Tuesday, November 18, 2014

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!










Hong Kong Festival 1969
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. 
Victoria's Peak Hong Kong 1960s
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."

Hong Kong Kow Hoo Shoe Co.1969
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.
Hong Kong Market 1969 CocaCola and Sunkist signs
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 1969
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. 

8 comments:

Y.T.Tang said...

Thank you very much. Looking forward for more Hong Kong photos

Y.T.Tang said...

Katy please post more HK photos

katymcc said...

Thank you Y.T.Tang! I'll have more photos posted this week.

Y.T.Tang said...

Thank you very much

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot for sharing these photos.

Anonymous said...

For the picture "These two appear in a few of the shots. I think this one is Victoria's Peak.", I guess it should be the HK/China border. It was hard for traveler to visit China at that time.

Unknown said...

The fourth one, Hennessy Road, Wanchai. See the Pink Building behind the traffic light still there (original pic has 4 big Chinese Character painted on the building wall)

https://www.google.com.hk/maps/@22.2776016,114.1703427,3a,75y,89.94h,75.52t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s32QmmyG0A6mZ9ftuk2cCeQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Katy said...

This is awesome Kevin! Thank you so much for providing the map link, how interesting to see how much it's changed yet stayed the same.