A dear reader of my blog recently restored some of the photos I’ve posted of 1962 Hong Kong. My mom originally took these photos as slides, which sat around in shoeboxes for 50 years before I scanned them last year. These restored images look very nice, so I thought I’d post some here.
The water looks so blue in this photo. I wish I had been able to see Hong Kong back when junks lounged in the harbor and weren’t simply a tourist attraction.
Aberdeen was a popular tourist destination back then, both to see the boat people and to dine at the floating restaurants.
I always thought my mom ate at a floater in Aberdeen, but after I found this slide, I learned that it was taken at a another floating restaurant–in Castle Peak–far from Aberdeen. It’s so serene.
The skyline on Hong Kong island was impressive even back in 1962. Again, the water looks so clean!
Before Ripley’s Believe It or Not and the wax museum, the Peak was a quiet place to get away from it all.
A view from the Peak before reclamation later shortened the harbor.
Another photo from the Peak.
This slide was taken from Tiger Balm Gardens, which no longer exists. Notice the shanties on the side of the mountain. Hong Kong was covered with them in 1962. In one of the many miracles of the territory, all squatters were resettled into proper apartment buildings. People complain about government, but it certainly helped Hong Kong in the 1960s develop into one of the wealthiest cities in the world.
I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I do! Thanks for taking a look.
Wow – they’re pretty amazing photos.
I wish more people were taking steps to digitally preserve some of these things, we’ll never see anything like them again…
Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
Hell, even the light seems to have changed these days!
Keep posting them, Susan, they’re very much appreciated.
Thanks so much! I know she had many more, plus slides of 1965 Hong Kong, but we can’t find them. I only took slides on my first trip to China in 1988 and they’re all gone. I’m very sad about that.
I’m so glad you like them!