Old Hong Kong post boxes and their continued use

A colonial era post box still in use in Hong Kong today

 

An even older colonial era post box; this one bearing the 

cypher of King George VI, not Queen Elizabeth II!

 

Back in October 2015, the Hong Kong postal authorities announced plans to cover the British insignia on post boxes erected during colonial times that remained in use years after Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain.  Apparently it just wasn't enough to repaint them green after 1997 as opposed to their original pillar box red.  (More than incidentally, post boxes in Malaysia also underwent a color change from pillar box red -- this time to yellow -- in the post-colonial era.)

 

The reasons given by the Hong Kong authorities for wanting to remove the British insignias included some people being uncertain and confused as to whether the old post boxes are actually still in use. But irate conservationists and heritage activists look to have managed to cause an about face by the powers that be, or at least a delay in their actions, since it's now 2017 and I still see a number of these post boxes -- which date back not only to the reign of Queen Elizabeth II but also her father, King George VI, and his father, King George V -- with their royal insignia intact in various parts of the Big Lychee!

 

More than incidentally, I wonder how much mail actually does get collected from Hong Kong's post boxes each day these days.  Put another way: are there people out there still who send that much "snail mail" any more in an era when such as gas, electricity and water bills can be paid online, via ATMs and such rather than just with a check through the mail? 

 

On a related note: last month, I sent off two postcards by "snail mail" -- one to a friend who likes sending and getting them, and another to a certain Pear (fairy) who hails from Funabashi!  When writing out those postcards, I found that my writing hand cramping midway through -- a sure sign that I am so out of practice in terms of actually writing paragraphs worth of words rather than typing them out on my computer keyboard, as has become the norm as well as very much my preference for many years now! ;O

Two Sai Ying Pun tong lau that are over 75 years old

A rare Hong Kong tong lau that dates back to 1941! 

A pre-World War II shophouse that's one of the 

last remaining examples of its kind in Hong Kong

For most of the time that I've been in Hong Kong, I lived in the kind of building which many Hong Kongers don't much care for and even look down upon.  Yes, they tend to be over 50 years old and lack elevators and, more often than not, security guards and letter boxes that are large enough to fit small parcels into too.  But I really do have a soft spot for tong lau, think they have lots of character as well as find them visually attractive.  And after living in buildings that were over a century old in the USA as well as the UK, I honestly didn't think that they're all that ancient!

Sometimes referred to as tenements, tong lau are more accurately collectively described as walk-ups and/or shophouses.  And those among them that were built before the Second World War, with their outer columns and what I haven't measured but am going to assume are five foot ways, remind me of the many traditional shophouses that remain to be found in my home state's UNESCO World Heritage-listed capital of George Town and other long urbanized sections of Penang.

While strolling about Sai Ying Pun a few months ago, I was surprised to find a tong lau at 153 Queen's Road West that dates all the way back to 1941 that's still in existence and very much operational.  A four-storey building that looks to house apartments on its upper floors and an old school jewellery store on its British ground floor (i.e.., American and Chinese first floor). it's notable for having its date of construction emblazoned on its top section and the Chinese "double happiness" character frequently associated with marriages but which I guess can be a generic auspicious blessing.  Hopefully, its good luck will continue and the building will remain an area landmark for a long time to come!

Not too far away, and over at 207 Des Voeux Road West, lies another old four-storey high tong lau whose ground floor used to house a Chinese rice winery but now looks to be occupied by a clothes store.  As for its upper floors: two of them look to house small sub-divided flats or, worse, cubicles of the kind that seem like they belong to a past era but, sadly, are still about all that some people can afford in a territory whose property market can appear to have gone mad.  

I'm not sure if it's much or any consolation for its residents -- but since it's actually the rare remaining tong lau around that's located on a street corner, the building's interior should be brighter than many others of its ilk since it has windows on one extra side.  However, with its top floor windows bearing the dreaded "X" mark signalling that its space is no longer occupied, I wonder how much longer this particular building -- which definitely looks run-down but which I still find visually appealing -- will be around.  

To my mind, this pre-World War II structure is a candidate that's ripe for renovation, restoration and/or conservation.  But (most) Hong Kongers' views of heritage buildings being what they are, I wouldn't be surprised to see it get demolished before too long, as has been the case with many others before it.  Still, one can but hope that it will get treated with some respect.  Who knows, maybe it -- and the in-better-shape tong lau over on Queen's Road West -- will get heritage listed, then be better valued and appreciated somewhere down the road, as has been the case with such as the Blue House and complex that's now home to the Comix Home Base over in Wan Chai!      

A Second World War battlefield and battlefield trail at Wong Nai Chung Gap

Like the one on Jardine's Lookout, this trilingual plaque on 

the side of Wong Nai Chung Gap Road honors Canadian soldiers who 

lost their lives in the Battle of Hong Kong during World War II 

 I wonder how many people realize that this now 

peaceful valley was a battlefield in December 1941?

Over the course of hiking in Hong Kong, one will invariably come across battlefield relics and other structures related to World War II.  Among them are ruins of redoubts (including those at Shing Mun and up on Devil's Peak) and pillboxes, caves dug by the Imperial Japanese military during the Second World War, war memorials and even large outdoor stoves built in anticipation of such facilities being needed by people fleeing from the Japanese invaders (who, at that point, already had been fighting in -- and occupying significant swathes of -- China for some years); and they can be found on Hong Kong Island as well as the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories.

On the same day as the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor (only it was December 7th, 1941, there but December 8th on the other side of the International Date Line), the Imperial Japanese military forces invaded Thailand and attacked the then British possessions of Malaya, Singapore and Hong Kong.  Invading from the north, they quickly seized control of vast swathes of Hong Kong; so much so that only Hong Kong Island remained under British control on December 13th.

After systematically bombarding the north shore of Hong Kong Island, the Japanese forces crossed Victoria Harbour and landed on the island on December 18th.  On the morning of the next day, the Japanese military destroyed the headquarters of one of the two brigades of British Commonwealth troops defending the island located at Wong Nai Chung Gap, a strategically important passage linking the north and south of the island.  On December 25th, Hong Kong fell into the hands of the Japanese and would be occupied by them until August 30th, 1945 -- 15 days after the official end of the Second World War.

Hong Kong's first battlefield trail was established at Wong Nai Chung Gap in 2006 but it was only earlier today that a friend and I went and hiked along it.  Covering approximately two kilometers and overlapping a tree walk for part of the way, the Wong Nai Chung Gap Trail begins close to where the Hong Kong Trail and Wilson Trail come together, just a few meters away from the Hong Kong Parkview complex.  Featuring ten "stations" of interest (each of which has informative panels marking out the spots), sections of this well marked trail also reveal scenic vistas, including of the area where fierce battles had been waged but where little immediately obvious traces actually remain of such.  

If truth be told, much of the historical interest comes from reading the information panels and realizing that you are at very spots where historical events took place rather than actually seeing the World War II relics as many of them aren't all that well preserved, if not pretty much no longer in existence.  In addition, it was sad to see that the remaining bunkers of the ill-fated West Brigade Headquarters looks to be filled with empty cans and bottles left there by ignorant and/or disrespectful individuals who don't appear to care that people perished at that spot.

So while I'm glad to have finally checked out this battlefield trail today, I am left ruing that it's not better looked after.  (On a related note: a wooden shelter along the way has a hornet's nest on its ceiling, so I can't imagine many people wanting to make use of it, even when it pours with rain!)  Also, while I can understand the reasons for Hong Kong's first battlefield trail being located at Wong Nai Chung Gap, I reckon it would at least be more visually interesting to have (another) one over at Shing Mun; what with such as the tunnels and trenches connecting various sections of the redoubt that was supposed to be the strongpoint of the Gin Drinkers' Line remaining largely intact to this day.