If you have traveled in China recently you may be interested in comparing your photos with the ones I took in 1979. They include photos of the obligatory visits to hospitals, kindergartens, communes, etc.

Hong-Kong and Gangzhou: http://tinyurl.com/5plh85

Guilin & Shanghai: http://tinyurl.com/6clmd7

Beijing & environs: http://tinyurl.com/6dwenp

Thank you for sharing. A delightful walk down memory lane!

JohnAtLC,

You might want to return to the site when the slide and the full screen function are available again. Most of the pictures look better with the black background when in full screen.

The full screen view wasn't available when I looked so I'll try again later. What a great archive! I was struck by how unchanged many of the scenes from Guilin were and how sanitized Shanghai and Hong Kong are today. These were the days when a "factory tour" was a tour of the real factory! And very interesting, I might add, with a gift shop either missing or an afterthought only.

Many people travel to China thinking they will see scenes like these, but you have to go farther and father off the beaten path nowadays to do so. Thanks a lot for sharing them with us!

K.

It appears that full screen is finally available.

Wow, I love seeing these pictures! When I first visited Shanghai in 2000, they told me not to bother using a street map because there was so much construction, that the streets would change faster than they could print new maps. I can only imagine how much it has changed since 1979...

Thanks for sharing these pix, I recall Yangshou had no hotels at that time, except for the Li River boat ride, all activities were in Guilin.

Comments on the HK pictures:

- air quality much better then
- fewer highrises meaning more sea breeze and lower temperature in the city
- spacious 3-level ferries to the islands
- Hwa Paw Gardens still there, which is closed and 3/4 of the area became luxury apartment blocks
- ocean-going ships berthed in the harbor

Seriously, if one has never visited Hong Kong before and is given the choice of 1979 and 2008, I think one will enjoy 1979 more. Only things that are significantly better now are 1) more MTR lines, 2) more air-conditioning everywhere, and 3) nicer buses.

Great pics Michael. Thanks for sharing.

My earliest trip to HK was in the 80s. I still remember vividly eating the roadside. After the meal, the waiter will sweep all the bones and stuff onto the road. There's a habit the locals practise till today and that is washing the chopsticks and other eating utensils in hot tea or water.

KMLoke - The habit of rinsing eateries have actually spread. When I was growing up in HK in the 70's, that is only done in crappy low-end restaurants. In large mid-range restaurants, that was not done and the large bowl for collecting the washed tea was not provided.

Somehow, over the past 20 years, this practice have moved upscale. The population has gotten more scared and skittish about hygiene, following SARs and all the flesh-eating diseases and everything else.

I took a look on http://tinyurl.com/6clmd7. I am a native of Guilin. I was born in 1985 so these photos are more interesting to me. Some of them are photos of Guilin or Shanghai? I can not distinguish. I think it is amazing to take so clear photos in 1979.

Brings back some nice memories for me of your 1970s Hong Kong photos, Michael. One photo even shows the housing buildings where my uncle/aunt lived.

<i>Some of them are photos of Guilin or Shanghai? I can not distinguish</i>.

After picture no. 40 (fog in the airplane) the pictures are of Changsha and Shanghai.

The order of the pictures follows our itinerary--Hong-Kong, Canton, Guilin, Changsha, Shanghai, Beijing--although within each area the photos may have been organized into a more logical order.

I moved the pictures to:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...7623032623752/

Very nice pictures. So far only looked at Beijing.
Many of the shots are familiar, but different!!!
Our visit was in 2007.
Looking forward to looking at the others.
Thanks.

Great stuff! The Beijing photos brought back some wonderful memories for me. Thanks!