Hong Kong is one of the world’s most exciting cities and the story of Hong Kong is one of almost constant change.

 

From a sleepy fishing community, Hong Kong – now a Special Administrative Region of China following its return from Britain to China in July 1997 – has grown into one of the most significant financial and trading centres of the world. Hong Kong Island itself has witnessed massive rebuilding over the years, with the result that much of the colonial era architecture has been swept away and replaced by skyscrapers. Moreover the first high-rise buildings constructed from the late 1950s onwards are now themselves under threat, as the constant requirement for more accommodation – both for people and for businesses – continues. The Kowloon peninsula and the New Territories have also experienced development, whilst the construction of the new airport saw the destruction of an entire island to create the material to create the foundations of the new facility. This pressure for land has seen land reclamation schemes extend the coastline of Hong Kong Island to the north.

 

Over the years photographers have recorded the changing face of Hong Kong – its street scenes, buildings and people. This new book – drawing upon images from a wide range of sources, most of which are previously unpublished, provides a pictorial tribute to this lost Hong Kong. Once familiar, but now long-gone, scenes are recorded offering a tantalising glimpse into an era that in chronological terms may be relatively recent, but which today seems to be a distant age, given the astonishing rapidity of change over more than 100 years.