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Multiple views 115
Unused Tourist Cards series #115 (5-1/2″ x 7″) with 12 views from all around the territory. Grade: 1
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Dragon Dance 118
Usually seen during Lunar New Year, and occasionally at various grand openings; but here, on unused Tourists Cards item 118. Card measures 5-1/2″ x 7″. Grade: 1
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Convention & Exhibition Centre
Bilingual English/Chinese caption defines this view as Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre, and it is (completed in 1997), but the background is almost all of Wanchai District. Unused Tourists Cards #308, measuring 5-1/2″ x 7″, unused. Grade 1
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Police Museum (set of 5)
Our scan shows four of the five cards in this unused set. The fifth is called “Heritage Trail”, is in a similar style, and shows variously related police items. The set comes directly from this out-of-the-way museum stuck on a hill near Victoria Peak. Grade: 1
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Police Museum — 2014 (set of 10)
Issued by the Hong Kong Police Force Museum in 2014, our scan shows the cardboard cover and one card from this 10-card B&W unused set. Thumbnail photos on the cover represent parts of the other nine cards. Everything is from the old days, various usual neighbourhood police activities. Grade: 1
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Police Museum — 2013 (set of 10)
Issued by the Hong Kong Police Force Museum in 2013, our scan shows the cardboard cover and one card from this 10-card B&W unused set. Thumbnail photos on the cover represent four of the other nine cards. Everything is from the old days, various police vehicles. Grade: 1
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Police Museum — 2005 (set of 10)
Issued by the Hong Kong Police Force Museum in 2005, our scan shows the cardboard cover and one card from this 10-card B&W unused set. Everything is from the old days, various formal squad portraits both indoors and outside. Grade: 1
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Jingguanlou (set of 8)
Unused set of eight Postage Prepaid Picture Card Series No. 21, with pre-printed postage and special “Hong Kong Museums Collection” cancellation dated 23rd March 2023. Our scan shows the front of one of the eight cards. In the original cello-wrap. Hongkong Post reports only 2000 sets were sold. Grade: 1
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Shumchun River
We recall once again when the only view of China from Hong Kong was to trudge out into the New Territories and climb a hill at Lok Ma Chau, be greeted by an ancient couple in traditional Hakka clothes, pay them, and gaze ahead. This is what we would see. Not now. The postcard is not postally used, and has a party invitation written on the back. Based on what we recall, this card is likely from the 1970s. Grade: 4
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Castle Peak, Ching Chung Koon
Ching Chung Koon is a Taoist temple first established in Kowloon during 1950. A permanent temple was eventually built in Tuen Mun during 1960 and a branch temple at Kowloon was established in 1974. As this card was mailed in 1983 (with stamp and postmark), and knowing where Castle Peak is, we can tell you this is the structure in Tuen Mun. The card has a sticker on the lower right front corner. Grade: 4
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The Central business centre
An exceptionally nice unused mid-20th-century card showing Central District of Hong Kong Island. Not many of those buildings remain today. Or that water, either. Grade: 1
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Panorama of Kowloon
Central District of Hong Kong Island is in the foreground, with a really old view of Kowloon in the background, on this unused Hong Kong postcard. Grade: 1
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Aberdeen Harbour
The caption on this unused old card (“Scenery of Aberdeen Harbour, the fishing junks sailing, with the floating restaurant in the distant view”) reveals that the card’s producers were determined to include all possible icons. Aberdeen is still there, but … Grade: 1
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Des Voeux Road, Central
Des Voeux Road is still one of two east-west traffic arteries through Central District and now has modernized beyond recognition. Unused. Grade: 1
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Grand View from Midlevel
Maybe about half of this water is gone now, due to land reclamation, and the view spans Central District and the Star Ferry, to Wanchai and on towards North Point. This unused card dates from the mid-20th century. Grade: 1
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Kowloon, New Star Ferry Pier
Our header for this entry is the unused card’s caption. In the early 1950s, construction of the present twin-piered terminal commenced on both sides of Victoria Harbour, designed to handle 55 million passenger trips a year. The structure was completed in 1957, concurrent with the Edinburgh Place Ferry Pier built on the island side. So that helps to date the postcard’s use of “New”. Grade: 1
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Beautiful Hong Kong
The multiple views are identified in the caption on this unused, mid-century card. Grade: 1
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Welcome to Hong Kong
Unused mid-century card showing Kowloon district, the Peak Tram (some generations ago), and normal trams running along King’s Road in North Point. Grade: 1
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Aberdeen, Fishing Centre
Far less congested there now, so you can relive the past with this unused mid-20th-century unused Yat Sun Hong Kong postcard. Grade 1
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Sea view at Aberdeen
Unused, older, Yat Sun Printing Co. card No. 330. Grade: 1
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Causeway Bay, evening scene
The bad things about this oversized 5-1/2″ x 7″ card: postal battering, a US Postal Service white strip with a bar code pasted across the reverse, and one (of three) stamp cancelled by using a pen. The good things: full postmark, two of the stamps are good, the picture is nice, and the card is cheap. Grade: 4
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Floating Village
Unused, mid-century card. Such scenes might still exist, but far less common than before. Grade: 1
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Aberdeen, Fishing Centre
Not to be confused with another card having the same caption … this is Yat Sun Printing No. 338. It’s from mid-20th century and is unused. Grade: 1
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Sea Palace
Were you to Google Sea Palace, you would (as we did) be confounded by complicated and incomplete information about it and other floating restaurants that passed through Hong Kong for varying lengths of time. What we show you here, condensed from Wikipedia, demonstrates what confronts you: “In 1991, Sea Palace was renamed “Jumbo Palace”. (Our note: nothing about it pre-1991 under that name.) Shortly after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, it was sold for US$800 million and towed to Manila Bay and rebranded as “Jumbo Kingdom Manila”, with much of the original ancient Chinese imperial palace style renovation retained. It closed in 2008 and was donated to the government of Shantung province in 2011, then towed to Tsingtao to be part of a seaside park. It was intended to undergo reconstruction and reopen in May 2014 catering primarily to wedding events, but renovations were still incomplete as of 2021. Local residents have tried to tour the closed boat on their own, despite the rusting hull and a safety perimeter, but the operator has not been able to reopen the restaurant.” There’s more, but you get the idea. Unused card from the mid-20th century has two expansive captions and would be a gem for you to own. Grade: 1
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New Territories, the Fishman’s (sic) Children
Unused old card, just beginning to show its age. Grade: 1
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New Territories, Farmer working with his ox
Unused mid-century postcard. Grade: 1
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Tiger Balm Pagoda
Haw Par Mansion, better known for its public gardens known as Tiger Balm Garden or Aw Boon Haw Garden, was a mansion and gardens in Hong Kong Island’s Wanchai District. The Tiger Balm Garden was demolished for redevelopment in 2004 though Haw Par Mansion and its private garden have been preserved. When Tiger Balm Garden was demolished, many murals and statues were salvaged; the site is now occupied by residential development The Legend at Jardine’s Lookout. In any event, this unused old card is Grade: 1
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Sea View at Sunset
A lightly cliched view at that, but romantic enough, on this old, unused card. Grade: 1
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Aberdeen at Night
This mid-century Yat Sun Printing Co. card No. 312, unused, might have chosen a more appropriate caption as the scene is hardly reflective of Aberdeen then or now. Apart from that, it’s nicely atmospheric. Grade: 1
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A Junk in Hong Kong Waterfront
This wonderful view was mailed through British Forces Air Mail using two English stamps in 1967. The card itself was published by Japan Air Lines and went to Singapore. So it has a huge international aura to it. By the way, we are here in Hong Kong now and miss scenes like this, but such junks are long gone. Grade: 1
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Panoramic View of HK After Dark
Doesn’t seem very dark outside, but that’s what this unused 5″ x 7″ Tourists Card 032 uses as a caption. Even though this photo is also not new, notice how the harbour is getting progressively smaller. Grade: 1
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Tsimshatsui
A general view on this unused 5″ x 7″ Tourists Card 068. When you come to visit, be prepared to take the Star Ferry and snap your own photo from this very same location. Grade: 1
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Night view from the Peak
Unused Tourists Card 060, 5″ x 7″. We can’t say this is a typical Peak view, but it’s a colourful one. Grade: 1
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Modern Ferry and Ancient Junk
Though heavily aged for its date (1972), this card strikingly holds most of the iconic images of Hong Kong all in one view. The stamp, postmark, and purple Air Mail chop are there, and as we’ve often remarked, about the only thing left in this view that still exists is the Star Ferry and even that’s at risk. Grade: 2
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Aberdeen, Squatters Huts
Those days are gone but the 1990 postcard lives on, not postally used but with a message fully covering the reverse. Grade: 4
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Cheung Chau, Bun Festival
An official postcard issued as Hong Kong Post Office Postcard Series No. 5, on 4 May 1989 and replicating the stamp design of the same day … though this is not a maximum card and the stamps used to mail it (two of them) are not this design. That doesn’t diminish the value of the card. Grade: 1
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Bird’s Eye View of Central and Eastern District
Although this card is fully intact, it has been heavily handled and folded in half. Mailed in 1978 with two different stamps and Kowloon postmark. Grade: 4
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Tsing Ma Bridge
Unused Tourists Cards 018, measures 5-1/2″ x 7″. Grade: 1
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Night view from the Peak
Unused Tourists Cards 020, measures 5-1/2″ x 7″. Grade: 1
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Major Bldg. in Wanchai District
Our header is the card’s caption, but what you see is most of Wanchai’s waterfront at that time. So, more than one building. Unused “Tourists Cards” 029, measures 5-1/2″ x 7″. Grade: 1