Entering the old Hong Kong harbour in 1960

[beowulf1312]

Hong Kong of yesteryear never to be seen again save for Mr Rogge's films. Good shots of the Star Ferry Hong Kong side before the land reclamation for Jardine House, with views of the Mandarin being built and the old now demolished Post Office in the distance.

[MichaelRogge]

@beowulf1312 . Indeed and much more! See my other 150 clips on old Hong Kong by searching with michael+rogge+hong+kong

[daviddoimno]

Dear Mr. Rogge,

Thanks for posing this, great footage and superb quality.

[mentolfreekyai]

Dear Micheal, hats off to you, for preserving history. You are great.

[tomleehh321]

Yes, you are right. The Swiss lens is excellent.

[tomleehh321]

Great footage. Thanks. The cost of using 16mm film was expensive in the 60'. I used a Bolex super 8 then. I miss the big sail wooden junk.

[MichaelRogge]

@tomleehh321. I suppose that you mean Regular 8mm as super 8 was introduced only in 1965 !

[hkchrism]

@tomleehh321 There are still a few wooden junks. Look up the "Huan". I went on that as a child and I believe it's still sailing.

[nadiafilan]

i wanna see HK like this...very nice!!!

wish we really could turn back the time...

[fludblud]

haha like how the star ferries havent changed AT ALL

[hp12004HK]

These things disappeared now......  So sad T.T

[michaelbethhk09]

Wow, Just got back from 8 months here, and this video is great! Wish I could have been there when it was like this and not so hectic paced.....Love HK tho, it is a great city...

[robertschelly]

Wow, the Star Ferry Pier has changed very little on the Kowloon side. We were just there this May.

[johnyanzhen]

那艘天星小轮一直到现在都还在运行。

[itsok2eatfish]

thx for the upload ^^

btw does anyone happen to know which location it is in hk at 0:14??

[wizzy101fan227]

@itsok2eatfish that is the whole hong kong! o i live there so i should know hong kong is so small!

[itsok2eatfish]

@wizzy101fan227

yep, but what was that location of the shot at 0:14 taken?

[Hotspur62]

fascinating stuff.  HK once had character!

[josephinechingng]

I am a sound student of Hong Kong. Can you suggest me anywhere I can find the soundtracks of Hong Kong in the old days? Or do you have them?

[MichaelRogge]

@josephinechingng. At one time gramophone records were produced of HK live sounds. You might ask the HK Tourist board for them. Alas, I do not have them. You might also visit 'sound dogs' audio site. There is also the HK History Museum.

[ismaelrionda]

Time frozen. A distant era caught on camera for our enjoyment.

All this thanks to a wonderful and generous gentleman: Mr. Rogge.

Thank you!!

[ismaelrionda]

Mr. Rogge, your films are simply wonderful. They are a window to the past of such a wonderful place, a time machine which almost enables us to walk the streets of Hong Kong as it was in the 1950s.

My wife being from Hong Kong, I visit the place very often, and I know it well. Your films are small treasures which allow us to enjoy the shadows of the past.

It would be good if a DVD containing all your Hong Kong clips could be released, for the benefit of all HK lovers and the world as a whole!

[lycfmtkl]

This video is great. I like the part on the old waterfront in Hong Kong Island, Star Ferry Pier and the rickshaw........all these are disappear from Hong Kong........ so sad !

[riquewong]

i love old HK there is no place like old hk thks for the footage

[knight7fox2]

play rule britannia instead !!! XP

[HongKongIndependence]

Wish it would return to normal.... present day HK is rather... "different" if you get what I mean.

[fgah]

It was more than 50 yrs ago.

[funkabby1]

is the queen mary still in the harbour?

[procapitalist2009]

Excellent video Michael.

I love the way that HK island used to be that pleasant...

[luisHK2001]

I like this video very much. Thanks!!! Michael. What do you prefer.......the old HK or the new HK?

[MichaelRogge]

Certainly the old Hong Kong, I remember so fondly.

[goders69]

the old hk.

[djcarlito]

did you add the sound effects for the harbor? or was it recorded separately while you made the film? if you added it later, well, it's really well done!

[MichaelRogge]

I added a sound track of music and effects later. There were hardly any sound cameras. Of the 16mm Paillard Bolex camera I had never a sound model was produced.

[vanessaseed]

brilliant footage of junks with sails, such an elegant means of transport. in the meantime the kowloon star ferry terminal is amazingly the SAME!! once again, many thanks for taking the time to post this,

[kw9999kw]

Hello Michael, Hope you enjoy my clip. Thanks!

[alancwwong]

recall my memory of what my mum described to me about hk at that time

[TaipoRoad]

Great stuff! Thanks for the post.

[minutegongcoughs]

Stunning.

[ixanaths]

HK will never be the same without Star Ferry, big mistake on the part of the government. Chinese will never learn about the importance of preserving historic landmark!

[luckyowl249]

@ixanaths In Germany similar foolish things were done, like pulling down the beloved & very effective trams!

[hkchrism]

@ixanaths They will... when it's too late. Shanghai is being destroyed right now.

[modrockbaby]

MANY THANKS for posting them. I wasn't born yet but I miss living in HK so much after moving out since 1989! Thankyou for such fantastic videos.Priceless!

[antisepticcheese]

5 freaking stars.

I've lived in Hong Kong all of my life, call me ignorant if its history and colonial heritage, but I've never seen a video of the harbour and its ships as colourful, and in depth as this, thanks for that blast from the past.

By the way, the Star Ferry Pier at 1:55 is still there ;)

[pirjohelena]

What struck me most arriving in Hong Kong from Kobe was that there were buildings along the mountain slopes in Hong Kong. Maybe the slopes were steeper in Kobe? Or that Kobe wasn't as crowded as Hong Kong was?

[MichaelRogge]

It was also a matter of class distinction. From the 19th century onward the upper class people in HK built their houses higher and higher, facing worse and worse humidity.

[pirjohelena]

Which year was this? I was there 1960

[MichaelRogge]

I stayed from 1949 to 1955 in HK and visited it for a month in january 1961.

[pirjohelena]

Beautiful!

[Rogapol]

That was really great and made it even better by leaving the original audio not dubbed over with a crappy favorite soundtrack of the up-loader like some people do.

[djcarlito]

its nice that the original audio was actually recorded.. the HK film reel i have of the harbor was silent.. so i added crappy favorite soundtrack : )

[Rogapol]

lol, I guess you have a valid reason....your excused!

[asianlicensing]

in another 50 years we will all be reminiscing about Hong Kong once having had a harbour. It's half dissappeared since 1950 as you can see in this video !

[pinkysgrl]

Wow, this really brings me back. I was a little kid in HK in the early 60s. Sad to hear how everything has changed. It was an amazing and beautiful place. I knew I was lucky to live there.

[myfan206]

thx for upload it.

[canman5060]

Thanks for uploading the 1950's Hong Kong in colour. A time before the City Hall Building and the Ocean Terminal.

[zero10iz]

Incredible, especially the volume of clips you've released!

The mountains looked huge

[gragrn]

Fantastic. Thank you for making this important historical record available. I only know the new Hong Kong where you can still see traces of what once was. Thanks to you Michael, I can now fill in the blanks and imagine it the way it used to be.

[upsers2001]

excellent, thankyou buddy

[sbwords]

Fantastic images. The sky is so clear - the air pollution now obscures the view, and of course the old Star Ferry Pier has gone. It is so sad that our government has destroyed many of the landmarks shown. Thanks for sharing these precious images with us.

[hkjazz1]

How wonderful these film recordings are.

[chiumcn]

In the past, I can only see 1950s HK in photos

Thanks for uploading

[itfml]

Thank you for your sharing, Mr.Rogge

[kls0702]

again, this is so precious and it's first time I see how my homeland was like from the harbour side! Victoria Peak had been a real peak!

[airscrew1]

I only used Kodachrome 16mm once. Then I went onto negative film. Nice shots you've done they look almost as though they were shot for Whickers World.

[airscrew1]

Very good Michael! like the water splash. Did you shoot on 16mm? I used to until it became so expensive.

[quasi207]

Yes, it was shot in Kodachrome 16mm