As war and famine ravaged the mainland, hundreds of thousands fled to British Hong Kong during the 40s, 50s and 60s.
LIFE Magazine captured the experiences of some of these migrants in an issue from May, 1962.
Some had travelled thousands of miles to begin a new life in the British colony. Meanwhile, the US welcomed only skilled workers.
Below is a brief visual history of how the Hong Kong skyline developed over the decades.
Pre-1869 painting via RGS-IBG image / E. L. Watling
1880s – Beginning with a rare shot of the harbour from the 19th century – the same decade in which the Star Ferry became operational.
via New York Times
1890, click to enlarge
1900s – Next, a quaint postcard from 1906 (via gwulo.com)…
via gwulo.com
1910s – The CBD, gradually creeping up The Peak, was then named Victoria City. There was no light show back then (but click here for a photo of the harbour at night, some 106 years ago!)…
Eu Tong Sen was a well-known tycoon in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with business interests across Southeast Asia. He was also vice-president of the Anti-Opium Society and a somewhat eccentric property owner. Heir to his family’s retail and mining businesses, he took control of his father’s estate in 1898. Over the decades that followed, he multiplied his fortune several times over. By age 30, he was one of the region’s richest men, specialising in the tin mining and rubber industries.
via Aeste on Flickr
Eu built three castles in Hong Kong – Eucliffe was the most well-known. It was famous for being a social hot spot in the 1930s and was located next door to the Kadoorie’s Repulse Bay Hotel. The folly featured a large collection of ancient western armour as well as stained glass windows.
Completed in 1972, Jardine House was the tallest in Asia, built on reclaimed land under the agreement that no other building would obstruct its views. With 52 floors, it was constructed with a metal frame and a curtain wall and round windows – a design which earned it the nickname “House of a Thousand Arseholes.”…
via Sing Tao
It was the night that the frightened old men of the Chinese government chose to ‘kill the kids instead of change’. Under one-party rule, the same men remain in power today and continue to pretend the Tiananmen massacre never happened. In Hong Kong, that night in Tiananmen Square has not been erased – a record turnout is expected at Wednesday night’s vigil in Victoria Park at 8pm (click for details). Hong Wrong will have full coverage of the event during this 25th anniversary.
Below are graphic images from the the evening of June 3rd into June 4th back in 1989 in Beijing. For part 1 – images of the protest camp before the bloody intervention – click here.
Hours before the massacre, a protester tells PLA soldiers to leave – Catherine Henriette, AFP/Getty.
Around 1.5 million Hong Kongers gathered in late May, 1989 to show solidarity with protesters in Tiananmen Square…
Statue Square, Hong Kong, May, 1989
…Meanwhile, in Beijing, thousands of students, workers and hunger strikers were demonstrating against corruption, inflation and the lack of civil liberties under one-party rule. The photos below show the days and weeks in the run-up to the notorious crackdown on June 4th.
The news and film archive British Pathé have uploaded a number of short, revealing old newsreels related to Hong Kong.
In this first video from 1962, refugees fleeing the famine in the mainland are turned back from British Hong Kong. Sympathetic locals line the streets throwing food parcels into departing trucks destined for the border. (Click here for photos from the same year).
Between 1906 and 1976, Ma On Shan was home to a booming iron ore mine…
via industrialhistoryhk.org
An expert team from HK URBEX explored the underground network last month…
Raw iron ore was once transported to a processing plant 200 metres from the coast on what was the city’s first electric tram.
