The scene in this postcard was so familiar to me when I lived in Hong Kong.
The round-about, the little park, the double-decker buses. I remember Kai Tak from the 1990s, but this postcard was printed in the 1950s, even before my mom and her family first traveled there.
Little seems to have changed in those 40 years.
I still marvel at the ease in which people could reach the airport: taxi, bus, and even foot. I often walked to Kai Tak from my friend Jean’s flat in a nearby Kowloon neighborhood. I stopped in 7-11s or Circle Ks to buy chocolate covered Digestives to enjoy on the flight or during my wait in Kai Tak’s old departures terminal.
When I reached this little park, I dodged vehicles speeding around the round-about and then shuffled across the little park. After another death-defying sprint across the street, I reached the safety of the airport’s perimeter.
That was nothing compared to how the pilots maneuvered aircraft to land on the pencil-thin runway surrounded on three sides by the sea.
it all looks so provincial, just as i like to remember it :). there was a park n shop on the left where the bus is headed and you could park outside on the road wonsuponatime!!
Wow, a Park ‘N Shop where you really could park! I always wondered about that name because most of the stores were situated in places where you could barely cross the street, let alone park. Plus, who even had cars?!