Hong Kong - 1970

If you were to go through our passports, you would conclude we had just visited Hong Kong. We have the entry and exit visa stamps to prove it. In truth, after landing at the Hong Kong airport and passing through immigration, we climbed aboard a waiting Viking bus and drove, with a guide providing commentary, to the border of Hong Kong and the Chinese city of Shenzhen. Given the guide-provided commentary, I’ll claim the visit.

So what about Hong Kong? I have decided to inject a guest blogger, a 23 year-old lieutenant who visited Hong Kong on R&R from Vietnam the spring of 1970.

One of my regrets is that twenty-plus years ago, I crudely converted my slides to blurry digital photos, then disposed of the slides. Dumb move. Nevertheless, I give you Hong Kong, 1970.

Left: Hong Kong harbor (harbour, I should say) from Victoria Peak. Right: The footpath to the peak. I walked up to the peak to save the fare, then rode down the tram, just the opposite of what I would do today.

I filched these photos from the internet to show the same sights today. 

The junks in the harbor, plus a few of the hundreds of boats that people lived on in the harbor.


Inside the Walled City of Kowloon. An incredible 35,000 people lived within its 6 1/2 acres. There was no law or government present and control was in the hands of rival triad gangs. It must have been relatively safe to visit, nevertheless, as I certainly did. The city was leveled in the 1980’s. Right: I took this picture of the border with China from an observation tower in the then New Territories. I suspect the area is now covered with Shenzhen skyscrapers.

I recall paying a Hong Kong dollar to the old peasant to take his picture. I didn’t pay anything for a photo of the goofy looking guy on the right. My shirt was truly a 1970’s fashion statement.

My next post? The skyscrapers of Shenzhen, a city I had barely heard of and now the third largest in China.