This gallery contains 13 photos.
Tsingtao (known as “Qingdao” today) is a rarity in the history of colonialism – in that it was a German colony. The Germans came late in the colonial game (in the 1890s); and they established a scattering of colonies in … Continue reading
This gallery contains 5 photos.
Last week I paid a visit to the venerable Hotel Des Indes in The Hague (the Netherlands) – the sister hotel to the late Hotel Des Indes in Batavia (today’s Jakarta), sadly demolished by Soeharto in the 1970s. It struck … Continue reading
This gallery contains 10 photos.
Unlike the rest of the cities on this second Grand Tour, Hankou / Wuhan has no Grand Hotel; or at least, none of the same stature. It does have two famous historic hotels, both of which were, unfortunately, no longer … Continue reading
This gallery contains 24 photos.
Wuhan is a triple-city, consisting of the European Treaty Port of Hankow 漢口, the ancient Shu 蜀capital of Wuchang 武昌, and the industrial heartland of Hanyang 漢陽. While there is little to see in Hanyang, a trip across the Yangtze … Continue reading
This gallery contains 37 photos.
Behind the Hankow Bund lies a wealth of Concession-era architecture, surprisingly well-preserved and many still functioning as their (close-to-) original purpose. As per the Bund, the documentation is poor and many of the buildings are not marked out; even if … Continue reading
This gallery contains 38 photos.
Aside from the Shanghai Bund, Wuhan probably possesses the best-preserved colonial-era Bund, or waterfront, in all of East Asia. I refer to the Hankow Bund, which, at 4 km long, is twice the size of the Shanghai Bund; and, paying … Continue reading
This gallery contains 17 photos.
In considering the major colonial treaty port cities of China, Hankow 漢口is often forgotten. Understandably so, as it simply isn’t as famous today as the likes of Shanghai, Tianjin and Xiamen. Also, Hankow itself is subsumed into the city of … Continue reading
This gallery contains 1 photo.
As is probably evident by now, I am fascinated by History and by Heritage, which are two different things, the former being a narration of a series of events regarded as significant by a person, a community or a nation, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 23 photos.
The Cathay Hotel is a dream of a hotel. An art deco mirage in concrete and cast iron, floating impossibly on the once-swampy banks of the Shanghai Bund – Britain’s city-monument to Imperial Might. The grande dame de jure of … Continue reading
This gallery contains 38 photos.
The city of Shanghai – as mentioned in my earlier post – consisted, actually, of three different municipalities with their own legal systems: the International Settlement, the French Concession, and the Chinese Old City. The Old City is ancient, having … Continue reading
