Please take a moment to view this priceless 1930’s travel reel of Hong Kong which I friend of mine just sent me the link to. I don’t know which is the more interesting aspect: the pictures or the <i>verrry British</i> commentary!

Many of the buildings are still here, but alas, the air quality is no longer the same.....

See http://hk.youtube.com/watch?v=hIHTrmz4hTI

I LOVE old footage like this - thanks for posting. It must be really cool to see this since you're in HK and know all of the places they're showing!

The British narration is a hoot too.

Thanks, Cicerone - what a treat!

fabulous!!! nothing much has changed in all these years....lovely open hills and tall buildings...paradise

Cicerone, thanks for posting.

It feels more like a movie(one of wong ka wai's) than a documentary.

That was indeed the old Hong Kong, women were wearing the sheungsam and the ah mahs were wearing the long braid hairdo and the white top and the black bottom to show that they are servants.

Those were the days.

So many of the classic buildings, including the old HSBC HQ, had been torn down.

And sad to realize just 3 years after that film, HK was occupied by the Japanese during WWII for 44 months..

Thank you for sharing, Cicerone, so interesting!

So many striking moments in both the reel and the narration! Thank you for a glimpse of the city as a crown colony. To think that this was all before WW2, the Japanese Occupation, and &quot;Liberation&quot; on the mainland. Like rkkwan, I couldn't help but worry and wonder about what must have befallen so many of the people caught on film once the bitterly difficult years of the occupation arrived.

Aside from the grand panoramic shots from the Peak/&quot;Fairyland&quot; and the glimpse of beautiful colonial buildings long destroyed, it is the little moments that stay with me though -- the maid's high level of sensitivity to the camera while tending to her sunshade duties, sedan chair and rickshaw queues in daily operation, the reference to the 17-story HKS Bank as &quot;imposing&quot;...

I have two very minor questions. Does the city name of Victoria have any currency today or is it just a historical artifact? Also, there is a word that I cannot catch -- the narrator refers to &quot;transpacific ____ planes from America.&quot;

Thanks again. That was a pleasure.

Nobody uses &quot;Victoria&quot; for the city name for Hong Kong for a long time. But you may see that on old maps. Also, if you hike around Hong Kong, you may still see stone posts that mark the &quot;city limit&quot; of Victoria.

But of course, the harbor is still called Victoria Harbour.

That is awsome. Thanks so much. J

jules39, I think the word you could not catch was “flying boat”, that was a term used to describe the Pan Am planes that flew over the Pacific. They were amphibious and landed on the water in the harbour. They may also have been referred to as “flying clipper ships”.

My favourite bit in the reel is the comment that “under the wise and benevolent rule of the British, the colony has prospered&quot; or similar hyperbole. Yes, take over for 150 years but don’t give the locals any vote or voice in how the place is run…..(not that the PRC version is doing any better).

Hong Kong was nothing except a few very small villages before the British arrived. It wasn't like most colonies of other powers where the new power took over an established population and ruled it.

And, till WWII and the later Chinese Civil War, the border between Hong Kong and the rest of China is pretty much open. My paternal grandfather came to Hong Kong as a teenager from nearby Panyu, China for the opportunities; just like most other &quot;local Chinese&quot; do. Nobody forces them into British subjects.

The situation a little different for the villagers and fishermen who do inhabit parts of Hong Kong before the British rule. But I'd think that most of those are happier under the British Crown than under the Qing Dynasty, the Nationalist warlords or the communists.