Hong Kong for 1930s tourists: shopping, sedan chair rides, a side trip to southern China recommended in guidebook
- The Pearl of the Orient, a city of myriad lights – the Chinese Nationalist government’s guide to 1930s Hong Kong for visitors used tropes familiar decades later
- Its shopping tips were a bit different back then – ivories, blackwood, camphor trunks – and its suggestions about feeding the monkeys wouldn’t wash today
What did visitors to Hong Kong experience in the mid-1930s? International leisure travel, then, was only for the affluent; almost anyone else who ventured beyond their home countries did so for work opportunities; tourist activities encountered en route were just a welcome bonus.
After the free-spending, worldwide economic boom that characterised the Roaring Twenties abruptly ended with the 1929 stock market crash and subsequent Great Depression years, leisure travellers became a relatively scarce commodity.
Slim guidebooks such as an (unfortunately undated) Tourist’s Guide: The Colony of Hong Kong And Vicinity, interestingly produced by the Nationalist Government’s Publicity and Information Bureau, offered insights and suggestions for a brief local stay. From passing mentions that the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation and Bank of East Asia each had soon-to-be-completed buildings under construction (both opened in 1935), publication should have been in 1934 or early 1935.
“If you care for the unusual, stop at the Chinese Shanghai Street … Here you will enjoy the picturesque quaint shops with goods of every kind and description.
“The atmosphere of adventure will be more enhanced if the tourist visits it at night, for then the magnificently lighted streets and illuminated shops are a spectacle in themselves.”
“A rather squalid and unique place offering countless diversities …” caution was nevertheless suggested: “It is unadvisable for a lady to go alone and she should provide herself with a companion before venturing out here.”
“Wonderful sea-bathing and boating, a modern, beautifully-situated hotel swept by a cool sea breeze the year round. An ideal spot for pleasure and recreation.”
Prior to the Communist assumption of power in 1949, side trips to nearby mainland cities were encouraged. “ … get off the beaten track and visit the real old China of glamorous charm. The quaint and picturesque cities of Swatow, Amoy and Foochow are adjacent to Hongkong.”
To cite one example: on the way into the New Territories, near the Tai Po Road, “at the Reservoir, there are some monkeys (let loose some years ago, and which have increased in population now); these are so tame that they almost feed out of your hand. Bring some peanuts or bananas with you for a present.”