10 Photographs at a Time: Photos 21-30 (Hong Kong 1969, Part 1)

Donald W. "Bill" McCaw Jr. (1945-2005)

I came across these long forgotten slides tucked away in a cabinet in my grandma's basement. They were taken by my late Uncle Bill, I'm assuming that he took them when he was on leave during the Vietnam war.

Of all of the family photos I've seen and sorted through these are some of my favorites. They transport me back in time to a place that is foreign and western, modern and ancient, vibrant and grimy all at the same time. 

There's no way I could limit this set to just 10 photos, there are too many great one's that I want to share. So if you want to see more, just check out Hong Kong Part 2!

The Hong Kong Festival was first held in December of 1969.
Not sure if the construction is related to that since this picture was taken around the same time. 

Much like Molly Shannon on Seinfeld this gentleman doesn't swing his arms when he runs. The randomness of this photo is great, I'm assuming he ran into the shot and this isn't the picture my uncle was intending to take which makes it even better. UPDATE: Taken at 3 Hennessy Road, showing a view of the Chinese Methodist Church that is still there but has since been renovated. 

These two appear in a few of the shots. UPDATE: Thanks to a helpful commenter who wrote "This must be the Hong Kong/China border. It was hard for a traveler to visit China at that time."

And here again walking the streets of Hong Kong looking like they stepped off the set of Happy Days. UPDATE: View of Hennessy Road, Wanchai.

Is that a 3-legged dog or is he scratching?
There's so much going on in this one I didn't even notice the dog's legs until the 10th time I looked at this photo. 

Hong Kong Harbor. At the time the population was estimated at 3 million, now it's over 7 million.

The best part of this photo is not the boy running with one hand in his pocket (and the other one carrying a ???),
it's that I'm pretty sure what's behind him is called "The Old Dragon Store". 

Sorry guys, there aren't any photos from inside the night club. 

There must be 20 slides of Hong Kong Harbor at night.
I can imagine this would have been an amazing sight to my uncle who had never left the US before this trip.