Archive for the ‘History & Abandoned HK’ Category

• HISTORY – The Day a Cargo Ship Washed up on Cheung Chau Beach

  Date: 2013.06.18 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK | Response: 0

  In September, 1983, a Cypriot freighter called ‘City of Lobito’ beached on Cheung Chau island after being ashore by Typhoon Ellen. The 6000-tonne cargo ship narrowly avoided smashing into newly built beachside apartments (by just 30 metres).

  

  via uwants.com

  Islanders took care of the 21 Filipino crew members until they were repatriated. The shipping company went bankrupt.

  

  via uwants.com

  This is a preview. Read the full post (358 words, 8 images)

• VIDEO – The Ecology & Politics of Hong Kong’s Abandoned, Wild Island Outpost (Part 4)

  Date: 2013.06.09 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Video | Response: 0

  Below is a video interview with Patrick Yeung, a marine biologist PhD candidate from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Yeung speaks about the political and ecological concerns and history of Tung Ping Chau, HK’s most isolated semi-abandoned outpost.

  • Part I: Photos - Sunrise on Hong Kong’s Furthest Flung & Wildest Island.
  • Part II: Photos – The Abandoned Hamlets & Military Camp on HK’s ‘Jumanji Island’. 
  • Part III: The Abandoned Military Base on HK’s Wild Outpost of Tung Ping Chau.

  Shot on an Android phone.

  You may also enjoy Hong Wrong’s video interview with Mark Sung, the only resident of Kuk Po abandoned village, also in the Plover Cove region.

  This is a preview. Read the full post (109 words)

• HISTORY – The Abandoned Military Base on HK’s Wild Outpost of Tung Ping Chau (Part 3)

  Date: 2013.06.07 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers | Response: 1

  A final collection of shots from Hong Kong’s wild ‘Jumanji island’. Tung Ping Chau is the territory’s furthest flung ‘ghost’ island, too isolated to be featured on most maps. Its proximity to mainland China has meant there has long been a security detail based on the island…

  • Part I: Photos - Sunrise on Hong Kong’s Furthest Flung & Wildest Island
  • Part II: Photos – The Abandoned Hamlets & Military Camp on HK’s ‘Jumanji Island’. 
  • Part IV: Video – The History and Politics of Hong Kong’s Abandoned, Wild Outpost.

  

  In 1975, British military Gurkhas built a training camp on the strategically important outpost of Tung Ping Chau. It was constructed over 7 months, years before the prospect of HK’s handover to China was even discussed.

  

  The camp is relatively small in size and has now been mothballed – air-conditioners, doors and windows have been solidly boarded up and the site is surrounded by fences and barbed wire.

  This is a preview. Read the full post (422 words, 11 images)

• PHOTOGRAPHY – The Abandoned Hamlets of Hong Kong’s ‘Jumanji Island’ (Part 2)

  Date: 2013.06.06 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers | Response: 2

  More photos from Hong Kong’s wildest and farthest flung ‘Jumanji island’, Tung Ping Chau (not to be confused with Peng Chau, near Lantau)…

  • Part I: Photos - Sunrise on Hong Kong’s Farthest Flung & Wildest Island
  • Part III: The Abandoned Military Base on HK’s Wild Outpost of Tung Ping Chau.
  • Part IV: Video – The History and Politics of Hong Kong’s Abandoned, Wild Outpost

  

  Ping Chau is the territory’s most easterly and most isolated island. It is a heavily protected nature reserve and UNESCO Geopark today, but has a long and interesting history…

  

  The wild and rustic outpost was once home to a thriving farming and fishing community – over 2000 people lived in ten villages across the tiny 1.6km island.

  This is a preview. Read the full post (938 words, 30 images)

• HISTORY – 1000+ ‘Before and After’ Photos of Old & New Hong Kong

  Date: 2013.05.29 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers | Response: 8

  ‘HK Man’ has copiled an impressive Flickr collection of over 1000 ‘before & after’ photos of old and new Hong Kong. Each photo of bygone HK is contrasted with a more recent one…

  

  …Reassuringly, some scenes – like the trams – never change…

  

  This is a preview. Read the full post (189 words, 18 images)

• PHOTOGRAPHY – Fan Ho, Part II: Street Scenes in Dreamy Colour 1954-2004

  Date: 2013.05.28 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers | Response: 0

  Legendary photographer Fan Ho has been capturing Hong Kong on film for many years and is arguably one of China’s most  highly acclaimed photographers. Click here for Hong Wrong’s previous entry documenting the city’s boom years. Below are some rarer colour shots.

  Since 1956, he has won over 280 awards from various exhibitions and competitions around the world. Born in Shanghai, he moved to HK and developed a fascination with cities – exploring urban life, alleyways, markets, slums and streets with his camera. Read more about Ho on Wikipedia or click for more photography and historical entries.

  

  

  This is a preview. Read the full post (432 words, 21 images)

• VIDEO – Interview with the Only Resident of Kuk Po Ghost Village

  Date: 2013.05.07 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Places & Attractions, Video | Response: 0

  Below is the final part of this series, a Hong Wrong video interview with Mark Sung. Mark is the only resident of Kuk Po, an abandoned ghost village in rural HK. Click here for Part I of the photo series from the ghost town, or click here for Part II. Also, check out Fung Hang – a nearby semi-abandoned village.

  This is a preview. Read the full post (61 words, 1 image)

• PLACES – Kuk Po, Part 2: More Photos from the Abandoned Village Outpost

  Date: 2013.05.05 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers, Places & Attractions | Response: 0

  Kuk Po is an abandoned village in rural north-east HK. This is Part II of a photo series from the ghost town, including a few from neighbouring Fung Hang. Stay tuned to the blog this week for a video interview with the village’s only resident, Mark Sung.

  Click here for Kuk Po, Part I, which includes information about the area and how to get there. Click here for shots from Fung Hang.

  
  
  
  This is a preview. Read the full post (112 words, 45 images)

• HISTORY – A Brief Visual History of HK Police Vehicles & Uniforms

  Date: 2013.04.17 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK | Response: 1

  The Hong Kong Police Force was officially established on May 1st, 1844 with a strength of 32 officers. Today, the Force has over 40,000 personnel, which gives HK the second-highest police-to-citizen ratio in the world.

  

  19th Century: Via Sing Tao

  As HK was somewhat of a ‘wild west’ and ‘rough and tumble’ place in the late 1800s, many members of the force were equally rough individuals. Thus, Victorian concepts of management and discipline were set to raise standards. The ethnic composition of the inaugural force consisted of mixed Dian Chinese, Dian European nationals and Indians.

  

  Early 20th Century: via Wikicommons

  This is a preview. Read the full post (848 words, 33 images)

• HISTORY – Photos of Margaret Thatcher in Hong Kong

  Date: 2013.04.09 | Category: Blog, History & Abandoned HK, Photography & Wallpapers | Response: 1

  Tributes are flowing in Hong Kong, around the world and in (wealthy portions of) the UK… Here, Thatcher was known as the Prime Minister who negotiated the Handover and secured the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ deal with Beijing Premier Deng Xiaoping. Years later, she admitted how disappointed she was in failing to extend Britain’s lease of the territory.

  At home,  most working-class regular Brits are rightly in a mood for celebration this week. For many, she remains reviled as a war-monger who destroyed unions, sparked 3 decades of privatisation, left a disastrous long-term economic legacy that impoverished the poor and enriched the rich. Thatcher decimated working class communities more than any other figure in living British memory, de-industrialising the country only to invest in arms manufacturing and finance. She died without facing justice over 14 Irish activists she let die and 258 British soldiers sent to their death in the Falklands. Today, she leaves Britain with a housing shortage, corporate under-regulation, a decrepit railway system, extortionate energy costs and the inevitable financial crisis her policies spawned.

  As Time Magazine puts it, she was also on the ‘wrong side of history’ regarding foreign policy. She opposed Nelson Mandela, supported the Cambodian genocide, befriended dictators Suharto and Pinochet and defended the Pakistani military regime.

  There will be no tears on this blog for Thatcher, but – for the sake of history and interest - we present a few photos from the early 80s as she visited HK and China to discuss “The Great Chinese Takeaway“.

  • The Telegraph - ‘My regrets over Hong Kong by Lady Thatcher’.
  • SCMP – Local tributes to Thatcher and video of her thoughts on Universal Suffrage in HK.
  • Time Out feature - Thatcher and the Handover negotiations.
  • Wikipedia - Talks leading to HK’s handover
  

  Thatcher in Central, 1984

  This is a preview. Read the full post (425 words, 12 images)