I love this old postcard of the China-Hong Kong border. Lord knows I crossed it more times than I can count.
But when this photo was taken in the 1960s, the border seemed romantic. A different time, that’s for sure.
When I disembarked the train at Lowu, I walked into the customs hall and waited in a line for Hong Kong residents even though I needed a valid China visa and not just a Hong Kong ID.
Walking over a footbridge, I mentally waved goodbye to the navy-clad Hong Kong officers. Before I reached the end of the bridge, I walked past lanky PRC officers dressed in military green.
Welcome to China.
Chaos and confusion ensued. The border city of Shenzhen was dusty and full of street urchins, begging for money and school supplies. Girls dressed in hot pants and tight t-shirts leaned against barber shops off to the left. I remember one upscale Japanese department store in Shenzhen fifteen years ago. The rest of the place was a dump.
But all that’s changed now. The border may not have recovered its romantic aura from yesteryear, but at least it’s gotten itself together.
the pawn shop was always just a place to hock things – in my innocence (age 9), was not aware of the verb, just the noun, a piece in a chess set… plus they were mysterious with a screen hiding what was going on inside. saw many men come out ripping up a bit of paper (lost treasure perhaps?)
Oh, that’s what I thought–just a place to pawn things. There’s a hot new restaurant/bar in Wanchai called the Pawn, housed in a former pawn shop.
those barber shop poles were another thing i remember as a kid! looking up at the highrises in mongkok you could see them spinning from the 10th floor etc. i remember wondering who would go to the 10th floor for a haircut!!
the other was the pawn shop – i knew they had some connection to gambling and in my naiveté assumed people went in there to bet on chess games 🙂 oh to be a kid, anything is possible
What was the pawn shop used for? Mah jongg? I always wondered why there were so many in Hong Kong!
I came the other way in ’93, and after a long trip through Central Asia and China, the Union Jack flying on the hill to the left of the border crossing was a welcome sight. Shenzhen was much more basic then.
Oh, I’m sure it was a welcome sight! Even when I went to Shenzhen for a day, I always breathed a huge sigh of relief when I crossed that footbridge into HK. It seemed like the HK folks did, too! My ex-husband had us flying from Shenzhen when we visited his family in Hubei, and we started doing that in ’95. I much preferred Kai Tak, even on a lowly student salary. It was worth it!