

The ferry goes along parallel to the waterfront of Hong Kong Island past Kennedy Town. Here the buildings become progressively poorer. There are no windows to the rooms which you can see are very overcrowded.

Next, you can see the Observatory for the R.A.F. at Mount Davis. This is a high sharp peak at the end of the Island. Tall masts reach into the sky. The view is beautiful - hills, sea, sand and sky all in one.

The ferry then turns right and goes at right angles to Hongkong Island. There are islands on both sides - large and small. The first stop is at Ping Chau where there are people waiting to give you rides in their sampans. This seems to be a very poor fishing village with a very strong smell.

Finally after about an hour we arrive at Silvermine Bay. Here there is a jetty built out with a beach on both sides. The path to the beach leads past the Summer Palace restaurant where we had glasses of delicious iced lemon.

Then we paid ten cents to cross a rickety bridge to get to the main beach. There is a sort of backwater where all the sampans are kept. The water is very calm with a high peak rising in the background. The people live on the sampans and once again they are very poor, it is crowded on board and very smelly. They do not like having their photographs taken.

The main beach is beautiful but there is no shade so we become progressively pinker and pinker! We ate our lunch inside the gateway of the hotel there and were amazed at the colour and size of the butterflies.

Here many European people stay for a holiday in the summer. We shall have to try it one day.

At the back of the beach set in the grassy cliff was a typical Chinese house. The people were busy in the garden and the woman was sweeping the steps. The children came near us but ran away when we tried to photograph them. A man driving cattle which were quite thin but not as bad as we expected came along the beach. The cattle had lovely dark brown furry coats - rather like Jersey & Guernsey cattle.

On the island of Lantaow is a monastery high up in the hills to which you can walk and then spend the night. Although you attempt to sleep in bare boards, it is apparently well worth the visit, so we shall have to go.

After being in the sun all day we all thought we should get sun stroke but all was well.

This was held on reclaimed ground in Kowloon. Ground is reclaimed from the sea, simply by pushing in scrap earth until the pile is high enough to rise above the water.

The Circus was held in a tent as at home. The seats were merely wooden benches. However for an extra 10c. you could have a bamboo mat.

Most of the audience were Chinese, who had brought their children along.

The acts in the circus were the usual ones but no safety net was used in the trapeze work. Here, everybody flung themselves about on a framework which looked rather unsafe and swayed rather dangerously.

The Japanese dance by girls wearing the traditional kimono, and carrying fans and cherry blossom was very effective. The gestures with these blossoms had some meaning because the Chinese around us smiled appreciatively but to us it looked rather peculiar but most effective. The movements of the dance itself were slow and definite, interspersed with a sudden quick turn of the body. The music was provided by a Japanese band playing traditional instruments.

The Globe of Death was very good. Two people, one a girl, rode motor bikes in it at the same time crossing and recrossing at split-second intervals and angles. Two people also stood in the bottom of the cage to give any necessary signals. This was highly dangerous for them.

There were the other usual acts, juggling, sea-lions, a chimpanzee etc.

Although all the performers were Japanese they did not seem foreign to us except that they seemed very small. Their faces seemed quite European.

This was well worth a visit.

SEK KON. (The New Territories.) Nov 11th

A train from Kowloon runs right up to Fanling near the border.

By train you can travel 1st, 2nd, or 3rd class. We went 2nd class. It was very clean & freshly painted. The windows let down very low to give you a clear unrestricted view. The 1st class is very similar to our 1st class in England. All the time there is a vendor for English sweets walking up and down as well as some one selling fruit. 

The engines are very big and powerful. They are run by Diesel and are rather like a huge box. When we came back to Kowloon everyone was allowed to clamber over the engine. The stations are perfectly normal except for all the tropical vegetation: tall bamboos, palm trees, banana trees etc. At each end of the coach there is a little metal railing, no door, between you and the track. It is possible to stand on the small platform here for a really good view. The train steams through Kowloon City which has been very truthfully described as a "concrete jungle", past the army playing fields at Boundary Street, to the suburb of "Yaumati". About here there is a cloth dyeing factory and long strips of brightly coloured cloth can be seen hanging over frames to dry in the sun. Seen from the train, these bright colours look most effective. Here are squatters houses set in the hills and made of cardboard.

After going through a long tunnel, you finally emerge into the country. The green covered mountains are still in the near background but every available piece of flat ground has been tilled for rice, runner beans, cabbage, lettuce and tomato plants. They are all laid out very neatly in rows with no weed to be seen. In several places the rice had been cut for harvesting and only the stalks were left in the greyish coloured mud. The fields are very small and have tiny raised up grassy paths separating them. As the fields went higher up the mountain so they became terraced to allow each field to be drained effectively and also to use every available space.

Both men and women work in the fields: some of the women even had babies strapped to their backs. They all wore trousers and wide brimmed hats. However, they strongly object to having their photographs taken and throw clods of earth and threaten you with pitchforks. Therefore you have to get your camera set up beforehand and be completely ready to take a photo before they realise what you are doing.

Instead of cows, the people harness buffalo to do the ploughing. For this all they use is a sharp piece of stick which digs into the ground as the buffalo walks along. When the rice is cut, it is threshed by hitting the stalks against a plaited bamboo framework and letting the rice grains fall through. This is an effective though rather wasteful method.

Most of the women wore black amah jackets and trousers and some had the Haaka hat. This is a flat piece of bamboo with a hole in the middle. Round the edge is a flap of black material, gathered and stitched to the brim. Others wear the normal coolie type hat, one of which I bought for 1$ 50c. Everybody seems most industrious.

What I noticed most of all, was the great quiet everywhere. It seemed as if this could have been going on for centuries without change.

On the hillsides, I noticed rows of little pots - these being pots containing the bones of their ancestors.

When the train reaches Tai-po Market an Army truck takes you to Sek Kon. This is a typical English town. It has a shop, a cinema and a church. The houses have their own gardens and are the married quarters of the Army camp here.

Sek Kon R.A.F. Station is a couple of miles further on. Here, they fly Venom and Vampire jets. It takes about three minutes by plane to get to Kai Tak in Kowloon. The R.A.F. were very friendly - even to the extent of letting Pam & I sit in the C.O's Venom!

Altogether this was one of the most interesting days I've spent so far in Hong Kong.

The colony launch takes visitors free to the Colony every Saturday, leaving Queen's Pier at 2 p.m.

The launch trip takes about an hour and a quarter to do the nine miles to the leper Colony. For three miles it goes parallel to Hong Kong Waterfront, with all the sampans and junks moored all along. In Kennedy Town the area becomes more industrial with wharves and warehouses. In the background is the peak and other high points. The R.A.F. Station of Little Saiwan ((see RAF Batty's Belvedere)) is on the top of one of these. At the end of the Island is Mount Davis where the Radar Station is ((see RAF Mount Davis)). The launch then passes between Hong Kong on the left and Stone Cutter's Island on the right. It then turns right and goes straight to Hay Ling Chau past other islands. Silvermine Bay on the island of Lantau is seen clearly and so is Ping Chau with its harbour of fishing vessels. Finally the boat ties up at the jetty of Hay Ling Chau & we are met by Dr. Frazer.

After going up some steps past some beautiful, tropical plants, ????, frangipani, palm, bamboo, etc., past a brightly coloured summer-house we reach the house for the Europeans. Here we drink tea & eat cookies before setting off to walk round the Colony.

The hospital is about a quarter of a mile distant round the side of the island. It is a rough road made by the patients with superb views of the sea, other islands and the vegetable garden of the colony below us. The hospital building is strongly built of grey stone. The swing doors have the emblem of mercy on them. Inside everything is very modern, with an autopsy room, operating theatre, etc., all white-tiled. There is no electricity so kerosene is used. In the children's ward we saw a child with very poor bluish coloured hands being taught to read by an elder qualified patient, also with claw-like fingers.

From the hospital we saw the living quarters of the patients who were not bed-ridden. These were also stone built and seemed the height of luxury to many patients. Each person was allowed to have their own possessions around them and it was noticeable that the men were tidier than the Women.

Then we saw the school, where people were making all kinds of craft work, including marquetry, tailoring and embroidery. Each young person is apprenticed to an older craftsman so that he can learn a trade.

When a patient is discharged he is given a job and his welfare is then transferred to be the responsibility of the Hong Kong Welfare Clinic. Apparently, many patients try to prolong their date of departure from Hay Ling Chau because they are so happy. The rehabilitation officer was a single English woman of about 40; a most kind and efficient person.

The chapel is open on one side. It was simply yet tastefully furnished. Plans are being drawn up to build a new one and also a new school.

The patients are free to walk about and organize their own spare time, with football, table tennis, etc. 

The beautiful surroundings must do a great deal to restore the patients to complete health, both in body and mind. The dedicated service given to them to cure them of a once-dreaded disease can never be forgotten by any of them.

Today Marion and I have been riding bicycles round the New Territories. We caught the bus to Fanling - the last village before the frontier. There were queues of people all going to the country to see their relations for Chinese New Year. At Shatin we saw a fleeting part of a Lion Dance - traditionally performed at this time. One person wears a very elaborate and brightly coloured mask representing a lion. He dances around accompanied by the banging of gongs and drums with a peculiar tinny sound. Often, this is followed by displays of shadow boxing.

At Taipo, the junks and sampans all had red prayer flags flying and prayer leaflets stuck on the stern. Most of the houses had large prayer borders around their front door. This all looked very beautiful.

At Fanling we hired a bike each for the day. They were men's bikes and we looked very funny as we pedalled away. Anyway the road was flat and the bikes went well. We had to be careful of the Chinese who have absolutely no road sense at all.

We pedalled up to the Police Post that is the beginning of the No Man's Land to Communist China. There was a barrier across the road and we could go no further without a pass. The mountains of Communist China were very close.

We turned back and pedalled away until we came to a little hollow set off from the road up a little track. We settled ourselves there and ate our sandwiches. The sun was very hot and we were both quite sunburnt. There were grave both and some quite large graves on the hillside round about us. When we were eating our food we heard drums and gongs again so we tried to find where they were coming from.

We went along a narrow concrete path raised between the paddy fields to a small Hakka village, where the gongs were being banged - unfortunately only by a small boy. All the women came to stare at us, all wearing black headdresses and with babies on their backs. The men kept well in the background! They were all very friendly and smiled at us. We kept saying "Kung hei fat choy" - Happy New Year. We didn't attempt to take any photographs or else they would have been annoyed.

One old lady picked up the comb from my pocket and obviously wondered what it was for: so I showed her and she was absolutely convulsed with laughter. We gave the children sweets and tangerines and then said goodbye.

This village was solidly built of white concrete and was quite clean. The fields were all beautifully kept.

Fanling seems a dusty crowded sort of place. There were masses of fruit stalls and a few other dirty shops.

Anyway, we returned the bikes intact and caught the bus home again.