Monday, February 6, 2012

The World of Suzie Wong - William Holden (1960) - Li Chit Street & Johnston Road, Hong Kong

There's one scene in the film when Holden crosses a road in the pouring rain as a tram trundles by. The interesting thing about this location is that although all the older buildings have been replaced (and a tram stop being erected right where that tram is) it's still recognisable. Holden has just come out of Li Chit Street and is now crossing Johnston Road towards the Methodist Church HQ (which can be seen as a brown wall on the last screen cap).

Even the Methodist Church building has been replaced by a newer but similarly-coloured edifice but one relic from this time still exists (or at least it did when I went past it earlier today along that very same tram track) and that is the electrical box that we can see in the foreground of the latter 3 pictures.


I suspect the reason it is still there is perhaps because it is a HK Tramway junction box and there are several similar ones to be found along the side of the tracks at various points (saw some on Kings Road in North Point as well). Now, given that a couple of years ago HK Tramways was taken over by the French company, Veolia, who have promised some major investment, it wouldn't surprise me to see some of these old boxes start to disappear. It's a shame but there you go.

I visited the same location just recently (Sep 2015) and can confirm the old box is still there - for the time being at least.


As you can see it's a bit rusty but has so far withstood the test of time, Here's to another 60 years.

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